It’s fitting that TiaCorine ’s new video opens with a Rube Goldberg machine. Nothing about her artistic output follows a straight line, and “Ironic” is the perfect, gold-lacquered mess of a metaphor for the way she’s threading chaos into clarity.
With her signature blend of woozy cool and barked bravado, TiaCorine steps further into her own lane—if you can call it that. “Ironic,” produced by the ever-experimental Kenny Beats, pulses with low-key confidence and clipped swagger. The beat flutters and snaps, while Tia half-whispers, half-taunts through bars that feel like passing glances in a mirror maze. She’s not just rapping; she’s casting spells.
The video, directed by Lyrical Lemonade, amplifies that spell. It’s a visual sugar rush, but not in a way that numbs. Instead, it sharpens focus. The tea-making Rube Goldberg machine feels like a tongue-in-cheek metaphor for the industry—complex, unnecessary, yet undeniably cool when it works. And in TiaCorine’s case, it’s working.
The most compelling part of the visual narrative? Her makeup. There’s no mistaking the influence of kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. That same glint of gold that mends and marks past damage becomes a crown. It’s not just aesthetic; it’s an ethos. Tia isn’t hiding her history—she’s illuminating it. It’s a powerful nod to her heritage, and an even more powerful statement about what “broken” can look like when it’s made beautiful.
And yet, for all the stylized eccentricity, “Ironic” feels earned. TiaCorine is doing it because that’s how she exists. You don’t watch a video like “Ironic” and think she’s trying too hard. You think: she’s trying exactly hard enough.
If this run of singles is leading to a larger project—and let’s be real, it better be—then Tia’s next album might be the moment she goes from a cult favorite to a defining voice. She’s not following trends. She’s laying gold across the cracks and telling you that’s where the beauty lives.