A follow-up to her second mixtape Reverie, she signed with RCA Records shortly before the release of Black Water; however, it was not issued through the label.

[3] Musically, Black Water follows similar PBR&B and alternative hip hop tropes heard in her first and second mixtapes; however, it experiments with several other genres such as electronica and neo soul.

[4] After four singles and reaching over one million digital downloads, Tinashe was signed to RCA Records with her official debut album to be released sometime in 2013.

[9]Reviews for Black Water were generally positive reviews, with the comments on popular mixtape site DatPiff being positive,[10] as well as receiving promotional space on the main page of DatPiff, and peaking at number five on the most downloaded chart on its first day of release[11] and drawing comparisons to Aaliyah and Mýa via fans on social networking site Twitter.

"[1] Fact Magazine criticized her vocals falling flat at times saying "The biggest knock on Tinashe has been a voice that often falters at higher registers and tends to get too breathy: that problem is particularly noticeable on the Inc.-produced ‘Middle of Nowhere’, and she's practically whispering on closer ‘Ain’t Ready’.