"Nasty" is a song by American singer and songwriter Tinashe. It was released on April 12,2024,via producer Ricky Reed's Atlantic Records imprint Nice Life Recording Company,as the lead single from her seventh studio album,Quantum Baby,which was released in August 2024. A sexual R&B song written by Tinashe and Reed and produced by Zack Sekoff and Reed,it has a sparse beat and various innuendos,with Tinashe rap-singing in a deadpan tone about looking for a lover who has an equivalent sex drive to hers. Its release coincided with her performance at the 2024 Coachella Valley Music &Arts Festival and with the release of its music video.
Critics acclaimed "Nasty" for its hooks and its catchiness,with many identifying it as the best song from Quantum Baby. A video of TikTok user Nate Di Winer dancing with "Nasty" edited over it became a meme on Twitter in April 2024,causing a surge in streams for the song. Other memes involving the song,particularly those surrounding its line "Is somebody gonna match my freak?",also propelled the song's popularity. It peaked at number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2024,making it Tinashe's first entry on the chart as a lead artist since her 2014 single "2 On" and her first-ever solo entry. She also performed the song throughout the run of her Match My Freak:World Tour.
Background,release,and promotion
Tinashe performing in 2023
Before releasing "Nasty",Tinashe released three studio albums through her record label RCA Records (Aquarius,Nightride,and Joyride) before going independent in 2019,citing creative differences,then self-releasing her next two albums (Songs for You and 333) and releasing her sixth studio album (BB/Ang3l) through producer Ricky Reed's Atlantic Records sublabel Nice Life Recording Company.[1][2][3] In April 2024,she signed a worldwide publishing deal with Position Music,obtaining the publishing rights to her future releases from that point forward and her previous album BB/Ang3l.[4] Tinashe teased "Nasty" in an Instagram Live video on Valentine's Day in 2024 and teased her forthcoming seventh studio album,Quantum Baby—the second in a trilogy of albums following BB/Ang3l—with a trailer shared on her various social media platforms on April 8.[5] "Nasty",the lead single from Quantum Baby,and its music video were both released on April 12,2024 through Nice Life.[6][7][8]Quantum Baby was released on August 16,2024,with "Nasty" as its closing track.[9]
On June 18,2024,Tinashe released the Match My Freakextended play (EP),comprising the single version of "Nasty" and five remixes,including a Jersey club remix by Uniiqu3 (the "Match My Speed" remix),an EDM remix by Wuki (the "Match My Peak" remix),a "hyperactive,chopped-up" rave remix by Jane Remover (the "Match My Tweak" remix),[10] a chopped and screwed remix by OG Ron C and DJ Candlestick (the "Match My Sleek" remix),and a remix by DJ Tunez.[11][12] Later that month,she released a capsule collection of "Nasty"-themed merchandise,including condoms,temporary tattoos,boxers,hockey jerseys,socks,towels,pendants,tank tops,t-shirts,and hoodies.[13] On July 19,2024,she released two new remixes of "Nasty" featuring Chlöe and Tyga.[14]
Writing and composition
Ricky Reed (pictured) co-produced and co-wrote "Nasty".
"Nasty" was written by Tinashe with Reed,who produced the song with Zack Sekoff.[15] The song's title was inspired by a necklace she made around Christmas of 2023,which bore the word "nasty" on it based on "Nasty Nashe",a nickname and alter ego she created for herself.[16][17] She came up with the phrase "match my freak" while driving and decided to incorporate it into the song.[8] "Nasty" is an understated[18]R&B[19] and rhythmic pop song on which Tinashe "rap-sings" in a deadpan[9] about searching for someone to match her sexual energy,which she alternately calls her "freak" and her "nasty",and repeatedly asks,"Is somebody gonna match my freak?"[20] while also using several double entendres and innuendos.[21][18][22] The song has "robotic" hooks[19] and,in its second verse,she details a sexually charged date night,singing "Shotgun,my thighs on his seat/I ain't got nothing underneath/Looks like you're 'bout to spend the night/Looks like I'm 'bout to change your life".[17]Variety's Steven J. Horowitz called the song's instrumental "sparse" and "hollow" and Chris Kelly of the Washington Post wrote that it was made up of "a barely-there beat and dial tone melody".[5][23]
Its beat was described by Alex Gonzalez of Uproxx as "punchy" and "futuristic".[24] Tinashe described "Nasty" as "fun,sexy,empowered and cute" and as a celebration of "be[ing] hot and hav[ing] fun" in the summer.[6][25]Stereogum's Tom Breihan jokingly likened the song to a "horny-robot mating call".[10]
Commercial performance
On the chart dated June 15,2024,"Nasty" debuted at number 90 on the Billboard Hot 100,becoming Tinashe's overall fifth entry on the chart—preceded by 2014's "2 On" featuring Schoolboy Q and her features on the Kid Ink song "Body Language" (2015),the Enrique Iglesias song "Duele el Corazón",and the Britney Spears song "Slumber Party" (both 2016)—her second entry as a lead artist after "2 On" in 2014,and her first solo song on the chart.[15] It rose to number 69 on the chart the following week,prompting Tinashe to tweet that "Billboard matched [her] freak",referencing the sex position of the same name.[26] It later peaked at number 61.[27] The song also peaked at number 15 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs on the chart dated August 3,2024.[28]
Critical reception
For Vulture,Jennifer Zhan wrote that "Nasty" was "a perfect example of what Tinashe does best:making sexy dance tracks with near-hypnotic hooks".[3] Tom Breihan,writing for Stereogum,called it "very horny" and "very good".[29]Kitty Empire of The Observer,in a review of Quantum Baby,called "Nasty" the "standout" of the album;Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield named it the album's highlight and "one of the most indelible hits of summer 2024" that "got everyone walking around for months with the hook 'I've been a nasty girl' stuck in our heads".[30][31] Steven J. Horowitz of Variety also called it "one of the most unshakeable anthems on this side of the year" and Nick Seip,for Slant,identified "Nasty" as an outlier on Quantum Baby for its "catchy hooks" and "endlessly meme-able lyrics".[9][32]
Tarisai Ngangura of Pitchfork praised "Nasty" as "the platonically great Tinashe song:easy and exquisite,an evolution without a departure".[33] Chris Kelly of The Washington Post also dubbed it "the platonic ideal of a Tinashe song" that "feels much bigger than its Billboard chart position" on which "beat,bass,melody,message and attitude sync like clockwork".[23] Kyann-Sian Williams of NME wrote that "Nasty" had "multiple sinfully addictive lines,like 'Is somebody gonna match my freak?'" and an "addictive spark" that other songs on Quantum Baby lacked.[34]
The accompanying music video for "Nasty" was released the same day as the single on April 12,2024. It was directed by Jonah Haber and choreographed by Jojo Gomez.[36][3] In it,Tinashe dances in a desert near a futuristic modified Mitsubishi Lancer while being chased down by robots with surveillance cameras attached. At the end,she fires at them with a gun and escapes.[29][37]
Following its release,Ivan Guzman of Paper described the video as "a study in sexy surveillance,shot in the desert and intentionally timed around the recent eclipse".[6] Taylor Henderson of BET wrote that the video was "Mad Max-inspired",while Alex Gonzalez,for Uproxx,praised the video's choreography as "next-level".[38][24]
Tinashe performed "Nasty" live for the first time during her debut performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Mojave stage in April 2024.[6][39] She then performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on June 12.[40] Her international Match My Freak tour,which is scheduled to run from late 2024 to early 2025,was named after the song,during which it is the closing number.[41][42]
"Nasty" first became popular online due to the virality of a video from February 2023 of British TikTok user Nate Di Winer,[16] also known as Nates.Vibe—who wears glasses[30] and whom critics described as looking nerdy[29]—wining,gyrating his hips,biting his finger,and sticking his tongue out to the soca song "Bind" by Hey Choppi alongside his dance instructor. It was reposted on Twitter by user @grruessome with "Nasty" playing over it in April 2024,causing it to quickly become an Internet meme,including on TikTok,and gain over 10 million views on Twitter by May 2024.[45] Tinashe also posted several videos of her recreating the dance over the original video,while other artists,including Omar Apollo and Kehlani,also recreated the dance on TikTok.[46][47] Nate Di Winer and his instructor recreated the dance in a video for Marc Jacobs's TikTok account in May 2024.[48] The video's popularity online led to a 48 percent increase in streams for the song in early May.[49]
"Nasty" found further viral success due to a tweet asking,"Who are 2 people that actually did match each others freak?" by user @hugetulip,which was retweeted over 31 thousand times by the end of May 2024;its use in video edits of the 2024 film Challengers;and a mashup of it with the Beach House song "Space Song" on TikTok,which users used to describe their ideal relationship as "match[ing] their freak".[50][51][52] For Variety,Stephen J. Horowitz deemed "Nasty" a "cultural event" that had been "memeified across social media" by May 2024,while Tinashe stated that RCA Records was likely "gagging" at its success without them.[5][53]
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