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]

Whack World
Studio album by Tierra Whack
Released	May 30, 2018
Recorded	2017–2018
Genre	Hip hop
Length	14:56
Label	Interscope
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
"Hungry Hippo" Released: February 14, 2019

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
Source	Rating
HipHopDX	4.3/5[9]
Pitchfork	8.3/10[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

Track listing

References