David Byrne & Tierra Whack
A Talking Head and a hip-hop rule-breaker talk about finding their sound while feeling shy
I was on the road last year when ‘Whack World’ came out. You listen to that and go, ‘Oh, OK. Here’s the future.’ —DAVID BYRNE
David byrne is busy preparing for one of his most ambitious undertakings ever — a Broadway show in which he’ll perform songs from his entire career. But today he ended rehearsals early to ride his bicycle into Brooklyn and catch Tierra Whack at the Afropunk fest. The former Talking Head had suggested a conversation with Whack, who, at 24, has already established herself as one of hip-hop’s most innovative new voices. Her debut, Whack World, collects 15 tracks, each just one minute long, hopscotching between moods and showing off Whack’s complex and daring rhymes. In an accompanying mini-film, Whack (yes, her real name) plays a different character for each song, making it clear that, like Byrne, she has a nose for theatrics. After sending the Afropunk crowd into a frenzy, Whack hops offstage and meets one of her biggest fans.
BYRNE I was on the road all last year, and when Whack World came out, it was playing all over the tour bus. I thought, “This is amazing.” But more than that, it’s turning the industry upside down: the whole concept, the minute-long songs, the way they’re strung together, and how they went one into the next. You listen and go, “Oh, OK. Here’s the future.”
WHACK Wow. Thank you so much. When I first started, people were telling me, “Oh, you can only have one sound — you can only do one thing. Either you’re a singer or you’re a rapper.” That drove me crazy, because I would go in the studio every day and just make new things. I felt I had so much to offer. It’s like when they don’t
hire you because you’re overqualified: “Give me the damn job — I need it!”
BYRNE Were there songs that you came up with the visual idea first, before you wrote the music?
WHACK I do the music first. My producer and I make the music together, and then I kick him out and record myself. I recorded about 40 to 50 songs, all one-minute songs. My manager was like, “Wow, you’re not making anything alike. Nothing sounds the same.”
One thing you two have in common is you both transform into other characters onstage.
BYRNE Not so much now, but years ago when I started, I was very shy offstage. And when I got onstage, I felt this was my opportunity to let people know what I’m about. And as soon as it’s over, it’s like, “Can I go back to my room?”
WHACK I started off really shy too. Even now, before I go on, my anxieties are bad. Then I get onstage and turn into a different person. I get off, I’m just, “Oh, my God, what did I just do?”
David, you were here in New York when hip-hop arrived, and Tierra, you were born in 1995 and were raised with the music. What are your first memories of hip-hop?
BYRNE The earliest things were a lot of break dancers and artists. With a lot of DJs in hip-hop, I thought, “This is like how jazz started.” They were playing these songs that were three minutes long, and the dancers didn’t want to stop. They had to find a way to stretch the song.
WHACK Oh, wow. In Philly, dudes would be on a corner or at a party just rapping. I had to learn how to freestyle. I knew all the classic beats, and I’d do my own rhymes over them. But I did so much research on everybody that came before me. You can’t just jump in.
BYRNE I want to ask a little bit about your visual background, if you had done theater or video things before.
WHACK I was a vocal major in high school, but I didn’t see myself as an actress or anything. I just didn’t find myself to be theatrical.
BYRNE That is amazing, because people would think you had training.
WHACK Oh, that’s a huge compliment. I’m still trying to find my voice. I’m not just listening to rap or hip-hop or R&B. I’ve got some pop, jazz. Now, when I’m watching movies, I’m imagining making a song for movies. I want to be all over, across the board.
David, if Tierra were to ask you how to sustain a career in music, what advice would you give her? BYRNE Oh, I don’t think —
WHACK No, please, please.
BYRNE I think you already got it. Keep exploring, keep changing, keep doing what you feel is right. I hit some parts where things went down, where I lost it. Maybe what I was doing was not good. There were definitely periods where I lost the audience. It comes back. It’s hills and valleys, and it comes back again.
DAVID BROWNE