Tierra Whack 'Pop?' Album review by Adam Fink. The multi-artist's album is out today via Interscope records and streaming services

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Pop?

Tierra Whack

Here’s the updated!

Just a week following her three song Rap? EP, Tierra Whack has just dropped another intriguing three song EP entitled, Pop? Where Rap? is a fantastic minimal hip hop outing, Pop? flips the script some and embraces Whack’s, well, poppier tendencies. She mentioned recently that the whole endeavour came about somewhat accidentally. Whack recalls, “My manager Kenete, every time we’re in the studio he’s like, “You know you’re like dipping into pop?” And I’m like, “Uh, really?” And he’s like, “It’s just in you, you have to just let it live.” And I’m like, “OK.” However she came to this stage doesn’t matter because the results are so wonderfully infectious.

“Body Of Water” kicks things off sounding like an unreal eased Outkast track. With a double time groove and the speediest of flow, Whack has crafted something that would make those Atlanta rap pioneers blush. “Lazy” shoots off in an entirely different direction. The entirely of the track is just Whack and a crunchy guitar reminiscent of some of Lenny Kravitz’s early 00s finest. The song was inspired by Whack’s favourite movie School Of Rock. Where that movie plays up the protagonists laziness, Whack shows how this all plays out emotionally from the opposite point of view. In the chorus she repeats, “Get up and get a job, you barely tried/You lied, you lied, you lied, you lied, you lied (Go)”, and you get the sense that she has had to deal with this type of personality in relationships before. Everything closes, all too quickly, with “Dolly” which again is a sparse affair, just Whack’s honeyed voice over an appreciated banjo and some well placed bass, adding just the perfect amount of tension.

Whack seems to be taking a bit of a creative journey right now and it’s an absolute joy that we can follow along on the trip with her. Who knows what we could be hearing next but it’s clear that no matter what genre Whack attempts to dip into, it’s clear that she’s going to make it her own and we will be all the better for it.

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