Today (November 10) was all about the 2024 Grammy Award nominations. However, nothing could stop Noname’s triumphant return to NPR’sTiny Desk concert series. It’s been five years since her striking first appearance. With the Sundial Tour coming to a close soon, her cameo served as a treat to longtime supporters who couldn’t snag tickets to show near their city. Noname’s latest Tiny Desk concert performance was just as radical as it was groovy, featuring guest appearances by Smino and Saba for a brief Ghetto Sage reunion.
With musicians Greg Paul (drummer), Brooke Skye (bassist), Cisco Swank (keyboardist and supporting vocalist), and David Otis (saxophonist), Noname tackled her poignant album’s standout tracks, including “Namesake” and “Hold Me Down.” Background vocalists Kamilah and Claudia Abena provided the much-needed layering to help amplify its track’s messaging.
Ayoni also made a surprise appearance during Noname’s set so that they could perform their track “Boom Boom.” Ghetto Sage reunion revealed an unreleased track titled “Kush And Love Songs.” Before she closed with “Balloons,” in which Jay Electronic is featured, Noname took a trip down memory lane. Noname couldn’t leave out her older records. Room 25′s “Don’t Forget About Me” made the final setlist as the sole older track.
Sundial is out now via Noname. Find more information here.
Noname says that she has no personal issue with JAY-Z, despite dissing him as well as Rihanna, Beyonce, and Kendrick Lamar on her song, “namesake.” Speaking with Ebro Darden, she explained that it’s a mere difference in ideological beliefs.
“I don’t hate this man. I don’t even know JAY-Z. He’s a total stranger. We just have ideological differences. That’s all. The song was just kind of talking about a lot of things, but definitely complacency from all of us. I think the names got the most focus. Like, ‘go Rihanna go, go Beyonce, go,” but really that was supposed to be me mimicking the crowd. Like, ‘this is how y’all look, making all these critiques about folks on the internet but then we be running to the shows to go and support.’”
INDIO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 23: Singer Noname performs onstage during Weekend 2, Day 3 of the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 23, 2023 in Indio, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for Coachella)
As for the lyrics to “namesake,” Noname rapped: “Read in between the line at the crime scene/ I ain’t f*cking with the NFL or JAY-Z/ Propaganda for the military complex, the same gun that shot lil’ Terry/ Out West, the same gun that shot Senair in the West Bank/ We all think the Super Bowl is the best thing/ Go, Rihanna, go! Watch the fighter jet fly high/ War machine gets glamorized, we play the game to pass the time/ Go, Beyoncé, go! Watch the fighter jet fly high.” Check out her comments on her intentions with the song below.
Noname Explains “Namesake” Song
“I don’t hate this man. I don’t know Jay-Z. We just have ideological differences.”
Noname included “namesake” on the tracklist to her 2023 album, Sundial. She collaborated with Eryn Allen Kane, Jay Electronica, Common, and Billy Woods on other tracks off the project.
Noname says that she feels “free” following the release of her latest album, Sundial. She reflected on the response to the album and how she’s dealt with it during a lengthy post on Instagram, Friday.
“Thank you everyone who ever supported me!” she wrote while sharing a selfie. “Sundial and my online presence over the past few years has turned a lot of people off me and that’s completely understandable. although many fans stop supporting with this new record, i just want you to know i’m truly appreciative for the times you did! i’ll forever be grateful for love, even if it’s temporary.”
BIRMINGHAM, AL – NOVEMBER 14: Fatimah Warner aka Noname performs at Saturn Birmingham on November 14, 2017 in Birmingham, Alabama. (Photo by David A. Smith/Getty Images)
She continued: “Some critics say sundial is brilliant and i’m incredible. others say it’s trash and i’m a horrible person. maybe both are true. maybe none of it is true. not sure but i feel free! being financially dependent on fan approval has always felt like a trap. i’m free from that now and it feels so good can’t wait to see the 3 fans i have left on tour lol. i got vinyl made just for y’all”
Among the many complaints that fans have had with Sundial is that Jay Electronica’s contribution is “antisemitic.” In response to the backlash, Noname refused to apologize for a verse she didn’t write. In the lyrics, Electronica voices support for Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, while calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “joke,” and more. “Everywhere I step foot I leave a trail of names. Of the sons of Yakub, in a trail of flames. I’m on fire, I’m plugged in directly to Messiah. I run with the mighty ‘Khan as we expose the liars,” he raps. “And some fuckboy eighty-fiver come run up and press me. It’s all a hoax, quite simple, a joke like Zelenskyy. The Imams, the Rabbis, and the Pope, incidentally. Couldn’t stop my boca from quotin’ quotes from the senseis.”
Earlier this month, Noname released her long-awaited new album Sundial. After years of loose singles and a canceled album, she finally revealed the project last month. The album has features from Common, billy woods, $ilkmoney, and controversially, Jay Electronica. When the tracklist was announced many fans took issue with the inclusion of Jay Electronica due to his long-held antisemitic beliefs. Noname bit back at fans who criticized the choice with a series of tweets where she threatened to not release the album. Once fans heard the actual verse they were once again upset with Jay Elec’s inclusion on the project. Despite that, in a recent Instagram post, she claimed that she doesn’t regret including him on the album despite many fans’ disappointment.
Now, Noname is taking the album on tour later this year. In a new Instagram post, she shared the 19 tour dates she will be playing. The dates run for a month from October 15 until November 15. It’s the rapper’s first tour in 4 years since she hit the road to promote her previous album Room 25. Presale tickets for the tour will go on sale tomorrow, August 23 with full general sale taking place this Friday on the 25.
After originally promising to release the song with Jay Electronica as a lead single, it was saved for the release of the album. “balloons” proved to be one of the most controversial songs of Noname’s career thus far and for very different reasons than usual. That came just a year after she formally canceled her “Factory Baby” project that she had previously announced.
Earlier this year Noname called on more black artists to gatekeep their art. “One of the biggest mistakes i believe we’ve made in our struggle towards liberation in this country is allowing white america unfiltered access to our entire culture,” she explained in an Instagram post. Do you plan on seeing Noname on tour later this year? Let us know in the comment section below.
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“Escapism is better livin’ than this,” Noname chants on the second song from her new album, Sundial, adding, “Better be honest, baby / We better when we admit.” This juxtaposition is the crux of Noname’s political beliefs, for better or worse. Sure, it exemplifies the beating heart at the center of Sundial‘s intricate web of incisive social commentary and cutting self-recrimination, but it also captures who Noname is as an artist, and ultimately as a human being.
This is the Chicago rapper who first rose to prominence on a wave of support from fellow Chicago rising stars like Chance The Rapper and Saba, only to threaten multiple times to leave the music industry behind entirely. She changed her original name from Noname Gypsy upon learning one of the more negative interpretations of the second half of her nome de guerre. But she wasn’t above sparring with North Carolina fan favorite J. Cole when he seemingly called out her prickly online demeanor in his 2021 throwaway “Snow On Tha Bluff.”
She’s quick to call out Black celebrities like Jay-Z and Beyoncé for embracing the master’s tools in the pursuit of dismantling the master’s house — even here, where she critiques them in the song “Namesake” — but just as swift to refuse to apologize for including a potentially offensive guest MC in Jay Electronica on “Balloons.” She, like many, is a living contradiction, a person whose impulses clash with her beliefs, who falls short of her own standards, but pursues progress over perfection as often as she can.
Throughout Sundial‘s 11 tracks, she excavates and explicates this idea in ways that often seem just as paradoxical as her personality. The production, provided by a list of longtime collaborators and jazz revivalist like Daoud, Slimwav, and Yussef Dayes, offers lullaby-like coos and chords, with soothing strains more suggestive of a cozy night in with a mug of hot chocolate and romance fantasy than fiery anti-capitalist diatribes. Likewise, Noname’s singsong delivery and poetic pen maneuvers hide the points and edges of the acid-dipped darts and daggers deliberately placed across these delicate soundscapes like intellectual booby traps.
The softness of the sounds lulls listeners into sedate comfort before pricking and prodding them to wakefulness like the pea did to the princess. So, when Noname snips, “You could squabble in the comments, bitch, you are a comet,” on “Afro Futurism,” the dualism couldn’t be clearer. She has to jolt her listeners every so often so they might consider the words rather than let them wash over them. A quote that springs to mind comes from an equally enigmatic and controversial woman in rap, Lauryn Hill, via her verse from The Fugees’ “Zealots”: “And even after all my logic and my theory, I add a ‘motherfucker’ so you ignorant niggas hear me.”
That’s why it’s certainly worth considering that Jay Electronica is far from the first or worst rapper to embrace the teachings of the Nation of Islam or the Five-Percent Nation in his rhymes — or why Noname should receive a far greater backlash than any number of others who’ve featured such subject matter throughout rap’s 50 years of existence. Or that Noname, despite embodying so many of the attributes “real hip-hop heads” claim they prefer in women rappers over the more aggressively sexualized postures of MCs like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, that she receives no more support from those hip-hop heads than the women they pit her against.
Noname considers it not just her job but her duty to point out these discrepancies — even when it makes her the villain in her own story. She’s quick to accept that label herself here from the outset; on album opener “Black Mirror,” she calls herself a contrarian. She’s an avowed socialist/anarchist who must embrace some of the principles of a capitalist system to survive as an artist and continue her liberation efforts such as Noname’s Book Club, which sends such texts to inmates (which they are often barred from receiving).
And while many of her choices can be off-putting, such as including the aforementioned Jay Elec or jotting off cynical-seeming dismissals of perhaps sincere inquiries on Twitter, or rhyming in that off-kilter spoken-word flow which isn’t likely to resonate with the folks who need to hear her message most, it’s all honest. Noname herself has already told us; more than anything else, it’s better to be true than to be loved. Ironically, that’s why she’s so beloved in the first place.
Sundial is out now via Noname, Inc. / AWAL Recordings. You can get it here.
Ahead of the release of her third studio album, Sundial, Noname once again stirred up some controversy when fans protested the presence of New Orleans rapper Jay Electronica as a featured artist on the song “Balloons” due to accusations of antisemitism. In response, Noname threatened to withhold the album, but instead decided to merely delay the single’s release, dropping it with the rest of the album on Friday. That didn’t stop the more motivated detractors from continuing to decry Electronica’s verse, but Noname responded on Instagram, saying she is “not going to apologize for a verse I didn’t write.”
Noname denied being antisemitic, instead declaring herself “against white supremacy,” and allowed that “if you feel I’m wrong for including, that’s fair.” However, she stood adamant that “your disappointment truly means absolutely nothing to me and I say that with love.”
Instagram
Jay Electronica has drawn criticism for supposedly antisemitic beliefs due to his membership in the Nation Of Islam. He has also sampled sermons of the controversial leader Louis Farrakhan in his music and lyrically references a trope from the biblical book of Revelation, “the synagogue of Satan,” which had been used in the past to justify hatred of Jews.
Electronica’s “Balloons” verse touches on his association with Farrakhan lines like, “I’m on fire, I’m plugged in directly to Messiah / I run with the mighty ‘Khan as we expose the liars.” And while it seems that some fans would like Noname to distance herself from the elder rapper — who had an affair with Kate Emma Rothschild, who is Jewish, in the early 2010s — it doesn’t look like she’ll be caving to their demands anytime soon.
Noname says that she won’t be apologizing for the inclusion of Jay Electronica‘s “antisemitic” verse on her new album, Sundial. She addressed the backlash to her song, “Balloons,” in a statement on Instagram, Sunday.
As for Electronica’s verse, he raps: “And some fuckboy eighty-fiver come run up and press me/ It’s all a hoax, quite simple, a joke like Zelenskyy/ The Imams, the Rabbis, and the Pope, incidentally/ Couldn’t stop my boca from quotin’ quotes from the senseis.” Later, he adds: “If anybody asks, tell ’em Farrakhan sent me/ It’s the war of Armageddon and I’m beggin’ the listener/ If you ain’t fightin’, that mean you either dead or a prisoner.”
INDIO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 23: Singer Noname performs onstage during Weekend 2, Day 3 of the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 23, 2023 in Indio, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for Coachella)
“Here’s the truth. No, I’m not antisemitic. I don’t hate groups of people,” Noname began in her statement. “I am against white supremacy which is a global system that privileges people who identify as white. I’ve been clear about this for years. I’m not going to apologize for a verse I didn’t write. I’m not going to apologize for including it on my album. If you feel I’m wrong for including that’s fair. Don’t listen. Unfollow and support all the other amazing rappers putting out dope music.” She concluded: “Your disappointment truly means absolutely nothing to me and I say that with love.”
The statement isn’t the first time she’s referenced the controversy. She gave a more brief response to a fan when she dropped “Balloons” as a single, earlier this summer. “N****s legit rap about actual murder and sexual assault that they commit in real life and y’all can’t take a jay elect verse? please drink water and be safe out here,” she wrote on Twitter at the time. She released Sundial as her first album in five years, last week. It features appearances from Common, billy woods, $ilkMoney, and more.
Over the next month, we’ll hear the final hip-hop and R&B albums of summer 2023 before transitioning into the industry heavy-hitters, who tend to share major projects in the last quarter of the year. This weekend continued the trend of artists both new and old showing out on singles and LPs. Those who stand out in the latter category are Trippie Redd (A Love Letter To You 5) and Noname (Sundial).
Noname didn’t come quietly with her latest project, bringing on collaborators like Atoni, $ilkMoney, billy woods, and Jimetta. She received no shortage of backlash for her decision to work with Jay Electronica on “balloons,” which also features Eryn Allen Kane. Elsewhere on Sundial, the 31-year-old threw shade at huge names like Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, and Rihanna, earning her plenty of attention in the media. We’ve already reported on that drama, but today (August 13), we’re spotlighting Sundial‘s closing song, “oblivion” featuring Common and Ayoni.
“Sacrificial lambs, scam the church / The whole world berserk, the product is a perk,” the Chicago native begins over production by Berg. While Noname’s work here is impressive, it’s her collaborator’s verse as “oblivion” comes to an end that has us pressing the replay button consistently. “I’m a pallbearer to this fake ni**a era / Gamblin’ life so that I could get better,” the multivalent reflects in the latter half of his turn contribution. “My metaphysics ain’t for the Metaverse / It’s red alerts, I touch where the ghetto hurts.”
Before another weekend of HNHH release recommendations comes to a close, stream “oblivion” featuring Common and Ayoni above. If you’re feeling the collaborative track, make sure to add it to your playlist on Spotify/Apple Music. For those of you who haven’t yet streamed Sundial, you can do so at the link below.
I’m a pallbearer to this fake ni**a era Gamblin’ life so that I could get better My metaphysics ain’t for the Metaverse It’s red alerts, I touch where the ghetto hurts
Noname is back and even more radical than ever. Her five-year hiatus between projects left her with a slew of topics to address on her new album, Sundial. The first item up for discussion is several musicians’ alignment with the NFL. On her fiery Slimwave-produced track “Namesake,” Noname directly aims at Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Kendrick Lamar for lending their talents to the National Football League.
Noname doesn’t mince words in her diss when the track opens, rapping, “Read in between the line at the crime scene / I ain’t f*cking with the NFL or Jay-Z / Propaganda for the military complex, the same gun that shot lil’ Terry / Out West, the same gun that shot Senair in the West Bank / We all think the Super Bowl is the best thing.” In this line, Noname calls out Jay-Z for entering into a partnership with the sports league despite the criticism it has faced over the treatment of its majority Black players, including former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Following in the line of attack, Noname turns her pen towards Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar, who at one point spoke out in support of Kaepernick’s sideline activism. Somehow, later they both performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. For Kendrick Lamar, that was in 2022. Rihanna was this year’s headliner. Beyoncé seemingly used her 2016 performance to advocate for police reform, but in the eyes of Noname, it is simply performative.
“Go, Rihanna, go! Watch the fighter jet fly high / War machine gets glamorized, we play the game to pass the time / Go, Beyoncé, go! Watch the fighter jet fly high / War machine gets glamorized, we play the game to pass the time / Go, Kendrick, go! Watch the fighter jet fly high / War machine gets glamorized, we play the game to pass the time,” raps Noname.
To be fair, those aren’t the only entertainers to feel Noname’s vicious sting. She also delivers a gut punch to herself in the line, “Go, Noname, go! Coachella stage got sanitized / I said I wouldn’t perform for them, and somehow I still fell in line f*ck!” No one is beyond reproach on the track, not even Noname.
Listen to the “Namesake” above.
Sundial is out now via Noname. Find more information here.
After a five-year sabbatical from the rap game, Chicago artist Noname is back. The rapper will release her third studio album, Sundial later this week. The album has a promising set of collaborators, as well as some captivating album artwork,
The week following her album release, Noname will celebrate Sundial with a special block party in Chicago.
You can see all the details below.
Release date
Sundial is out 8/11 via Noname. Find more information here.
Tracklist
1. “Black Mirror”
2. “Hold Me Down” Feat. Jimetta Rose and The Voices Of Creation
3. “Balloons” Feat. Jay Electronica and Eryn Allen Kane
4. “Boom Boom” Feat. Ayoni
5. “Potentially The Interlude”
6. “Namesake”
7. “Beauty Supply’
8. “Toxic Afro Futurism”
9. “Oblivion” Feat. Ayoni and Common
10. “Gospel?” Feat. $ilkMoney, Billy Woods, and Stout
Features
Sundial will contain features from Common, Jay Electronica, $ilkMoney, Billy Woods, Stout, Eryn Allen Kane, Ayoni, Jimetta Rose and The Voices Of Creation.
Singles
Noname intended to release “Balloons,” featuring Jay Electronica and Eryn Allen Kane as the album’s first single, however, she has decided to release it with the album in its entirety.
Artwork
You can see the Sundial artwork below.
More details
On August 17, Noname will celebrate the release of Sundial with the Sundial Block Party in her hometown, Chicago. Attendees can enjoy performances by Noname, Alex Vaughn, and Navy Blue. The Sundial Block Party will take place at 4310 S. Lake Park Ave, and will be free to attend with the donation of a book.
