Watching this 15 minute video made me think “it’s Tierra Whack’s world, and we’re just living in it.” The whole project has a fearlessness to it; it breaks the rules in a way that someone who didn’t know what the rules were might break them.
Each of her 15 songs is exactly 1 minute long. They end abruptly (often in the middle of an idea or a sound) and there are no transitions to speak of. Instead, we’re whisked away to wherever Tierra wants to take us. She’s in charge of where we go, how much we get, and, in the video, what world we live in. Some scenes are funny (Fuck Off) and some are serious (4 Wingz). Some are sinister (Sore Loser) and some are whimsical (Silly Sam), grotesque (Bug’s Life), or it’s gaudy (Hungry Hippos). It’s Alice and Wonderland meets Nicky Minaj meets Missy Elliot meets Dr. Seuss.



I felt a compulsion to get into the mind of the young woman who could conceive of something that’s so out there but also so specific. I was prepared to psychoanalyze and intellectualize; Tierra’s other hit is called “Mumbo Jumbo,” the same name as an Ishmael Reed novel about black-white relations. (Tierra claims “unrelated”!) I learned she was first a poet, and then a vocal major and fine arts minor at Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush, and then a rapper (under the moniker Dizzle Dizz). She was one of the only black students in her school. The video was directed by Thibaut Duverneix who Tierra found herself on Vimeo. She started formally recording after she saved up enough money working at the local car wash to buy her first laptop. Even after this album came out, Tierra still did weekend shifts as a door person at an upscale condominium.
This is more than enough fodder here to assume tall tales about her inner-workings. But, after reading/watching interviews, I mostly saw a super creative, super talented, hard-working, humble teenager, full of ideas and a compulsion to make, just having a good time and experimenting. (Isn’t that what being a teenager is for?!) This is not to minimize her process but rather to celebrate what happens when you let the id take the wheel and follow your weird.
More to buzz about:
Fader’s cover story on Tierra
ASAP Rocky told her she had “that Kendrick flow” (pretty high praise!)
Her video for Mumbo Jumbo received a nomination for Best Music Video for the 2019 Grammy Awards
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