Tiara Thomas is winning. The Indianapolis singer-songwriter scored a platinum hit out the gate with her 2013 Wale collaboration “Bad” and even had Rihanna remix her song—all before dropping an album. After being courted by several labels, Tiara inked a deal with Rico Love’s Division1/Interscope Records, where she will release her debut album The Bad Influence in 2015.
“Everybody has had somebody that they should not be messing with no more. I just wanted to base my whole album off that concept,” she told Rap-Up TV of the title.
Earlier this month, the 25-year-old debuted the Set It Off-inspired video for her first single “One Night.” “I just wanted my first single out to be something that sounded really different. It didn’t sound like your typical R&B girl song,” she said.
Last summer, she had girls all over the world singing along to her lyrics, including Rihanna. “Rihanna on the ‘Bad’ remix was really cool, just because she’s huge. Her singing my lyrics that I wrote, it was dope. That’s definitely an accomplishment.”
However, her proudest achievement to date is having a platinum record. “A lot of artists don’t do that, even ones that have been out for a long time. For my first song, that was pretty cool.”
But despite her success, Tiara is not getting too comfortable. “People back at home in Indy, they might look at me like, ‘Oh, she’s successful. She made it.’ And I don’t feel that way,” she said. “I wanna be on such a larger scale. Success is like, I have to have Grammys, I have to be happy ’cause if I’m not happy then I’m not successful.”
This interview is brought to you by McDonald’s.