But the playfulness takes a backseat to the rawness, which he sulks on album opener “Mood Swings,” when he hints at what's yet to be revealed, singing, “It might look familiar, but I promise you don't know me. ” In the downward spiral of “Numb,” he gestures toward self-harm (“Long sleeves cover scars”) and suicidal ideation (“On the bridge in my car, now I'm swimming with the sharks”) before finally calling out anxiety and depression by name. And that's just four songs. “Imaginary Friends”, “Difficult” and “Two Night” delve deeper into the mire of these emotions, how they affect relationships and everyday life. With “Two Night” she found some comfort in gallows humor, adding a cheeky postscript to a supposed suicide note (“I didn't pay the light bill this month”) and revealing that, because she's black, her last meal will likely be it's chicken and fries. Her jokes are hilarious, devastating, and provocative, but when the rest of her writing isn't as sharp, those moments of vulnerability can feel heavy.
The darkness turns pitch black as the album's closer, “27 Club,” a song Whack says was inspired by the Mary Jane Girls' 1983 R&B ballad “You Are My Heaven.” It's jarring at first to hear the word “suicide” repeated like a chant, but it becomes clear that the purpose of the repetition is not to validate the act, but rather to release Whack from his power. In an interview with Vulture, revealed that when he started recording the song he had no idea what it was about. “But it came so easily,” he said. “I cried and said, 'That's what I was trying to say.'
This vulnerability World Wide Whack The presentation is genuinely moving, but for an artist who shatters convention as Whack, her immediacy is remarkably ordinary. The unrestrained creativity he displayed in just 15 minutes Whack World—and that often breaks out in her Instagram freestyles—is reined in here. It's not that she can't make bigger songs or open up about her struggles, but her endless reinvention is what made her so compelling as an artist. It's one thing to strip away the artificial and speak from the heart, but the beauty of letting go is the space it creates for new things to come in. World Wide Whackeven when she's wearing new shoes and showing different sides of herself, she's still treading on familiar ground.
Anyone needing help can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1–800–273–8255 or SuicidePreventionLifeline.org to chat with someone online.
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