Let’s Take a Moment to Celebrate Tierra Whack’s “Whack History Month”

On February 19, Tierra Whack, the immensely talented Philadelphia rapper, decided to release a new single each week, dubbing the experiment “Whack History Month” to follow-up her 15-minute 2018 debut Whack World. So far, the singles have showcased her obvious versatility and the latest entry is no exception. The fifth installment in the series, “Unemployed,” which dropped Tuesday morning, boasts Whack’s commanding presence over a rattling bass beat as she raps, “The wait is over, I’m taking over / You overweight, you ate a soda.”

Whack premiered the song via Zane Lowe’s World Record on Beats 1. In an interview with the Apple Music host, she explained, “Rap got boring to me for a long time so I just started singing more. But it was one of those days where I was home recording in Philly, and [co-writer Kenete Simms] hit the beat and it was hitting. I thought people think I can’t rap anymore so I just gotta rap.” She also said that the song got an assist from her mom: “My mom is never in the studio with me, but she was in the studio that day and she like basically helped me with the hook.”

The no-frills rap is a stark departure from some of Whack’s other singles in her self-proclaimed “Whack History Month,” like the silky organ-led R&B of “Wasteland.” It’s this sort of flexibility that shows that even though Whack is no longer releasing one-minute songs, she’s more than able to stretch out and let her songwriting breathe. Other songs in the series like introspective “Only Child” tackled a breakup while booming “Clones” and thoughtful “Gloria” might be the most infectious of the bunch. Five weeks straddling both February and March isn’t exactly a traditional Gregorian month, which opens up a lot of possibilities for Tierra. Maybe “Whack History Month” can just last forever.