Meaning
A great many; a whole lot; loads. 'A whole heap a people' means a huge number of people, and 'whole heap a money' a great deal of money. A common, emphatic way of stressing large quantity, it piles the sense of abundance high — a whole heaped-up pile of something — and it sits with 'nuff', 'nuffa', and 'plenty' in the vocabulary of quantity. Whether marvelling at plenty or complaining of too much, 'whole heap' underlines that there is a great amount of whatever it measures.
Examples
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A whole heap a people come out.
A whole lot of people came out.
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Mi have a whole heap a work fi do.
I have a great deal of work to do.
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Him gi mi whole heap a trouble.
He gave me a whole lot of trouble.
Origin
From 'whole heap' (an entire pile) — a heap standing figuratively for a large quantity.
How it’s used
Emphatic for large amount; usually 'a whole heap a [X]'. Compare 'nuff', 'bare'.