Rappers Jill Scott and Tierra Whack take a proud cruise through their native North Philly in the newly released music video for “Norf Side,” a collaboration that appears on Scott’s new album that came out in February. It’s her first album in more than a decade.
The pairing of Scott and Tierra Whack spans generations of Philly-made soul, hip-hop and R&B. Scott, 54, went platinum with her debut album in 2000 and won three Grammy awards in the mid-2000s. She parlayed her music career into film and poetry, frequently collaborating with artists across a breadth of genres. Whack, 30, garnered a reputation as a freestyle rapper in her teens and has become a hip hop mainstay since releasing her innovative breakout “Whack World” in 2018.
The new music video prominently features the bright pink facade of Sid Booker’s Shrimp Corner at North Broad Street and Belfield Avenue. Booker, a businessman who also ran the attached Stinger/La Pointe nightclub, died last year at 87.
Scott and Whack flaunt stacks of cash as they trade verses of triumph and appreciation for North Philly — pronounced with the lip-biting “f,” or without the “-th” on north, depending on how one hears it.
The video comes after Scott brought Whack on stage last weekend for her Fourth of July performance of “Norf Side” at the city’s Unity Concert on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Scott, who grew up near 24th Street and Lehigh Avenue, moved to Nashville in 2015 and still has a primary home there. She came back to Philly to create and record much of her comeback album, “To Whom This May Concern,” which has been hailed as a return to form. She took a long break from recording music to focus on her personal life and raise her son.
The album has earned positive reviews, including an 8.0 from Pitchfork, 3 1/2 stars from Rolling Stone and a combined critic score of 79/100 on Album of the Year.
“I think I have my character under wraps now. I needed to go home to Philly,” Scott said during an appearance on Sway Calloway’s radio show earlier this year. “There’s something about going home, where people are just so warm,” Scott said. “It’s like all the love and energy and pride at the same time. And I just needed to go home and wanted to be around my folk.”
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