Friday, September 10, 2021

Tierra Whack (2021)

One Liner:  Philly rapper with those tiny tracks now making good long raps

Wikipedia Genre:  Hip hop, alternative R&B
Home: Philadelphia

Poster Position: 8

Both Weekends.
Sunday at 7:30 on the VRBO Stage.

Thoughts: Tierra was just here last time the fest happened.  Seems like it is too soon to already have her back?  Anyway, I went and saw the show and was a little disappointed because of technical difficulties (it was so freaking hot that the laptop playing the music was glitching) and her hypeman used up half of her time by just playing other people's music.  I know a lot of her songs are only a minute long, but I can hear an old, recorded 2LiveCrew song at home.

She made a bunch of album of the year lists in 2018 with her very strange Whack World album, that was a rap album that was only fifteen minutes long, and made up of fifteen one minute long songs.  They mix up rap and R&B, mostly with each song picking a genre (because they're so dang short, she can't switch up in the middle of a track) and a mound of auto tune.  I think "4 Wings," "Fuck Off," and "Hungry Hippo" are my favorites, but I'm super fascinated by the idea of this tiny little album.  Her Spotify bio says that each song has a video, and that this was intended to be a visual album.  Here's the whole kit and kaboodle.

Oh yes.  The "Pet Cemetery" section of that video, with dog puppets, is the stuff I need in life.  And when she rhymes "vegetables" with "cholesteROOOLE" in "Fruit Salad."  Some of the beats are great, and much of the lyrics are good, its just all too damn short.  Right when you get a groove going, it cuts off and moves to the next one.  But cool anyway.

The top track from there is "Hungry Hippo," with 52.4 million streams.
So painfully short - I want the groove to keep going, and she just kills with that final line...

When she first came out, she went by Dizzie Dizz, but her actual birth name is so cool that it makes sense for her to go back to it.  Her Wikipedia mentions several times that she is very shy and insecure, which just seems amazing to me, that someone who is super insecure could be doing this sort of great performance-based art.

One of her initial singles, "Mumbo Jumbo," has a video nominated for a Grammy for Best Music Video, which I didn't even know was a thing.
Holy crap that is a disturbing ass video dude.  I agree, it is really good, and really engrossing, but it has just about everything possible to make you uncomfortable.  Gah!

Since the one album, she's released a handful of good singles that are actually normal song length.  "Gloria" has a great groove to it, and "Only Child" has a sort of melancholy and 808s & Heartbreak vibe.  "Unemployed" is good and the video makes me laugh, so I'll give you that one.
That kick off and non-stop flow, right after those sparse piano notes, for the first chunk is freaking great.  That poor potato!  Don't cry little buddy!  That video is amazing.  Her flow is super impressive on that track - definitely taking on a next level of rap, instead of leaning on the R&B singing like many of her songs.  That song is very good.

She's also done some collaborations with Lil Yachty and A$AP Rocky and even rock bands like Willow or pop people like Melanie Martinez.  SHe's definitely an original.

Yeah, man, I'd go see this in person.  Feels legit.

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