REMEMBER HER NAME
Chicago rapper Noname comes through with her second studio album Room25, a vital and absolutely necessary work of poetic strength, sprinkled with jazz and neo-soul
“M aybe this the album you listen to in your car/ When you driving home late at night/ Really questioning every god, religion, Kanye, bitches” Noname knowingly begins in the opening salvo of Self. And when she continues to quip, “The baby ain’t really yours, this really for babies teething/ And chicken wings under-seasoned/ Y’all really thought a bitch couldn’t rap huh? Maybe this your answer for that,” the tone for her second studio outing,
Room 25, is officially set.
Born Fatimah Warner, the 27-year-old Chicago rapper had started out as a slam poetry performer but it was her collaboration with Chance the Rapper on his 2013’s mixtape Acid Rap that led to her own, a much-lauded debut Telefone, three years later. Unlike the majority of her peers, her brand of rap exists on the less showy end of the spectrum. She’s not here to brag, but rather relates to us her experience as a young black woman in America. Even the production shies away from the de rigueur trap beats and revels instead in the realm of neo-soul and cosmic jazz.
Circling back to Room 25, all of the elements that made its predecessor, Telefone, shine are kept all but intact. Her low-key, at times whisper-like, delivery makes the biggest impact especially when she dips into politics (“Bad sleep triggered by bad government… Keep the hot sauce in her purse and she be real, real blacky/ Just like a Hillary Clinton, who masqueraded the system”), social issues (“Gentrify all my people, there’s emptiness on the table”), and her own existential struggle (“I know everyone goes some day/ I know my body’s fragile, know it’s made from clay/ But if I have to go, I pray my soul is still eternal”).
Another highlight here is, of course, the line-up of exciting collaborators she’s managed to whip up — from long-time producer Phoelix and Adam Ness to Ravyn Lenae and Benjamin Earl Turner. If you’re finding the current state of rap/hip hop a little stale, do yourself a favour and explore those artists, too.
Quotable lyrics: “I’m warmer inside the casket, basket atop my head/ Africa’s never dead, Africa’s always dying/ No more apples or oranges, only pickles and pacifists/ Twitter ranting for martyrdom unified as capitalists” (Regal). The verdict: While everyday hip hop fans may find it a little too mellow, Room 25 doesn’t hold back on its tell-it-like-it-is lyricism and witticisms. Listen to this: Blaxploitation,
Ace, Prayer Song, Don’t Forget About Me, Part of Me.