tg.blk on 'Besides You', Kenyan R&B and coming home to Herself
Born and raised in Mombasa, tg.blk is carving out her own space within Kenyan alternative R&B. Ahead of her new EP besides you, she sits down with us to discuss tracing relationships through music, the power of the internet and why being herself remains the only strategy she trusts.
tg.blk in 2026. Image property of Fred Odede.
For tg.blk, music has always been deeply personal. Her songs centre the relationships, emotions and private experiences unfolding around her, but their reach has shown her that even the most personal feelings can be universal.
Her debut EP, It's Not That Deep, earned tens of millions of streams and found an enthusiastic champion in Vince Staples. Now, the Mombasa-born artist is preparing to release besides you—a six-track exploration of sensuality and the euphoric beginnings of love.
We caught up with tg.blk (otherwise known as Thigi) over video call as she dialled in from her LA hotel room. She arrived in her signature blonde afro and her calm, understated demeanour, keen to discuss her upcoming release. "I feel like my world is mostly about me and the shit that I'm dealing with, but I've learned that everybody's experiences are universal," she says.
If her earlier music introduced listeners to heartbreak, besides you turns towards the period before the collapse. The EP is the first instalment in a planned trilogy tracing the arc of a relationship, and each project will explore a different emotional stage—from the early rush that makes red flags appear green, to the point when those warning signs can no longer be ignored.
The idea emerged when Thigi began considering the recurring themes within her work. Listening back to her own archive showed her that the songs already narrated different relationship stages.
This instinct to document her emotions in real-time is central to her writing—tg.blk tends to create while she is still inside the feeling. She explains: "A lot of these songs are made when I'm very much in the heat of that emotion. I'm pulling directly from how I feel in that exact moment."
Although tg.blk now lives in Nairobi, the atmosphere of her Mombasa upbringing continues to shape her music. Her mother regularly played funk and soul through her favourite radio station, introducing tg.blk to sounds that would later become part of her musical foundation.
Growing up in the coastal city also gave her access to a diverse mixture of people, faiths and cultures. "Mombasa is very mixed," she says. "I had friends from all over, so I was exposed to so many things as a kid."
The city's slower rhythm is also reflected in the mellow, lo-fi quality of her work. "If you go to Mombasa, that's how people are," she says. "It's sunny, I'm by the beach and there's a stillness and homeliness to it." Her sound, however, cannot be traced to place alone. Thigi describes herself as a "child of the internet", partly shaped by the music she was able to discover online.
“I feel like my world is mostly about me and the shit that I’m dealing with, but I’ve learned that everybody’s experiences are universal.”
Her roots sit within rap, R&B and soul, although she remains reluctant to attach herself to one fixed category. "I kind of rap and I kind of sing," she says. "It's somewhere in between."That fluidity comes through clearly on "So Bad"—a smooth and playful track which captures the confidence of this chapter. The song was produced by Isaac, a frequent collaborator who first caught tg.blk's attention through the sample-heavy beats he uploaded online.
Her approach to working remotely was shaped by the earliest stages of her career, when she would find instrumentals on YouTube. Earl Sweatshirt's Some Rap Songs was particularly transformative, leading her to seek out similarly textured instrumentals.
For "So Bad", she wanted to make something sensual and cinematic. "I wanted to imagine myself lying on a rug on the floor with a fireplace and a rose in my mouth," she says. "I wanted to make a song that gave that vibe." This visual way of writing can be traced back to an unexpected creative foundation: Wattpad.
Before music became her primary form of storytelling, Thigi wrote fan fiction and paired chapters with songs she believed readers should listen to alongside them. The habit of combining music with an imagined scene remains present in her songwriting.
tg.blk's growing audience also holds the promise of spotlighting other Kenyan artists and the range of sounds emerging from the country. Although she emphasises that there's no shortage of strong R&B coming from Kenya, she considers herself slightly outside its most familiar image.
"I'm in there, but I don't know if I'm in there enough," she says of her place in the Kenyan R&B scene. "Maybe I should be the one to show people that R&B can be all of these different things… I feel like I'm carving out my own lane and opening the doors for alternative music," she says. "You can be alt in East Africa and make music people want to listen to."
At times, she's wanted greater inclusion in her local scene. But being outside those spaces early on meant she could develop on her own terms, without pressure to conform. "I remember that it's not about looking around," she says. "It has always been about looking up and aiming… The only thing that's working is your thing," she says.
Few moments capture the unpredictable reach of tg.blk's music more clearly than 2021's "Love Being Used". She recorded and mixed the song herself at home in Mombasa whilst still trying to convince her mother that music could become a serious path. It remained unreleased for two years because she disliked her singing voice.
When it finally dropped, the song took on a life of its own. "Love Being Used" travelled across the globe and even landed in the ears of Vince Staples, who shared it on socials and DM'd tg.blk to let her know how much he loved her sound. This was a particularly surreal co-sign for tg as a genuine admirer of his music. "If you told me that one day [Vince Staples] was going to randomly hear a song I don't even remember making, I wouldn't have believed you," she says. "It was really affirming."
This moment reinforced the transformative role of the internet in her career—a song recorded in isolation in Kenya could travel far beyond its point of origin and reach an artist whose own work had once influenced the beats she searched for online. "I joke with my friends and family that I'm just a random bitch from Kenya," Thigi says. "I'm doing my thing online and seeing how far it goes."
As tg.blk's audience expands, she remains confident that the intimacy of her music will survive. Although her time in LA has introduced her to more collaborative studio environments, she still loves recording herself on her own terms. "Having that space and alone time to do my part of the song is what I'm used to."
Her career so far has also given her little reason to abandon the instincts which built it. From unexpected playlist placements to support from artists she admired, many of her most significant breakthroughs arrived when she trusted her own direction. "I've made it this far being myself," she says. "I keep repeatedly getting signs to just be myself."
With besides you, she hopes to cultivate the community forming around her work. She already spends time speaking with listeners online and has created a Discord where they can connect more closely. "Even if it's just five people," she says. "I think expanding my community is the thing I'm most excited about."
besides you may be the first chapter in a trilogy, but it also marks a wider point of arrival for tg.blk. She is stepping into a larger stage with the same approach that carried a self-recorded song from Mombasa to the world—look up, keep aiming and trust that being yourself is enough.
tg.blk's besides you drops soon. In the meantime, stream "Clutch My Bag" below: