From a Philly/PGH home team to the Grammy stage.
Management, Artist Development, and Investor
Artist Development
Marketing & PR
Investor
Artist Manager
Tierra Whack
From a Philly/PGH home team to the Grammy stage.
Investor, management, and creative partner during the earliest years of Tierra Whack's career, vetting the label offers, negotiating the Interscope deal, and shaping the video that put her on the industry's map.
Client
Tierra Whack
Project Type
Management, Artist Development, and Investor
Technology
Artist Management, Deal Negotiation, Creative Direction
Tierra Whack
Overview
We came in as investors and joined the management team alongside her longtime managers Johnny Montina and Kenete Simms, sitting in on the label conversations, working out the terms, and helping her steer a career that had multiple real paths in front of it. Every decision in that first stretch was going to set the direction for years after it.
Tierra Helena Whack came up out of North Philadelphia with a voice that didn't sound like anyone else's, freestyling as "Dizzle Dizz" with We Run the Streets at 15 and building a real name in the city before any major label came calling. By the time they did, she needed a team that could tell the difference between a good offer and the right one.
Tierra Whack
The Challenge
More than one major had put an offer on the table. The wrong deal at that moment would have squeezed her creative freedom, forced her into a conventional rollout, and locked in collaborators who didn't understand what she was actually building. She needed the deal to reflect the artist, not the other way around.
And the first single out of that deal had to signal exactly who she was to a room she had never been in before. It couldn't just be a good record, it had to be undeniable enough to make the industry stop and reset its expectations.
Tierra Whack
The Solution
With Johnny and Kenete, we ran the negotiations across the competing major-label offers and landed her at Interscope in 2017, working directly with Joie Manda and Tim Glover on the deal and the rollout. Alongside the label side, we negotiated her ASCAP arrangement and pushed for staff support on royalty collection, with writer, publisher, and performance royalties structured to actually reach her, and stayed hands-on with the royalty terms throughout. Every piece of it was shaped to keep creative control on her side of the table, where it had to be for the music to work.
Artist Management, Deal Negotiation, Creative Direction
From there we moved into the creative side, building the music video process, evaluating directors, and locking in the visual language for her first single with the label. "Mumbo Jumbo" came out in October 2017, directed by Marco Prestini, and it did exactly what a first single is supposed to do: made it impossible to ignore her.
Tierra Whack
Tierra Whack
Performance Results
Mumbo Jumbo cracked the industry open. It earned Tierra a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video at the 2019 Grammys and set the visual grammar for what came next.
Grammy Nomination
Best Music Video, "Mumbo Jumbo," 2019
One-Minute Tracks
Whack World, the 2018 debut that followed
Interscope Albums
Whack World (2018), World Wide Whack (2024)
After the first arc of the deal, we stepped back from active management and turned our focus to building the next wave of Western Pennsylvania artists. Johnny Montina and Kenete Simms, with Simms also producing much of the music, continued on as her core team, and what she built from that base speaks for itself: Whack World in 2018 (the 15-track, one-minute-per-song mixtape that reset expectations for what a debut project could look like), World Wide Whack on Interscope in 2024, festival stages worldwide, and a body of work that's still one of the most singular voices in the culture. Her career after us is her own, and it's the loudest possible answer to whether the work at the start was set up right.
Tierra Whack
Final thoughts
Tierra was the moment we learned exactly what our best work looked like when we backed an artist who already knew who she was. Every artist we've built with in Western Pennsylvania since, Fedd included, is a continuation of what she taught us.
Tierra Whack
Credits
Kenete Simms
Johnny Montina
Joie Manda
Tim Glover
Manager, Songwriter, Producer, Creative Director
Manager
Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Previous Project
Next Project
From a Philly/PGH home team to the Grammy stage.
Management, Artist Development, and Investor
Artist Development
Marketing & PR
Investor
Artist Manager
Tierra Whack
From a Philly/PGH home team to the Grammy stage.
Investor, management, and creative partner during the earliest years of Tierra Whack's career, vetting the label offers, negotiating the Interscope deal, and shaping the video that put her on the industry's map.
Client
Tierra Whack
Project Type
Management, Artist Development, and Investor
Technology
Artist Management, Deal Negotiation, Creative Direction
Tierra Whack
Overview
We came in as investors and joined the management team alongside her longtime managers Johnny Montina and Kenete Simms, sitting in on the label conversations, working out the terms, and helping her steer a career that had multiple real paths in front of it. Every decision in that first stretch was going to set the direction for years after it.
Tierra Helena Whack came up out of North Philadelphia with a voice that didn't sound like anyone else's, freestyling as "Dizzle Dizz" with We Run the Streets at 15 and building a real name in the city before any major label came calling. By the time they did, she needed a team that could tell the difference between a good offer and the right one.
Tierra Whack
The Challenge
More than one major had put an offer on the table. The wrong deal at that moment would have squeezed her creative freedom, forced her into a conventional rollout, and locked in collaborators who didn't understand what she was actually building. She needed the deal to reflect the artist, not the other way around.
And the first single out of that deal had to signal exactly who she was to a room she had never been in before. It couldn't just be a good record, it had to be undeniable enough to make the industry stop and reset its expectations.
Tierra Whack
The Solution
With Johnny and Kenete, we ran the negotiations across the competing major-label offers and landed her at Interscope in 2017, working directly with Joie Manda and Tim Glover on the deal and the rollout. Alongside the label side, we negotiated her ASCAP arrangement and pushed for staff support on royalty collection, with writer, publisher, and performance royalties structured to actually reach her, and stayed hands-on with the royalty terms throughout. Every piece of it was shaped to keep creative control on her side of the table, where it had to be for the music to work.
Artist Management, Deal Negotiation, Creative Direction
From there we moved into the creative side, building the music video process, evaluating directors, and locking in the visual language for her first single with the label. "Mumbo Jumbo" came out in October 2017, directed by Marco Prestini, and it did exactly what a first single is supposed to do: made it impossible to ignore her.
Tierra Whack
Tierra Whack
Performance Results
Mumbo Jumbo cracked the industry open. It earned Tierra a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video at the 2019 Grammys and set the visual grammar for what came next.
Grammy Nomination
Best Music Video, "Mumbo Jumbo," 2019
One-Minute Tracks
Whack World, the 2018 debut that followed
Interscope Albums
Whack World (2018), World Wide Whack (2024)
After the first arc of the deal, we stepped back from active management and turned our focus to building the next wave of Western Pennsylvania artists. Johnny Montina and Kenete Simms, with Simms also producing much of the music, continued on as her core team, and what she built from that base speaks for itself: Whack World in 2018 (the 15-track, one-minute-per-song mixtape that reset expectations for what a debut project could look like), World Wide Whack on Interscope in 2024, festival stages worldwide, and a body of work that's still one of the most singular voices in the culture. Her career after us is her own, and it's the loudest possible answer to whether the work at the start was set up right.
Tierra Whack
Final thoughts
Tierra was the moment we learned exactly what our best work looked like when we backed an artist who already knew who she was. Every artist we've built with in Western Pennsylvania since, Fedd included, is a continuation of what she taught us.
Tierra Whack
Kenete Simms
Johnny Montina
Joie Manda
Tim Glover
Manager, Songwriter, Producer, Creative Director
Manager
Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Previous Project
Next Project
From a Philly/PGH home team to the Grammy stage.
Management, Artist Development, and Investor
Artist Development
Marketing & PR
Investor
Artist Manager
Tierra Whack
From a Philly/PGH home team to the Grammy stage.
Investor, management, and creative partner during the earliest years of Tierra Whack's career, vetting the label offers, negotiating the Interscope deal, and shaping the video that put her on the industry's map.
Client
Tierra Whack
Project Type
Management, Artist Development, and Investor
Technology
Artist Management, Deal Negotiation, Creative Direction
Tierra Whack
Overview
We came in as investors and joined the management team alongside her longtime managers Johnny Montina and Kenete Simms, sitting in on the label conversations, working out the terms, and helping her steer a career that had multiple real paths in front of it. Every decision in that first stretch was going to set the direction for years after it.
Tierra Helena Whack came up out of North Philadelphia with a voice that didn't sound like anyone else's, freestyling as "Dizzle Dizz" with We Run the Streets at 15 and building a real name in the city before any major label came calling. By the time they did, she needed a team that could tell the difference between a good offer and the right one.
Tierra Whack
The Challenge
More than one major had put an offer on the table. The wrong deal at that moment would have squeezed her creative freedom, forced her into a conventional rollout, and locked in collaborators who didn't understand what she was actually building. She needed the deal to reflect the artist, not the other way around.
And the first single out of that deal had to signal exactly who she was to a room she had never been in before. It couldn't just be a good record, it had to be undeniable enough to make the industry stop and reset its expectations.
Tierra Whack
The Solution
With Johnny and Kenete, we ran the negotiations across the competing major-label offers and landed her at Interscope in 2017, working directly with Joie Manda and Tim Glover on the deal and the rollout. Alongside the label side, we negotiated her ASCAP arrangement and pushed for staff support on royalty collection, with writer, publisher, and performance royalties structured to actually reach her, and stayed hands-on with the royalty terms throughout. Every piece of it was shaped to keep creative control on her side of the table, where it had to be for the music to work.
Artist Management, Deal Negotiation, Creative Direction
From there we moved into the creative side, building the music video process, evaluating directors, and locking in the visual language for her first single with the label. "Mumbo Jumbo" came out in October 2017, directed by Marco Prestini, and it did exactly what a first single is supposed to do: made it impossible to ignore her.
Tierra Whack
Tierra Whack
Performance Results
Mumbo Jumbo cracked the industry open. It earned Tierra a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video at the 2019 Grammys and set the visual grammar for what came next.
Grammy Nomination
Best Music Video, "Mumbo Jumbo," 2019
One-Minute Tracks
Whack World, the 2018 debut that followed
Interscope Albums
Whack World (2018), World Wide Whack (2024)
After the first arc of the deal, we stepped back from active management and turned our focus to building the next wave of Western Pennsylvania artists. Johnny Montina and Kenete Simms, with Simms also producing much of the music, continued on as her core team, and what she built from that base speaks for itself: Whack World in 2018 (the 15-track, one-minute-per-song mixtape that reset expectations for what a debut project could look like), World Wide Whack on Interscope in 2024, festival stages worldwide, and a body of work that's still one of the most singular voices in the culture. Her career after us is her own, and it's the loudest possible answer to whether the work at the start was set up right.
Tierra Whack
Final thoughts
Tierra was the moment we learned exactly what our best work looked like when we backed an artist who already knew who she was. Every artist we've built with in Western Pennsylvania since, Fedd included, is a continuation of what she taught us.
Tierra Whack
Kenete Simms
Johnny Montina
Joie Manda
Tim Glover
Manager, Songwriter, Producer, Creative Director
Manager
Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Previous Project
Next Project
We build worlds. Yours is next.
Bring us your world. Pitch us a long shot. Or just say hello. We read everything.
A few of the worlds we have built.
We build worlds. Yours is next.
Bring us your world. Pitch us a long shot. Or just say hello. We read everything.
A few of the worlds we have built.
We build worlds. Yours is next.
Bring us your world. Pitch us a long shot. Or just say hello. We read everything.
A few of the worlds we have built.