Whack World

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] Album artwork of an arcade claw machine is a sculpture designed by Philadelphia artist Caroline Kunka.[3]

Whack World
Studio album by
Tierra Whack
ReleasedMay 30, 2018
Recorded2017–2018
Genre
Length15:00
LabelInterscope
Producer
  • Kenete Simms
  • Nick Verruto
  • J Melodic
  • RicandThadeus
  • DJ Fly Guy
  • Scott Styles
"Bugs Life" redirects here. For the film, see A Bug's Life.
"Pet Cemetery (song)" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Pet Sematary (song).
"Sore Loser" redirects here. For a person who does not take defeat well, see Sportsmanship.

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.[4] With each song length being a minute long, Tierra Whack released a 15-minute visual album with a music video for each track.[5] 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.”[6] 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.[7]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
HipHopDX4.3/5[8]
Pitchfork8.3/10[9]
Spectrum Culture[10]
Vice (Expert Witness)A−[11]

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."[9] 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.[12] 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.”[4]

Accolades
Year-end lists
Publication Accolade Rank
Billboard 50 Best Albums of 2018[13] 19
Complex The Best Albums of 2018[14] 16
Dazed 20 Best Albums of 2018[15] 1
Noisey 100 Best Albums of 2018[16] 1
Okayplayer The Best Albums of 2018[17] 2
Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2018[18] 9
Exclaim! Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of 2018[19] 7
NPR Music 50 Best Albums of 2018[20] 10

Track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Black Nails"Tierra WhackKenete Simms1:00
2."Bugs Life"WhackSimms1:00
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:15:00
gollark: Cool! Is it in ShutdownOS now?
gollark: /playerinfo perhaps.
gollark: As the President of Traffic Enforcement, I demand that you consider the effects this will have on traffic.
gollark: I can actually remote-update it, assuming people can be bothered to reboot it when I Do.
gollark: Excellent.

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