I’m a very visual person…

I used to draw a lot, and I was going to study Fine Art, but then I stopped because I gave all my attention to rap and singing and songwriting. I still have a really hard time articulating myself. Like, I can show you better than I can tell you, you know what I mean? Even to this day, I still see tweets that say, “Yo I just listened to Whack World and I didn’t understand it until I saw the visuals.” And I knew that was gonna happen so that’s why I put [the visuals] together. Because if you just listen to [the album] you might think it’s like a demo or something, but when you watch the whole movie together you’re like “Ohhhh!”

… but my style is instinctive

People think that I’m so into fashion but I just get lucky. I don’t talk about fashion, I just pick out nice things, like, “Let’s find something cool and fun.” Like, this outfit has my favourite colours in it, so I wore it. I love green, yellow and orange.

I wrote short songs to keep people’s attention

I had so many ideas but it didn’t make any sense to give people 30 full-length songs for my debut. Like, if you heard of a girl called Tierra Whack and you tapped her project and it was 30 songs and they were all 4 or 5 minutes long, you wouldn’t listen to it. Even right now it’s really hard for me to focus because so much is going on. Like, I want to go out there [gestures in the direction of the stage] and give Lizzo a hug, but I know I have to do this. It’s really hard for me to focus, and I don’t even do any drugs or anything! Our generation is just crazy, so crazy.

I’m happiest in my own company

I only want attention when I’m onstage, but beside that nobody has to talk to me and I’ll be fine. That’s the type of Leo I am. Seriously, it’s really hard to get me to come out. I’m like an old lady. Like, I’m the most fun but boring person. Everybody will be talking and having fun and I’ll be in the corner just playing with a trash can, having fun by myself. And then people will involve me, and I’ll be like, “No don’t involve me!” I’m a loner. I can turn it on as Tierra Whack and be the people’s person, but I only want attention when I want attention.

I’m still getting used to hanging out with my heroes

I could hear Erykah Badu’s set from the hotel yesterday and I was like, “Wow, that’s really good. I’m so mad I didn’t see her.” I mean, I’ve paid to see her plenty of times, before she knew who I was or whatever. But then I remembered, like, “Wait! I have her number! I can text her and say, you sound really good.” And that’s what I did. And then she FaceTimed me.

Erykah Badu is exactly as you’d expect

She’s really crazy, but crazy in a good way – just how I expected her to be. She’s magical. Like, she doesn’t seem real. I haven’t personally met her but she DMs me a lot and we talk text all the time, and I just learn. And every time she calls me she’s singing a song from Whack World. With things like that I have to pinch myself, like, “Woah, I’m really going somewhere. I’m somebody!” Because I always forget.