You should be listening to Chicago rapper and singer Tink
If you like hip-hop, R&B, and rap at all and haven’t been tuning into Tink, consider this a wake-up call. We’ve sung the praises of the Chicago rapper and singer before, but her latest tunes have us singing them again.
A few months after her latest mixtape dropped, Tink’s back with two new tunes: “Commitment” and “MC Hammer.”
The former tune, a bass-heavy ode to a dude who seems to get “it” (the terms of an evolving relationship) and get it (in the biblical sense). The FADER deemed it an ode to “cuffing season,” and we’re inclined to agree. (For a primer on cuffin season, see here.)
Tink sways between straight-up singing and rapping throughout, and brilliantly changes her attitudes toward her man as the man goes on. “You got my heart / And I hope that you don’t fuck it up / I don’t really let my guard down anymore” turns into “I’m so in love / And I hope that you consider / Making me your girlfriend.” It’s not a Shakespearean sonnet but, like that has ever worked for everyone and anyone.
“MC Hammer,” meanwhile, is the flip side of the coin: A brag rap that hits hard and takes no prisoners. None of the feelings stuff from “Commitment” cross over, which makes back-to-back listening its own narrative journey.
