“Whip My Hair” is Willow’s debut single, released by Jay-Z’s record label Roc Nation. The song and its music video became an instant viral hit, which helped the song reached its #11 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. As of 2011, the song has sold over 1,216,000 digital copies in the US.

The song had a huge cultural impact, becoming a hymn for young black girls and empowerment. It has also appeared in multiple children shows such as “Jessie” from Disney Channel and “Sesame Street”; and covered in the movie “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked”.

During a Red Table Talk conversation with her mother and grand mother in 2018, Willow revealed that she didn’t like the song because brought her bad memories:

I only had one really terrible experience, which is ‘Whip My Hair’ (…) Just that the values of the people around me [at the time] should have been the opposite.

She also revealed that she used to self harm because of the stress the song has caused in her life:

I was super young, and I had a dream, but all I really wanted to do was sing and I didn’t equate that with all the business and the stress that ended up coming with it. I was just like, ‘Whoa, this is not the life that I want’.

The song music video was deleted from Youtube and VEVO in 2018. Now, it can only be found through users who re-uploaded it. Willow only performs an acoustic version of the song during her shows.