Whether providing the wisdom of an elder (Solange’s “Tina Taught Me”), a representation of the song’s subject (Drake’s “Marvin’s Room”), or just some comedic relief (Frank Ocean’s “Be Yourself”), voicemails are long-established as a versatile storytelling device in hip-hop and R&B. So it’s no surprise that Tink, the Chicago singer/rapper known for her diaristic, relationship-dissecting R&B, has chosen to build her new mixtape around a method of communication that’s inherently private and frequently drama-filled. On Voicemails, her first full-length since leaving Timbaland’s Epic Records imprint in 2017, Tink tells her latest romance saga more vividly than ever before.
Voicemails follows a woman named KeKe, with occasional interjections from two men in her life, DeShawn and Chris. As KeKe, Tink sings about struggling to decide whether to stay with the unreliable DeShawn or to pursue a new beau, Chris. It’s an extension of themes already well explored in Tink’s Winter’s Diary mixtape series; teasing out the emotional highs and lows of a relationship is her bread and butter. But Tink remains gripping as she highlights the tension between devotion and deception, longing and heartbreak. “I don't wanna throw this away, but boy, sometimes,” she sings on “I Need Ur Love,” her sweet and airy voice twisting in anguish.
Throughout Voicemails, Tink explores the spectrum of emotions that make KeKe a complex and captivating character. On “Stabbed in the Back,” Tink flexes her equally punchy and melodic rapping, flowing over an electric guitar-sampling trap beat with finesse. She’s distrustful of her man and paranoid over past betrayals, yet resolved in her strength: “I ain't work this hard just to turn around and quit,” she says with urgency. The standout “Ride It” puts Tink’s sensuality on display; her voice oozes through a snaking melody like a slow-motion version of Rihanna’s “Needed Me.” She’s earnest and romantic (“Having sex like I’m your woman”), while guest Dej Loaf is more brazen (“Might just fuck him on the interstate”). Each track further opens up KeKe’s shifting emotional landscape, illustrating the case both for and against leaving DeShawn.
Tink’s songwriting is vibrant, but it’s the album’s voicemail interludes that really propel the telenovela-scale dramatics. “Bad Side” finds an enraged KeKe stuck at home with DeShawn’s baby for four days, while on “DeShawn’s Interlude,” the hapless dad insists that he only missed her calls because his phone fell in the toilet. By the time Voicemails comes to a close, you’re waiting at the edge of your seat to see if KeKe will ditch him. “I done fell in love with the real thing/Even though you make me mad, I could never leave,” Tink raps on the tape’s closer, “Falling in Love,” keeping things open-ended. (Later, on Twitter, she all but confirmed that KeKe ends up with Chris.) By presenting Voicemails as a work of autofiction, blurring the lines between herself and her character, Tink revitalizes the tried-and-true confessional R&B she’s served up for years now. In Tink’s world, voicemails aren’t dead, and neither is love.
