BEFORE TIERRA WOULD BECOME ONE OF THE MOST PROMISING YOUNG ARTISTS IN THE GAME WITH CREATIVE
FLOWS, VIDEO CONCEPTS AND FLAWLESS EXECUTION OF HER VISION
BEFORE TIERRA WHACK WOULD BE NAMED A PART 2019 XXL FRESHMAN CLASS
And with a pitch like that, how could you not put her on?
I mean, she really DIDNT have to say ANYTHING because, her bars speak for themselves
BEFORE SHE WOULD DROP HER SELF-DIRECTED 15-MINUTE GAME CHANGING VISUAL ALBUM “Whack World”
AND GET A GRAMMY NOMINATION FOR BEST MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR WITH HER SONG “MUMBO JUMBO”
BEFORE TIERRA WOULD GET COSIGNS FROM REMY MA, ASAP ROCKY AND SOLANGE
AND BEFORE SHE WOULD HAVE more than 382k followers on Instagram, close to 100k on Twitter and
100k subscribers on YouTube at the time of this recording.
But those numbers are going to skyrocket soon because this girl is a STAR in every sense
of the word.
From her creativity, to her bars, to her personality, everything about Tierra Whack is the opposite
of her last name.
If you’re unfamiliar, you better get on the bandwagon now before it’s full and you
have to run behind it.
But before all of the fame, Tierra was a 15-year-old girl who was outrapping fully grown dudes
on Philadelphia street corners.
And the creative journey from that point until now is one that any artist out there watching
needs, to hear.
This is the story of Tierra Whack.
What’s going on good people in the comment section?
My name is Jeremy Hecht I hope you’re having one Hecht of a day, and I’ll be your host
today as I take you through the life and career of one of my PERSONAL favorite artists right
now, Tierra Whack.
If you’re new here, I’m the LA host for this channel and I think I’ve actually covered
every single XXL Freshman on the list for this channel already, from Rico Nasty to DaBaby
so if there’s anyone you want to know more about, search their name in our channel and
I guarantee you’ll learn something new.
Before we start though, I have a trivia question for you:
“What was Tierra Whack’s childhood nickname?”
And not her first rap name, THIS is a different nickname.”
You’ll have to stick around to find out the answer.
Alright let’s get into her story!
Tierra Helena Whack was born on August 11, 1995 in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and
grew up in different neighborhoods within the city.
She was raised by her mother and has a younger brother and younger sister, each 5 years apart,
so I guess she wasn’t an “Only Child” herself.
Tierra was a prankster at heart and was the one who broke it to her younger siblings that
Santa Clause wasn’t real…
Wait Santa isn’t real?????
Tierra’s grandmother and great grandmother both lived close by and would help babysit
the children.
Her father didn’t play much of a part in her life, but like she told Fader, she has
always been able to laugh at her pain, as you can tell with the reference to her dad
on the song “F Off.”
And for those of you still wondering, yes, Whack is her REAL last name.
Tierra’s first dream was actually to become a dancer, but when she stepped into church
with her Aunt and heard the music, she was inspired.
Early on, her mom got her the all of the classic Dr. Seuss books, and during her elementary
school poetry session, when it was time for Tierra to present her poem to her peers, the
entire class and the teachers were blown away.
Legend has it, she even out rhymed her former idol Dr. Suess that day.
She went home to tell her mom about how well it went and asked for some composition notebooks.
Within a month, all of those books were filled with poems.
Next came the tape recorder so she could record her poetry.
And she was doing vocal exercises in the shower to practice her singing and would write songs
in her head on the way to school.
But the poetry fame at school was getting to her head as she became somewhat of a class
clown.
Her teachers began to wonder if she was ever paying attention or if she was just writing
rhymes.
But, luckily Tierra was a great student and always got her homework done ahead of schedule.
Tierra cites her mom as her biggest inspiration in life and her best friend.
Her mom would play gangster rap around the house but Tierra also had a lighter side,
stating that she was a big fan of the show “Dragon Tales,” although it wasn’t until
a recent Genius interview that she realized they were dragons, and not Dinasaurs in the
show…
It’s okay I have those realization moments all the time.
Like, I just realized a couple year ago that it was “the last straw” and not “the
last draw” Oh you didn’t know that either, I see you, yeah I’m talking to you, You’re
welcome.
Tierra also loved TV shows like “In Living Color” and “Mad TV.”
Mad TV needs to make a real comeback by the way.
But it’s also one of those things where I don’t know if it was actually that funny
or if I was just young…
Nah, it’s still funny.
Anyways, besides being inspired by Dr. Suess, Busta Rhymes, Ludacris, Kelis and Missy Elliot
were big inspirations to her growing up.
Tierra was always different.
She was the only person who wanted Heelys out of all of her friends when they were picking
shoes.
I still think Heelys are like the coolest invention ever…
But for the most part, Tierra blended into the crowd and went with the fashion that everyone
else was wearing.
Until eventually, she became more comfortable with herself.
She took a period of time to isolate herself and really look deep within to see who she
was, who she wanted to be and who she had been all along.
Tierra attended The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush for high school where she was a vocal
major and fine arts minor and one of the few black students in her predominantly white
graduating class.
And while Tierra’s interest in the arts only grew during this time period, she told
Fader that her high school principal did make things difficult, saying:
“You’d think an art school would be creative and free, but it wasn’t.
She was more like a football coach.”
In her junior year, Tierra and her friends wanted to sing a couple of songs from Sister
Act 2 at their school talent show and had to beg just to perform the rap verse from
one of the songs.
But everything comes around and during a meal at the Center City Whole Foods recently, her
principal saw her and congratulated her on the success.
It was in 9th grade when she was driving with her mom to her grandma’s house and saw out
of her window, a group of dudes who were all rapping on a corner together in front of a
Canon camera.
So her mom circles the block while Tierra circled her mind for the right bars.
By the time they came back, Tierra hopped out the car and said “Can I rap for you?”
At the time she was going by the name T-Dizzle or Dizzle Dizz.
The guy who was running the cypher put his arm around her and said she was really good.
And then she kept going.
He ran a blog called “we run the streets” that posted rappers like Meek Mill.
He posted the video of Tierra and people loved it, gaining 6 thousand views in a night and
12 thousand views in a week.
Meek Mill saw her rapping and tweeted at her giving her a co-sign eventually hearing her
spit live at a Philly radio station.
Tierra started to rap over beats and started murdering instrumentals left and right.
She got to meet some of her idols and got to freestyle at the local radio stations.
She even rapped for ASAP Rocky at some point who seemed to be feeling it and is now a huge
fan of her music:
But as a creative person, she kind of got bored of it pretty quickly and needed something
new.
At the same time, her mom was bored of being in Philly also and looking for new surroundings.
So for her senior year, Tierra and her family moved to Georgia where she attended Westlake
High School.
People at her new high school knew about her freestyle videos.
She even spat this freestyle for SayCheeseTV in Atlanta:
During the next two to three years, Tierra deleted social media completely for clarity
of self.
At the time she was working at a car wash called Mr. Hot Shot:
She was saving up for a laptop and a mic.
And once she bought it, she reached out to producers using the clout that she had from
her freestyle videos and she recorded a bunch of original music.
But at the time, she kept it all to herself as she worked out her image, new name, and
the direction that she wanted to head in.
She remembered an engineer named Kenete Simms, who she had made some original music with
in Philly and contacted him on Instagram.
Then she moved back to Philly to live with her grandma.
And the first person she saw when she got back to Philly was Kenete.
She showed him her music and he was impressed.
It was at the studio with him that Tierra learned how to record using pro tools and
logic.
One of the most important people to her is Kenete, who helps her sort through and remember
her ideas and also produced half of the Whack World project.
She mastered her craft for years and when she finally felt ready to return to the world
she was using her real name and was confident in her creative direction.
At some point over the past few years, Tierra inked a deal with Interscope, who clearly
saw the vision that he had been working on for so long.
In 2017, she dropped the stunningly odd and unforgettable music video for “Mumbo Jumbo”
which pictures her in a dentist chair mumbling words that match the song’s title.
Whether or not it was a statement about mumble rap, the song caught some ears with its infection
melody and clear creativity.
So much so that it was nominated for a Grammy this year for Best Music Video.
When she finally felt ready to drop a project, she dropped it in such a unique format that
the music industry had never seen before.
She put out a 15-minute visual project with 15 original songs, each sitting at exactly
a minute if you couldn’t do the math.
Tierra didn’t conform at all, and it payed off, because the entire industry took notice.
And most recently she earned herself a slot on the 2019 XXL Freshman class list.
But she says that she plans on dropping a new song every week and she says that all
of them will be longer than 60 seconds!
So I hope this was a lesson to all of the artists out there struggling to conform to
an industry that is often plastered with replicas of current trends, sometimes you need to take
your time, find yourself, create your own direction and it will pay off.
And remember, there is no timeline when you’re making timeless music.
And with Tierra’s childhood nickname, no wonder she keeps dropping that timeless sh*t:
And there you have it, her childhood nickname was Dookie, which she even references in the
freestlye that put her on at 15 years old.
But as for the rest of the story, well, we’ll have to wait and see, because THIS is Before
They Were Famous.
I’m Jeremy Hecht, be sure to follow me on Instagram and let me know who you want me
to cover next in the comments down below.
Dream Good, Live Better.