Blood Orange

When the guest list reads like a comic book of unchecked power, you know your dinner party's gone full dystopian circus.

Tiny Desk Radio showcases Sheer Mag, Blood Orange turnstile launching meme-worthy stage dives.

When music becomes a meme, remember it's not just about the sound.

It's about the spectacle, the social currency, and the inevitable gifts.

In 2012, she released her debut mixtape, the ethereal In Case We Die, which was circulated via influential music blogs of the moment and started to build buzz for Tinashe.

A few months later, Tinashe announced her deal with RCA Records, but continued to self-release work, including a second mixtape, 2012's Reverie, and a third, 2013's Black Water, which brought trendy collaborators into the process, including Dev Hynes and Ryan Hemsworth, and garnered further acclaim and favorable comparisons to R&B luminaries like Aaliyah and Janet Jackson.

In January 2014, Tinashe released her official debut single 2 On, a slinky, propulsive, effortlessly cool ode to getting a little too drunk at the club, produced by a then red hot DJ Mustard and with a guest verse from rapper Schoolboy Q.

The club-ready track also came with a sleek music video that showcased Tinashe's virtuosic choreography and landed atop the US rhythmic chart and was a radio hit, ultimately earning a platinum certification and peaking at number 24 on the Hot 100.

So that is a direct connection to her idol there.

Yeah.

We've got the song Bet with Dev Hynes-

Mm-hmm

Yeah.

I mean, he's remind- you, you know the way that, like, Dev Hynes really shook up production, like, in the-

Totally

... 2010s?

It's only a few years old.

It's by a singer producer called Blood Orange.

And it's a song called Saint.

It always reminds me of my lovely wife.

Back then, she spent her evenings at warehouses watching artists perform.

Chairlift, the synth pop band, was on the rise, as were acts like Blood Orange, the musician Dev Hines, who features on Dreamhouse, Grimes, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

Rodriguez recalled meeting Hines on the street outside Webster Hall in the East Village and getting to know Chairlift at 285 Kent and Glasslands Gallery, two performance spaces in Williamsburg that have since closed.

It felt like we were in this vortex of cultivating music and just hungry, or at least I was hungry, Rodriguez said wryly.

And then continuing on with that.

So Blood Orange, I didn't see at Bonnaroo this year.

So I made sure to see him at Bombershoe.

And he was because everybody talked about how great he was at Bonnaroo.

If you're tired, I'm gonna meet you right there, baby.

Like, we were talking about it, like, when I was at Rally and I saw Dev Hynes was about.

Yeah.

And I'm like, "I'm not gonna be the guy to bother Dev Hynes."

Ooh.

And that's the th- that's the ultimate thing.

You're right.

And Essex Honey by Blood Orange, another record that sounds completely different from this record.

So we put this, it goes Everybody Scream, then this, then Essex Honey.

Yes.