'Be Yourself, Live Out Loud': Willow Reflects on the Legacy of 'Whip My Hair'

Willow is reflecting on her first hit single, “Whip My Hair.”

The singer, now 23, was just 10 years old when she released the track and fun music video that followed. As she prepares for the release of her sixth studio album, empathogen, out this coming Friday, May 3, she spoke to Billboard about the single that started it all.

“There were a lot of fun things about it,” the artist, born Willow Smith, said to the outlet. 

“When I was a teenager, I was very like, ‘Uh, no, trauma… there were things that hurt me and things I don’t understand!’ And now, I’m like… obviously, there were things that hurt you and things that you don’t understand, but, overall, my message hasn’t really changed!”

“Whip My Hair” reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 more than a decade ago. It also found itself on the year-end hot R&B/hip-hop songs ranking for two consecutive years: 2010 (No. 84) and 2011 (No. 76).

“‘Whip My Hair’ is like, ‘Be yourself, live out loud, don’t care what anybody thinks, express yourself!'” she told Billboard. “That hasn’t really changed. I really feel like ‘Whip My Hair’ is just a foundation for everything that has come later … It was a lot of fun. I am so grateful — I would never take it back.”

During her interview, the actress and Red Table Talk co-host discussed how even though she’s tried her hand at other avenues of entertainment, her heart always leads her back to music.

“I’ve tried to run away from it. I’ve tried to be like, ‘No! I’m not a musician, I’m gonna do something else,’ and then, guess what? It just keeps co -

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ming back!” Willow said. 

“That’s how you know something is really important to you. If it causes you pain and discomfort and you’re still wanting to do it? I trust that inner drive. Even through the discomfort, you’re like, ‘I gotta stick with this.'”

She also joked that “it would probably be lit” if “Whip My Hair” was released in the TikTok era, as the social media platform has taken off only in the past several years.

In 2021, Willow did a special performance of “Whip My Hair” for her Facebook Live event Willow in Concert: Lately I Feel Everything, promoting the release of her fourth studio album, in which she shaved her head.

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"This is gonna be my third time in my life shaving my head. I'm always shaving my head at monumental times in my life, when things are really changing. And this is definitely one of those moments,” she said in a behind-the-scenes clip at the time. 

The two-time Emmy Award nominee later told Glamour UK, "Shaving my head is maybe the most radical thing I've done in the name of beauty."

During the September 2022 conversation she added, "As a Black woman, there were a lot of layers to my relationship with my hair and skin growing up," which has served as "a learning curve" for her.

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