Super-slick, intelligent, angry but beautiful rap and and soul by the Chicago poet Fatimah Nyeema Warner in this second album after 2018’s debut, Room 25, building on her uncompromising perspectives on Black culture, racism, relationships and celebrity double-standards. Switching between first and third person throughout, and joined by some excellent rapping and singing guests including Common and Ayoni, there’s no cosy moments here, however, as Noname even has a dig at Jay-Z, Rihanna, Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar for pandering to white culture and playing the Super Bowl on Hold Me Down: “We better when we admit we too can cause harm / We really should link arms / That already take arms.” Packed with sharply written, killer lines to relatively simple beats, jazz, bossa nova and gospel, she hits out at the problem of playing to predominantly white audiences, but admits her own culpability, such as on Beauty Supply: “I just wanna be the love of my life / Set aside my own standard and really demand hers,” yet also building the profile she introduces on opener Black Mirror: “a shadow walker, moon stalker, Black author, librarian, contrarian”. Other standouts include the post-coital perspectives on Balloon (with Jay Electronica and Eryn Allen Kane), Boomboom (“I’ve been on an island of my own making”), and Namesake, and Oblivion. Clever, catchy, but casting lots of sharp shadows with plenty coming into focused. Self-released.
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