APPLE MUSIC ANNOUNCES RAP SENSATION TIERRA WHACK AS LATEST UP NEXT ARTIST
Up Next short film shot on iPhone XS to debut exclusively on Apple Music on February 26
Apple Music today announces Interscope Records artist Tierra Whack as its latest Up Next artist. For the last two and half years, Apple Music’s Up Next emerging artist program has been spotlighting rising talent from around the world. Today, the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter brings her undeniably unique sound and visuals to Apple Music’s global audience and joins the ranks of fellow Up Next alum like 6lack, Juice WRLD, H.E.R., Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Amy Shark, Khalid, Daniel Caesar and more.
In the exclusive Up Next film available on February 26, the Philadelphia MC credits the legendary Dr. Seuss with drawing her out of her shell. “Just the rhyming words was like so crazy to me,” she tells Apple Music. “I’m like, Yo, cat, hat, bat, sat, rat, flat…” Additional campaign moments will include a Jimmy Kimmel Live! performance on March 4 and an interview with Beats 1’s Ebro Darden airing today, where Whack dishes on the reception around her groundbreaking visual album Whack World.
“Every month we pick an artist that the whole team, the entire Apple Music ecosystem says, ‘This artist is important to music,’” said said Ebro Darden, Apple Music’s Global Editorial Director for Hip-Hop and R&B. “What Tierra's doing is important, and done in a very tasteful, classic, purposeful, and cultural way through not only her visuals, but her style, talent, melody, and attention to detail. She takes the craft seriously. What we try to do as a collective with Up Next, is pick artists that we think will be here for a long time, giving us amazing material. And that's why we picked her.”
Looking ahead, Whack tells Apple Music she’s excited to pay it forward and collaborate on future projects: “Being a female in music I just, I want everybody to, all the women to come in, and we huddle up and we work together and we help each other. You know, I’m willing to dim my light so that somebody else can shine because we all have to find our inner lights, and shine in one world.”
Watch Ebro Darden’s Beats 1 interview below:
Tierra Whack ‘Only Child’ eSingle
Retail: http://smarturl.it/OnlyChild
Apple Music Tierra Whack Up Next film out Feb 26, see trailer below:
Listen to the new Up Next playlist HERE.
About Tierra Whack
North Philly MC Tierra Whack’s passion for writing was cemented at the age of 13, when she enrolled at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences for 8th grade. “We had a unit where we had to write poetry,” she remembers. “We had to get up in front of the entire class and present what we wrote. It did something to me. I was really shy when I was younger, but being able to say what I felt in front of an audience was the best feeling in the world.” Already a huge fan of ’90s hip-hop, the 15-year-old began rapping under the moniker Dizzle Dizz, and quickly gained a rep around the City of Brotherly Love for ripping the mic with her clever, off-the-dome wordplay. Before long, she met local luminaries like Meek Mill and appeared on longtime radio DJ Cosmic Kev’s Come Up show on Power 99. After a self-imposed hiatus to Atlanta in 2012 to finish up her senior year of high school, Whack returned to Philadelphia in 2015, utilizing her real name, Tierra Whack, and released a string of singles (“Toe Jam,” “Child Please,” Shit Happens”) leading up to the release of 2018’s, Whack World, the critically-acclaimed album and imaginative fifteen-minute music, which WIRED called "a pocket-sized masterpiece.” With a bright future ahead, Whack concedes her long-term goal “is to grow into the superstar that I am.”
About Apple Music's Up Next Program
Up Next is Apple Music’s monthly artist program geared towards identifying, showcasing and elevating rising star talent. Each month, Apple Music’s editorial team selects an artist to promote, utilizing the full force of the platform to raise awareness of the artist to its growing global audience of music fans. The program includes an Apple Music short film shot entirely on iPhone XS introducing the artist, an interview with one of our Beats 1 anchors, a late night TV performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and more. The vast Up Next roster of past talent includes Grammy-nominated and critically lauded talent like 6lack, Daniel Caesar, H.E.R., Greta Van Fleet, Khalid, Amy Shark, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Claudio, Sigrid, Mr Eazi, Stefflon Don, Bad Bunny, Juice WLRD, Bazzi, Jax Jones, NCT 127 and Summer Walker.
Going into 2019, Apple Music’s Up Next artist program has expanded in its third year to also include a curated companion Up Next playlist featuring a dynamic class of new and emerging artists, thoughtfully hand-picked by Apple Music editors from around the world. The playlist is genre and country agnostic and represents a line-up of artists our global editors are passionate about and eager to expose to a larger audience. As the newest induction into Apple Music's Up Next roster, Tierra Whack joins some of today’s most exciting and promising artists and will serve as the official Up Next playlist cover star to be spotlighted throughout the month.