I want people to listen and understand, if it’s a relationship, if it’s a friendship, if it’s a career — whatever you’re dealing with or battling, you can make it through,” Tink declares of her latest album. This empowering sentiment fuels Winter’s Diary 5, released in July. Shedding what she calls the “adolescent point of view” of her past, the 29-year-old R&B singer and songwriter taps into her vulnerabilities to “tell real stories” of living as a young Black woman in Chicago. “I want women to feel so comfortable in this space that I’m creating.”
It’s a testament to how much those stories have resonated — and to her fervent hometown following — that Tink is headlining a United Center show December 20 with rapper Sexyy Red and others. It marks her biggest nonfestival concert yet, following last year’s sold-out performance at the Chicago Theatre.
Born in Calumet City, her vocal skills honed in South Side church choirs, Tink (real name: Trinity Home) was still a student at Simeon Career Academy when she broke through with the 2011 release of her debut mixtape, Winter’s Diary, an underground smash that firmly established her as a creative prodigy. She quickly followed that with two more mixtapes in 2012, Alter Ego and Blunts & Ballads, all before she turned 18.
Since then, Tink has navigated the highs and lows of the music industry. She made a big-time signing with Timbaland’s imprint on Epic Records but faced delays with her debut album, Think Tink, and subsequently left the label without it being released. “I felt like I was really just having another set of opinions, and that gives you so much pressure,” she explains. As an independent artist, “I can drop [music] when I want to, and that’s why people just have a deeper attachment.”
Now that she’s made her mark — she has put out five albums and eight mixtapes in total — Tink feels she shoulders more accountability as an artist and a source of inspiration. “In today’s time, music can really be just a perception. And for me, my music is reality, and that’s what people are drawn to. I never try to fabricate my music or the message. I try to be as real and raw as possible. So that’s the responsibility. Black girls and Black women, we need a voice.”
She began working on Winter’s Diary 5 in 2023 but found her creative groove in the first half of this year. The album features top artists like Summer Walker, Skilla Baby, and Chicago’s Jeremih, with whom she has teamed up in the past. On the Walker collaboration “Songs About U,” Tink sings about the fights and the makeups of modern relationships (“One damn shot away from makin’ bad decisions / Thinkin’ should I risk it to take you off that block list?”). Another track, “Hit a Lick,” explores the extremes of devotion to a partner, including doing illicit things for them (in the chorus, she croons: “I’ll lay somebody down all for you / Flip a brick for you, tote a stick for you / ’Cause I’m the realest bitch around”). “Huh” is a rage-filled track about trying to break away from a cheater, while “Stressin’ ” and “Lows & Highs” touch on mental illness.
“I think it’s so much healing when I get to speak on our topics. A lot of my music is where I kind of vent,” she says. “With every album, I have to let another piece of me go. I don’t put a limit on it. Honestly, I like to push the envelope. I think music is supposed to feel edgy.”
As she looks ahead, she would love to have a Top 10 hit, a significant milestone for an independent artist. Yet her main focus isn’t commercial success. “I want to make sure that my records are timeless, and to do that, you really have to put your soul into it. And if that means I have to tell a deep story, that’s what I want.”