Whack World
Studio album by
Tierra Whack
ReleasedMay 30, 2018
Recorded2017–2018
GenreHip hop
Length14:56
LabelInterscope
Producer
  • Kenete Simms
  • Nick Verruto
  • J Melodic
  • RicandThadeus
  • DJ Fly Guy
  • Scott Styles
Tierra Whack chronology
Whack World
(2018)		 Rap?
(2021)
Singles from Whack World
  1. "Hungry Hippo"
    Released: February 14, 2019

Whack World is the debut studio album by American rapper Tierra Whack. It was released on May 30, 2018, by Interscope Records.[1] The album is mainly produced by Kenete Simms and Nick Verruto, and conscripts other producers including J Melodic, RicandThadeus, DJ Fly Guy, and Scott Styles. It was mixed and engineered by Kenete Simms and mastered by Chris Athens.[2] The album artwork—of an arcade claw machine—was designed by Nick Canonica[3] and features a sculpture made by Philadelphia artist Caroline Kunka.[4]

Background

Whack was bullied as a child for being black in a predominantly white school, which inspired much of the "emotional labor" that was done on the album.[5] With each song length being a minute long, Tierra Whack released a 15-minute visual album with a music video for each track.[6] Whack says that she's a visual learner, and the visuals for Whack World allowed her to bring her ideas to life and “bring truth to the viewer’s eye.”[7] Regarding the many changes in her voice, Whack spoke to Billboard saying:

I get so bored with my voice. It started when I was a class clown, and realized I was kind of funny. And it's bad because sometimes I’ll still do it -- I’ll hear someone and they’ll have a funny ass voice, and I’ll mock it. But that's rude, so I’ll have to [do it] somewhere alone, and mock the voice to like, get it out, and know I can do that voice. I’m a sponge, so I just hear these things.[8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
HipHopDX4.3/5[9]
Pitchfork8.3/10[10]
Spectrum Culture[11]
Vice (Expert Witness)A−[12]

The album was critically acclaimed and received positive reviews. Pitchfork praised the album, giving it a 8.3 out of 10 rating, saying: "Whack World is a funhouse of minute-long vignettes, teetering between a fantastic dream and an unsettling nightmare. Lyrics share double meanings with the corresponding 15-minute visual Whack released alongside the album, which adds even more dimension and intrigue to the ambitious project; light and dark are forced to coexist." The author also claimed that the visual album is "prepackaged for optimum social media consumption; every tiny piece stands on its own without losing sight of the larger picture. At its core, though, Whack's sense of humor—her captivating depiction of a black woman's imagination—is an opportunity to celebrate an aspect of art that often goes uncelebrated, an opportunity for Whack to celebrate herself."[10] In a Wired piece about women in the music industry in 2019, the author wrote that Whack World was working to destabilize the popular maximalist narrative currently characterizing music.[13] NPR hip hop writer Rodney Carmichael praised Whack's dream logic that characterizes the visual album, saying “each song vignette offers a deeper level of revelation into her black girl’s blues.”[5]

Accolades

Year-end lists
Publication Accolade Rank
Billboard 50 Best Albums of 2018[14] 19
Complex The Best Albums of 2018[15] 16
Dazed 20 Best Albums of 2018[16] 1
Noisey 100 Best Albums of 2018[17] 1
Okayplayer The Best Albums of 2018[18] 2
Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2018[19] 9
Exclaim! Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of 2018[20] 7
NPR Music 50 Best Albums of 2018[21] 10

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Black Nails"Tierra WhackKenete Simms0:58
2."Bugs Life"WhackSimms0:58
3."Flea Market"WhackSimms1:00
4."Cable Guy"
  • Whack
  • Nick Verruto
Verruto1:00
5."4 Wings"
  • Whack
  • Simms
Simms1:00
6."Hookers"
  • Whack
  • Verruto
Verruto1:00
7."Hungry Hippo"
  • Whack
  • Verruto
Verruto1:00
8."Pet Cemetery"
  • Whack
  • Simms
Simms1:00
9."Fuck Off"
  • Whack
  • J Melodic
Melodic1:00
10."Silly Sam"
  • Whack
  • Verruto
Verruto1:00
11."Fruit Salad"
  • Whack
  • C. McMillan
  • RicandThadeus
RicandThadeus1:00
12."Pretty Ugly"
  • Whack
  • Melodic
  • DJ Fly Guy
  • Melodic
  • DJ Fly Guy
1:00
13."Sore Loser"WhackScott Styles1:00
14."Dr. Seuss"
  • Whack
  • Simms
Simms1:00
15."Waze"
  • Whack
  • Simms
Simms1:00
Total length:14:56

References

  1. ↑ "Whack World by Tierra Whack". iTunes. 30 May 2018.
  2. ↑ "Whack World". Amazon.
  3. ↑ Canonica, Nick. "SAVENICK". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2021-10-18.
  4. ↑ "Caroline Kunka | Home". www.carolinekunka.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  5. 1 2 Carmichael, Rodney. "Tierra Whack's Labor Of Self-Love, From Car Wash To Critical Mass". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  6. ↑ "It'll Only Take Tierra Whack 15 Minutes to Freak You the Fuck Out". Noisey. June 2018.
  7. ↑ Cineas, Fabiola (2019-03-23). "North Philly Rapper Tierra Whack Is the Future of Hip-Hop". Philadelphia Magazine. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  8. ↑ Maher, Natalie. "Tierra Whack on New Project 'Whack World,' Eating Chicken Wings With Andre 3000 & Why She Wants to Record in Tokyo". Billboard.
  9. ↑ Eustice, Kyle (June 12, 2018). "Review: Tierra Whack's Audiovisual Journey Into "Whack World" Puts That Repeat Button To Work". HipHopDX. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  10. 1 2 Younger, Briana (June 12, 2018). "Tierra Whack: Whack World". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  11. ↑ Bromfield, Daniel (June 12, 2018). "Tierra Whack: Whack World". Spectrum Culture. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  12. ↑ Christgau, Robert (July 14, 2018). "Robert Christgau on G.O.O.D Music's Good (and Less Good) Music". Vice. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  13. ↑ Parham, Jason (2019-02-14). "Women Will Dominate—and Dismantle—the Music Industry in 2019". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
  14. ↑ "Billboard's 50 Best Albums of 2018: Critics' Picks". Billboard. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Top 50 Albums of 2018". Complex. December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  16. ↑ Dazed (2018-12-05). "The 20 best albums of 2018". Dazed. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  17. ↑ "100 Best Albums of 2018". Vice.com. 2018-12-08. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  18. ↑ "Okayplayer's Best Albums of 2018". Okayplayer. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  19. ↑ "Uncut's 75 Best Albums of 2018". Pitchfork. 11 December 2018. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  20. ↑ "Exclaim!'s Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums". Exclaim!. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  21. ↑ "The 50 Best Albums Of 2018 (10-1)". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
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