On a two-year-old episode of Ebro within the Morning, Tierra Whack admitted she was “very bored” with rap. By “bored” she didn’t imply that “there’s an excessive amount of music about pussy and weapons” shit that appears to come back up any time a rapper sits in a podcast chair; what she was feeling had extra to do with burnout. She was scuffling with the best way to keep hungry amid the expectations and calls for, from followers and labels alike, that come from life as an expert rapper.
Whack didn’t have to consider any of that again on 2018’s Whack World, her fashionable and offbeat 15-minute debut mixtape that made her an web darling virtually in a single day and received her the type of music trade respect that made dinner with Jay-Z and textual content exchanges with André 3000 and displaying up on Beyoncé’s Lion King soundtrack attainable. Whack World didn’t exist as a result of the discharge schedule stated it ought to exist. The tape was born out of the identical competitiveness that made her a reputation on the Philly freestyle scene as a fast-rapping teenager with witty punchlines and a close to Slick Rick-ish knack for switching between moods and characters. It had the urgency of music she had been attempting all her life to make, and when it labored she had to determine the best way to run it again.
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To gentle that fireplace once more on WHACK’S MUSEUM, Tierra Whack spins again to her battle rap roots for a full-throttled put me in your barbershop prime fives file. In contrast to her final couple tasks, there’s not a whole lot of high-concept goofiness, nor the dreamy singing that made her tales appear to be warped flashbacks. WHACK’S MUSEUM does characteristic her trademark concision: Over 27 minutes of plenty of rapping about rapping, she flexes her cartoonishly imaginative wordplay and will get off her GOAT discuss with sufficient scatalogical wisecracks to make mixtape Wayne shed a proud-father tear. It appears to come back as straightforward as scrambling eggs to her. “Cruella de Vil ’trigger I’m comin’ for my spot, canine/You whack with out H, so meaning you a knockoff” rolls off the tongue effortlessly over the East Coast grime of “Wiggidy Whack,” whereas animating her circulation like prime Missy. On that very same observe, she calls the cash of her hip-hop foes “Columbus Quick” and drops in a traditional “you ain’t shit, you doo-doo,” each of which might be tacky jokes if anybody else stated them, however make a delightfully wacky and unserious tackle dickswinging clichés when it comes from her.
It’s not groundbreaking, however typically nothing hits more durable than Jerry getting Tom’s tail caught in a mouse lure or Bugs Bunny stuffing Yosemite Sam within his personal huge hat. WHACK’S MUSEUM could be primary and overreliant on Griselda-core traditionalism (there’s a bunch of seedy Conductor Williams beats), but it’s kind of comforting to listen to her assortment of low-stakes bars simply imagined as little cartoon strips. “Simply purchased a Mini Cooper/And I drive it like Andretti,” she raps on the breezy “Siren,” in all probability whereas hanging out of the sunroof in one in every of her Ms. Frizzle outfits. The picture of her attending the Webby Awards with Philly rap nice Freeway additionally will get a kick out of me. The way in which she quick-sprays quips like, “Get the cheese like my grandma grits/You changed like my grandma hip” all through the laid-back “Candle Wax” feels intimate and foolish on the similar time. On the finish of “Brazilian Wax,” which has this lush soul pattern that jogs my memory of ninth Surprise’s work for Little Brother, she squeezes in her beefs with the hip-hop manosphere whereas nonetheless holding the temper gentle.
If the mixtape have been any longer, I’d accuse Whack of going by the motions, however happily it flies by. I do sense a few of that boredom, although, particularly when she makes half-assed makes an attempt to spark dialog: “I’d win extra if I selected to place much less on,” she raps on “Totem,” which could have a touch of reality to it however is low-hanging fruit. I gained’t get on that line an excessive amount of as a result of in any other case “Totem” is the type of observe that brings essentially the most out of her proper now: one the place she will get to be a bridge between generations of Philly punchline rap. Right here, backdropped by flashes of mechanical drill drums, she has enjoyable with the pale flows you would discover on trendy Philly avenue rap posse cuts. Then, over the blaring choir pattern of “Two Fifteen,” her no-fucks-given angle may match subsequent to some classic State Property goonery. These moments aren’t showy; they gained’t make for good podcast segments. However it’s the regionally particular pocket that’s snapping Tierra Whack out of the funk and pushing her into a brand new part that doesn’t really feel prefer it’s chasing the singularity of Whack World.