10 Artists You Need To Know

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HOMETOWN Philadelphia

SOUNDS LIKE Childlike creativity channeled into shape-shifting 2019 hip-hop

IN ANYONE ELSE’S HANDS, Tierra Whack’s Whack World would have been a gimmick. The 23-year-old Philly rapper’s 2018 album was made up of 15 one-minute tracks, each distinctive and assured, despite their bite-size length. The record started as an experiment, but became a calling card. “It just keeps growing!” she says of the fan reaction.

The release led to world tours, a friendship with André 3000 (“He just had his birthday — he’s doing really good”), and a meet-up with Erykah Badu in Paris (“That’s my dog — she’s cool as hell”). In June, Whack finally quit her day job as a doorman at a luxury condo building. Now, she says she’s ready to move on. “I just wanted to get people some more music that was longer than a minute,” she says of the five songs she has released this year.

Whack is currently back in Philly, working on her next LP and dreaming up new ideas for her increasingly ambitious stage show, in which she traverses Nickelodeon-by-way-of-psychedelics landscapes. “I’m like, ‘Yo, I need to give these people an experience — I need to bring them into my world,’ ” she says. “That’s all I think about.” BRENDAN KLINKENBERG

The No-Maddz

HOMETOWN Kingston, Jamaica

SOUNDS LIKE Golden-age reggae with an ear toward today’s pop mainstream