BB/Ang3l

BB/Ang3l (pronounced "Baby Angel") is the sixth studio album by American singer Tinashe, released on September 8, 2023, by her independent label Tinashe Music and Nice Life Recording Company. It serves as the follow up to her 2021 album, 333. A second part of the album, entitled Quantum Baby, will be released on August 16, 2024.

Background and release
The lead single, "Talk to Me Nice", was released on July 21, 2023. Gearing up to the release of the album, Tinashe revealed she worked a lot with American producer Machinedrum on the album. The second single, "Needs", was released on August 18, 2023, alongside a music video filmed in a super market. On August 31, 2023, Tinashe shared the album's tracklist.

In an interview with Nylon, Tinashe shared: "This album has a very personal approach. It doesn't feel performative or like there's a lot of extras. It's just really down to the raw emotion." On Good Morning America, Tinashe told host Michael Strahan that she thinks the album "really represents who I am as a person right now, and everything I've been going through, and my life".

Talking about the name of the album, Tinashe states that the she was inspired by screen names and avatars, and how this enables you to create your own persona online and take control over it.

In an interview about the album and the BB/ANG3L era, Tinashe confirmed the second part of the album on November 26, 2023. Talking about new things coming up, she says she is "really really excited about this, I have more things coming in the whole era, which is really exciting. And I think you know the part two is maybe coming in the spring". The second part of the album was officially announced as Quantum Baby on April 8, 2024. It is slated to be released on August 16, 2024.

Critical reception
BB/ANG3L received positive reviews. Dylan Green of Pitchfork described BB/ANG3L as "as stylish and focused as a runway walk", writing that its "sense of intimacy, combined with her thriving confidence [...] makes BB/ANG3L so potent". Sam Franzini of The Line of Best Fit argued that BB/ANG3L might be her strongest work, stating that "even on tracks where she isn't necessarily inventing anything new, playing around in contemporary sets of R&B and trap, there's still a spark that makes them hard-to-miss". Talking about future projects of Tinashe, Franzini argues that "as R&B's most solid underground hitmaker, it's certain Tinashe will create something just as fun and down-to-earth soon to come".

Singles
"Talk to Me Nice" was released as the album's lead single on July 21, 2023. Its music video, directed by Bradley J. Calder, premiered on the same day on Tinashe's YouTube account. The music video depicts Tinashe placed in a studio with a beige curtain background, focused on the concept of representing "shedding old layers, beginning anew, peeling back layers, intimacy, exploring distortions, perceptions, removing the masks, raw, skin, new era, fresh".

The second single, "Needs", was released on August 18, 2023, and its music video on the same day, directed by Sammy Rawal. The album's promotional single, "Uh Huh", and its accompanying music video were both released on September 8, 2023, alongside the album. After the cancellation of her co-headlining tour with Shygirl due to an respiratory condition, Tinashe announced the first leg of the BB/ANG3L tour on November 14, 2023.

Tour
Tinashe announced the Tinashe & Shygirl Tour, co-headling together with Shygirl, on August 1, 2023, with UNIIQU3 as the supporting act. However, due to a medical condition, Shygirl had to pull out of the shows on October 20, 2023, allowing her to get surgery for "an ongoing respiratory condition". In response to the cancellation of the tour, Tinashe announced that "THE SHOW MUST GO ON!" and that she and her team were putting together her own tour, leading to the announcement of the BB/ANG3L Tour on November 14, 2023. The first leg covers nine different cities on the East Coast, United States and took place from January 31 until February 15, 2024. Tinashe confirmed the second leg of her tour to be held entirely in China from April 30 to May 5, 2024.

Personnel

 * Tinashe – vocals
 * Ike Schultz – mixing, engineering (all tracks); vocal production (tracks 1, 2, 4–7); additional vocal production, vocal engineering (3)
 * Chris Gehringer – mastering
 * Ricky Reed – vocal production (3)
 * Chloe Scheffe & Natalie Shields — album art, packaging designers