The female hip-hop scene has been sorta hum-drum for the past few years. I’m not saying that there aren’t amazing female rappers out there, but the mass media is not shining a light on these artists if they are not more than half-naked and twirling on a pole for you to see their hoo-ha’s. So in honor of Black Music Month, I decided to bring back our “Women That Rock” features. This week, I want to introduce you to the uniquely dope, Tierra Whack.
Whack’s debut fifteen track album, Whack World, was released on May 30, 2018 and received a “Best New Music” accolade from Pitchfork. Critics praised the unusual format of the album — each song lasting about 1 minute each. Whack released each short track on Instagram, each accompanied by a short film directed by Thibaut Duverneix and Mathieu Léger. Often referred to as the ‘Missy Elliott’ of this generation, Whack has gained a great amount of applaud for the creativity and eccentricity of her music videos. The track “Mumbo Jumbo” received a nomination for Best Music Video for the 2019 Grammy Awards. Briana Younger, writer for The Fader, wrote that “popular and mainstream rap hasn’t championed a darker-skinned woman since Missy Elliot…and Whack seems poised to be the one.” Whack acknowledged that women in the music industry often aren’t afforded the privilege to make art for art’s sake, but she refuses to let that inhibit her.
Whack has stated that she is not thinking about a timeline for a new album, saying “I’m not gonna drive myself crazy. I’m having fun creating what I’m creating.”[
