The Chicago-based rapper and singer Noname, known for her 2016 album โTelefoneโ and her features on some of Chance the Rapperโs projects, released her sophomore album โRoom 25โ on Sept. 14. Recorded in just a month, โRoom 25โ includes commentary on everything from revolutionary politics to the history of slavery to Chick-fil-A waffle fries.

Despite its short format โ the whole thing is only about 35 minutes โ Noname manages to explore her own life, especially her sexuality, and the status of the United States, particularly in regard to race relations, with nuance and artistry.
Noname talks with a refreshingly thoughtful honesty about her femininity, subverting the domination of the genre by male rappers who openly discuss their sexual exploits. At times, Noname combines this brash language with a cultural criticโs precision about current events.
โMaybe this the album you listen to in your car / When you driving home late at night,โ Noname raps on the albumโs opening track, โSelf,โ conjuring up dual senses of the wonder inherent in a nighttime drive and the danger of driving while black. These lines somehow manage to sum up the whole album.
Bookended by samples from โDolemiteโ (1975) and โThe Spook Who Sat by the Doorโ (1973), the aptly named track โBlaxpoitationโ has a โ70s feel with its groovy, soul beat and these samples.
โBlaxploitationโ also features the best of Nonameโs humorous side, with lines about the hypocrisy she feels while eating waffle fries from Chick-fil-A and Hillary Clintonโs comments about keeping hot sauce in her purse.
In โPrayer Song,โ Noname takes an artistic risk, rapping throughout the second verse from the perspective of a corrupt male police officer, whose masculinity hinges on โkeeping the streets cleanโ of black people. With this decision, Noname โ who began performing slam poetry in 2010 โ shows her literary prowess, deftly writing from the persona of a different gender, race, career and sociopolitical viewpoint.
Getting into the middle of the album, Noname alternates between forgettable tracks such as โRegalโ and โWindowโ and decent ones like โMontego Baeโ and โDonโt Forget About Me.โ
The fifth track, โDonโt Forget About Me,โ is the only song that feels like it could fit in with Nonameโs previous album โTelefone,โ which was characterized by silky productions and whimsical lyrics about her childhood and family.
In the song, Noname prays, โI know my bodyโs fragile, know itโs made from clay / But if I have to go, I pray my soul is still eternalโ before asking that her โmomma and granny donโt forgetโ about her.
In โAce,โ Noname calls out radio DJs, globalization and Morgan Freeman, who was accused of sexual harassment in May but has received little consequence since then, in rapid succession before reflecting on her own writing process and why Room 25 is โthe best album thatโs coming out.โ
โIโm just writing my darkest secrets like wait and just hear me out,โ she raps. โSaying vegan food is delicious like wait and just hear me out.โ
Both โAceโ and the next song, โPart of Me,โ have impressive features from fellow Chicago rappers Saba and Phoelix, Smino from St. Louis and Benjamin Earl Turner from the San Francisco Bay area.
โRoom 25โ finishes out with a package of slow-moving songs, โWith Youโ and โNo Name,โ that feature beautiful, twangy guitar instrumentation and thoughtful lyrics. While they sacrifice a bit of Nonameโs trademark humor, they allow โRoom 25โ to end with a serious juxtaposition on the personal and political.
While โRoom 25โ as a whole is willing to be critical about topics from Clintonโs failed attempts to appeal to voters of color to the over-taxation of medicine, the final lines of the album leave listeners with a sense of hope.
โYour life, you life, is your life, baby,โ Adam Ness sings in those last lines. โDonโt let it pass you by / Donโt let it pass you by.โ