With the 2018 release of her mini-album Whack World and its frenetic 15-songs-in-15-minutes take on her self-devised personal cartoon universe, Philadelphia rapper-producer Tierra Whack immediately drew attention to her wily brand of fractured hip hop with its uneasy humor and Missy-Elliot like vibes. With a dozen (at least) singles, a 2020 tour, the launch of “What Whack Wears” designs, and a faux documentary (Cypher) since 2018, it’s only now – March 2024 – that Philly’s Whack has created another fresher, and not-so-cartoonlike, universe with her debut full artist album, World Wide Whack.
It was worth the wait, especially when you consider that Whack told me this in 2020:
“A new album is coming. Yes, definitely. I actually don’t know its deadline. I’m rushing to the studio as we speak. I’m feeling ready. I’m feeling good. I just ran some errands. I can make one of the best songs that I have ever made today right after we get off the phone. I’ve been giving myself time to experiment because you never know.”
With its oddly industrial cover from Alex Da Corte and an alter ego designed to be super and human, World Wide Whack starts its process as something of a conceptual art piece. Fifteen tracks long and still barely over 35 minutes, Whack touches on weirdly tactile topics such as bathing freshness (“Shower Song”), the sweetness of her personal scent (“Chanel Pit,” featuring the new album’s most vigorous vocal workout) and the quiet desire of an easy, breezy night out (“Moovies”) before moving onto topics more darkly remote, and intricately – in some spaces such as “Mood Swing” and “Numb” – desperately sad.
Rather than the upbeat cartoon of Whack’s recent past, “X” details a hard, sorry breakup, bad smells and all. “Two Night” and “Numb” touch – with bleak humor – on the possibility of suicide. “Difficult” is just that. And the eerily vulnerable “27 Club” could knock the wind out of any Tierra Whack fan solely expecting giddily appointed hip hop.
If you had to boil World Wide Whack down to three words? Bold. Brilliant. Jarring.
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