Who is that big green guy with Tierra Whack at her Tiny Desk concert?
"I bleed green. I bleed red," the North Philly rapper and singer said, after bringing out the Phillies Phanatic during her performance.
Before the Phillie Phanatic headed to London to stand guard outside Buckingham Palace, he took the time to help his friend from North Philly Tierra Whack rep the city at her Tiny Desk Concert in Washington.
Whack’s performance on NPR Music’s influential platform, where acts set up shop in a cluttered newsroom, went live on Friday morning. The show has featured everyone from John Legend to Taylor Swift to Weird Al Yankovic.
It’s one of nine Tiny Desk shows featuring Black women scheduled for June, which is Black Music Month. (Episodes with Nigerian singer Tems and jazz saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin were posted earlier in the month.)
Whack, who never misses a chance to “put Philly on her back,” was 16 when her mother stopped the car and asked her to spar with the North Philly rappers she spotted on Oxford Street. She released her long-awaited full-length debut album, World Wide Whack, in March and was most recently spotted in her hometown at the Roots Picnic last week, teaming with Jill Scott on a new song we think is called “Norf Philly.”
The Tiny Desk show might mark a key career juncture for the Benjamin Rush High School alum. Not counting the Phanatic, she was backed by a six-piece ensemble of musicians who got in step with her playful performance style, shooting paper airplanes at each other between song.
“This is the first time I’ve ever played with a live band,” she said in the video, announcing the newly formed group well-suited to her sly, catchy songs, such as “The Big Backs.” She had only met percussionist Sheldon Robinson two days earlier and was loving it. “This is great,” she said. “Let’s go on tour.” Good idea. When’s the Philly show?
Whack’s smart songs are nearly always short and sweet, and she packed 10 into her 20-minute NPR set, including seven from World Wide Whack, which is a collaboration with Philly visual artist Alex Da Corte.
» READ MORE: After 2018′s ‘Whack World,’ Tierra Whack’s ‘World Wide Whack’ has finally arrived
It was on “Moovies” that she brought out her special guest.
“Y’all know me,” she told the assembled audience of NPR staffers, after the Phanatic finished his dance moves. “I gotta keep it Philly. I bleed green. I bleed red. Anything Philly is all me.
“I had to bring a piece of home with me,” Whack said, before turning to the big green guy and giving him a hug. “I love you Phanatic.”
Back in December, she told The Inquirer she is “more Philly than any artist you know.” We don’t disagree.