Photo Courtesy: Noname Facebook

Chicago rapperโ€™s second album blends personal honesty, critical precision

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

Photo Courtesy: Noname Facebook

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 criticโ€™s precision about current events.

โ€œMaybe this the album you listen to in your car / When you driving home late at night,โ€ Noname raps on the albumโ€™s opening track, โ€œSelf,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 โ€œDolemiteโ€ (1975) and โ€œThe Spook Who Sat by the Doorโ€ (1973), the aptly named track โ€œBlaxpoitationโ€ has a โ€˜70s feel with its groovy, soul beat and these samples.

โ€œBlaxploitationโ€ also features the best of Nonameโ€™s humorous side, with lines about the hypocrisy she feels while eating waffle fries from Chick-fil-A and Hillary Clintonโ€™s comments about keeping hot sauce in her purse.

In โ€œPrayer 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 โ€œkeeping 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 โ€œRegalโ€ and โ€œWindowโ€ and decent ones like โ€œMontego Baeโ€ and โ€œDonโ€™t Forget About Me.โ€

The fifth track, โ€œDonโ€™t Forget About Me,โ€ is the only song that feels like it could fit in with Nonameโ€™s previous album โ€œTelefone,โ€ which was characterized by silky productions and whimsical lyrics about her childhood and family.

In the song, Noname prays, โ€œI know my bodyโ€™s fragile, know itโ€™s made from clay / But if I have to go, I pray my soul is still eternalโ€ before asking that her โ€œmomma and granny donโ€™t forgetโ€ about her.

In โ€œAce,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 โ€œthe best album thatโ€™s coming out.โ€

โ€œIโ€™m just writing my darkest secrets like wait and just hear me out,โ€ she raps. โ€œSaying vegan food is delicious like wait and just hear me out.โ€

Both โ€œAceโ€ and the next song, โ€œPart 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.

โ€œRoom 25โ€ finishes out with a package of slow-moving songs, โ€œWith Youโ€ and โ€œNo Name,โ€ that feature beautiful, twangy guitar instrumentation and thoughtful lyrics. While they sacrifice a bit of Nonameโ€™s trademark humor, they allow โ€œRoom 25โ€ to end with a serious juxtaposition on the personal and political.

While โ€œRoom 25โ€ as a whole is willing to be critical about topics from Clintonโ€™s 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.

โ€œYour life, you life, is your life, baby,โ€ Adam Ness sings in those last lines. โ€œDonโ€™t let it pass you by / Donโ€™t let it pass you by.โ€

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