“Fruit Salad”: Tierra Whack
Production: RicandThadeus
Album: Whack World
“Salad, I can’t bear salad. It grows while you’re eating it, you know.”
Alan Ayckbourn, 1988.
Tierra Whack kept this brief. So shall I.
Songs about body positivity and self-care are everywhere. Songs that deal with such issues subtly are an awful lot rarer. In her wittily curated 15-minute debut album that stands out from the crowd of contemporary gargantuan projects (Scorpion, NOIR, and Culture II immediately spring to mind), Whack World somehow remains both multi-faceted and self-contained in equal measure. “Fruit Salad” understands this dichotomy more than any other track on the album.
Its length is not a problem, because, fundamentally, it’s not trying to do too much. As is fitting with the song’s ethos, it does not bite off more than it can chew. It is simply a one-minute palette cleanser, with its real message being Whack’s wryly delivered resignation that she can’t be defined, even when she does what she’s told.
It’s a simple song. It’s a short song. And, much like salad, it only grows on you the more time you spend with it.