Noname Leaves Marks With Some New Heavy Mental Bars
In 2018, Chicago MC Noname (fka Noname Gypsy) made a big impression with her sophomore release, Room 25. Her first taste of new music since the self-released LP keeps that excitement, momentum, and skill going strong. “Song 31” may seem like a nondescript track from the previous guest on albums by Chance The Rapper, Saba, and Mick Jenkins. However, listen closely, and this one stands out in a big way.
“All my everything is for you / All my terrible sense of humor and critical interviews / All my pearly gated redemption and casual afternoons / All this money and law-makin’, like racin’ against the moon, but I sell pain for profit and I feel profit watching / Everything is for everything, rhymin’ with casualty I know labels is backing me but, my tickets be selling out / And I’m steady raising my fetus, another hit from the fee,” she begins on a jazzy track.
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The DIY artist raps about a changing of the guard in the media, while making a motif out of “selling pain for profit.” She raps, “Rolling up on the beach, smoking a holy leaf / Laughing, baking, my homie T, hoping joking is all we need / When I sell pain for profit / Now I binge-watch Atlanta / No more TV representation from a Kelsey Grammer / Let’s toast to ni**as getting checks to work behind the camera.” Noname relates to “Earn” and “Paper Boi” more than “Dr. Frasier Crane.”
Noname finishes with poetic lines about prison, government, and fighting the powers that be: “We shadowboxing the government / Hoping they put the leash down I sell pain for profit, not propaganda / I know cancer’s origin linked to Santa / I know Santa’s origins linked to money / Mass production of cattle, slaughtering for the yummy / These ni**as is clever, the prison no better / The ghost of the living, we ain’t talking about Reggie / On Christmas we almost forget him / What’s a casket to a holdin’ cell if a n**ga ain’t in it? / Only reason why I’m steady fadin’ and still independent.”
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#BonusBeat: Noname is currently touring Room 25: