“I basically leaked the song. I wasn’t supposed to put it out. But I knew if I didn’t just put something out, I ran the risk of continuing to push back my singles and my whole process. I’ve got the songs, I need to put them out, I need people to hear them. I was just like, ‘F*ck it. I’m putting it on SoundCloud.’ So that’s what I did, and then they had to follow up. They’re like, 'We’ve got to put it on iTunes!' That started the momentum and then we were able to put out the real single ['Player']. I’m not trying to diss my label because they’re awesome and they’re very supportive of me, but again it’s like, they’re playing a guessing game because you never know what’s the right thing to do. I felt like we were going in circles. People were arguing over which song should we put out first, what’s the first look. Sometimes it’s better to just force people to make a decision and be like, ‘You have to decide. No more wishy-washy.’”I admire her passion. Some might call it ballsy and rebellious, while others may claim it to be risky, and even stupid. It's always risky when undermining your label while you're still a newbie in a cut throat industry. It's not surprising Tinashe is holding rank with her career. She has funded a lot of her own music videos in the past.
I'm not calling no names but there are artists that are much more established than she is and refuse to take matters into their own hands, even when they know their labels aren't doing much to support them. It's sad but only high sellers like Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift and Adele get outstanding promo roll-outs. If you're no longer/not one of those artists who sales big in the first week or have your album go Platinum, the label aren't going to show much enthusiasm in spending a lot of money on your promo. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to keep control of your career and pray that you reap from the benefits.