Warning: You might shed a tear watching Tierra Whack’s latest music video, “Heaven.” In a mood, the Philly music artist is seen wearing a floor-length black garment while holding a black umbrella that fails to block the rain. The environment is mostly dark with the exception of a spotlight resembling lightning emboldened around the circumference of the path Tierra treads.
Meanwhile, she sings, “Heaven has all of my favorite people / I wanna go there” against the backdrop of a slow-tempo, melancholic beat.
“Heaven,” a standout track, comes from her 2021 EP R&B? which features three songs, the other two being “Cutting Onions” and “Sorry.” Known in the past for releasing short one-minute tracks, Tierra switches up course again with 3-minute tracks for the three songs.
“Heaven” focuses on people who ascended to the afterlife. A more uptempo “Cutting Onions” also zones in on the topic of loss as Tierra recalls the birthday of her loved one gone too soon.
She raps, “Grandma died / I was cutting up onions / I ain’t wanna talk about nothing / I ain’t wanna think about nothing / Can you hear me crying, for you?”
In the song, she admits she’s been attending therapy and has been feeling depressed.
An apologetic Tierra makes a plea to her lover in the R&B-inspired “Sorry.” She sings, “Sorry, if I made you feel alone / I know you don’t like to be alone / …I can admit that I was wrong / Swore I try so hard to right my wrongs / I don’t want you out here on your phone / Tell me when you plan on coming home.”
Although the mood of the EP digs into the sorrow of the human experience, Tierra Whack’s courage to delve into a very personal and vulnerable part of her life gives her a competitive advantage not yet conquered by many artists signed to major labels.
