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Home · Entertainment

EXCLUSIVE: Tank Premieres New Single "When We"And Talks DC Pride Performance: 'The LGBT Community Is Part Of Our Community Too'

We spoke to the singer about the new single and album that will have everyone talking. 
EXCLUSIVE: Tank Talks New Music And DC Pride Performance: ‘The LGBT Community Is Part Of Our Community Too’
By Sydney Scott · Updated October 26, 2020

Tank has done it again!

The singer-songwriter returns with new single “When We,” a track from his upcoming album. 

ESSENCE spoke to the singer about the sexy new song, what to expect from his highly-anticipated eighth album, and Tank dishes on the backlash he received for performing DC’s Black LGBT Pride event.

”When We” feels like a sexy return to pure R&B, a soundtrack to a romantic evening that ends in the bedroom. Talking to ESSENCE, Tank says the song is meant to fill that gap. 

“It’s kinda what we’re, you know, what we’re missing,” he says, “You know, being sexy I think has taken a backseat to, I guess, shock value in a sense.”

“They don’t wanna be considered art anymore, they just want to be considered shock value and they just want the likes to go up immediately and that’s it. But, I think that there are still a lot of people out there that still believe in the basic art of being sexy. Being sensual. It doesn’t feel intrusive or overbearing.”

A song like “When We,” which details a very passionate night, is sure to have an equally intense video, but Tank doesn’t want to go the usual route. 

“We have so many concepts and ideas and the things that we don’t want to be is literal. We wanna be ultimately creative. We’re still bouncing ideas off of each other and listening to ideas from even outside people just to make sure that it’s a moment. It’s got to be right.”

With his new single released, we had to find out what to expect from his upcoming untitled album, which Tank says “we’re about 98 percent finished with.”

“My album is not feature heavy. Right now I have Candice Boyd on my album, who’s Ne-Yo’s artist. She’s one of the coldest young singers out right now. She is fire and I have a song with her.”

“I got Trey Songz on there. We’ve been trying to get something again since the ‘Celebration’ remix, so we finally got a moment. Working on one more person, I don’t wanna say it until it happens.”

He adds, “I brought a guy back that everybody’s kinda been looking for. They been trying to figure out is he gonna get back in the game. Is he gon’ stay on the outskirts of the game. There’s a guy by the name of J. Valentine, everybody’s been trying to figure out what he’s gon do, so I put him on a record on my album and we’re getting ready to see. We’re getting ready to see about inserting him completely back into the game.”

We’re eager to see what Tank and J. Valentine get up to and, hopefully, it marks the latter’s return to music. 

However, Valentine isn’t the only artist Tank is championing. Surprisingly, the R&B crooner has come to the defense of rapper’s like Lil Yachty and Lil Uzi Vert, taking to Instagram to call out haters. 

 

I'm utterly disgusted!! I've never seen so many grown black men speak out against young black kids fighting to earn a living in this already difficult world! Yes they're different but so was MJ and Prince! Y'all still celebrate those men highly with no thought to their differences. The crazy part is that these kids actually represent positivity. They give a voice to those who feel like outcasts and may even have a hard time fitting in. These kids make being different ok and give hope to those who may feel like their life has no value. Maybe you'd feel better if these kids ran up on your car high and tooled up with extended clips and told you to "get down, lay down, or be found!" That would make more sense to you huh? You definitely don't want them to live their dreams and have fun entertaining the world! You definitely don't want them to feed their families and get they mama out the hood. You niggas kill me wanting your music to stay in the 80s and the 90s but gotta have the 2018 Benz! Everything changes! Everything evolves! It may not be for you but it is for the millions that stream it and show up to be entertained by it! Let these kids live!!.. #RnBMoney #RnBSoldiers #TheGeneral #savagecomingsoon #musicislife

A post shared by Tank (@therealtank) on May 19, 2017 at 7:18am PDT

“These kids have had to do on their own try and figure it out,” he says, “You didn’t offer them any tutelage. You didn’t offer them any guidance and all of a sudden you have everything to say about what they’re trying to do.”

“Hip-hop wasn’t anything but people who didn’t have a voice being able to express themselves. That’s what hip-hop was. And, so when you see a Lil Yachty or Lil Uzi and you have thousands and thousands of kids who —I think Lil Yachty got like a billion streams or something like that— when you see that, you have to understand that they are people who are connected. Who are understanding where these kids are coming from, who are relating to them. So you know I just don’t want us to lose sight of that as we try to tear down people creatively, that there’s a bigger a thing happening here.”

Tank has also spoken out about the backlash he faced for performing at DC’s Black Pride Event. 

“What these people were saying about me, I didn’t care,” he says. “People are gonna say what they wanna say about you anyway. So, I really didn’t care about that. What I thought was interesting was that, with all this backlash I started seeing people from the gay and lesbian community like really have my back, in a way that people hadn’t come to my defense before ever.”

“It prompted the people who really didn’t have a problem with it either way to come to my defense as well. The LGBT community is part of our community. They’re part of our culture. They’re part of us. We are all together.”

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