Watch: Tinashe feat. Schoolboy Q – “2 On”

“2 On”, the debut single from RnB up-and-comer Tinashe, unfolds like a four-minute crystallisation of FM R&B’s current studio-as-instrument aesthetic.

Pairing the Los Angeles native’s gift for pop-soul melody with a richly plush avant-garde beat courtesy of DJ Mustard (whose excellent, still revelatory beat for Tyga’s “Rack City” is echoed here, especially in the song’s quietly thumping low end), “2 On” is reflective of a long tradition, dating back at least as far as Aaliyah’s work with Timbaland, which finds pop futurism in matching easily-consumed hooks to left-field production. The song itself is slinky and bass heavy, a cloudy club-jam over which Tinashe coos and whispers.

Schoolboy Q, fresh off the recent release of his highly anticipated third album, Oxymoron, provides a guest verse. While the club jam aesthetic and body talk subject matter are a tough fit for Q, his twelve bars are nevertheless as spry and rhythmically imaginative as the world has come to expect from the Black Hippy emcee.

Added up, “2 On” is both wholly modern and likably classicist; a new entry in the reliable “RnB-chanteuse-plus-guest-verse” canon that nevertheless feels undeniably fresh. Watch above.

Words: Chad Jewett