When people are drawing comparisons between your work and Ms. Lauryn Hill’s, and you feature on, arguably, Chance The Rapper’s defining mixtape Acid Rap, Noname becomes quite an ironic name for an artist.

Coming out of Chicago, rapper/songstress/lyrical poet Noname brings a wonderfully raw, evocative touch to the crowded world of hip-hop. She gained recognition through a number of guest appearances around 2013 (including the aforementioned project with Chance) and went on to release Telefone in 2016 as an unsigned artist, with the credits on that debut album reading like a Chicago-natives-only afterparty. Saba and Monte Booker were just some of the amazing collaborators she brought in over the three years she crafted the album, all whilst working again with Chance, this time on his Grammy-nominated 2016 project, Colouring Book. In September last year, Noname followed up her highly commended debut album with her sophomore work, Room 25.

Today’s track, however, comes from a compilation album called TwoSyllable Records Chicago Cassette Compilation Vol. 2. Twosyllable records are based in Brooklyn and the owner, Zach Pollakoff, has put out several compilation discs of his favourite Chicago artists. Noname features on the 2014 record and sings of love lost. Previously a spoken-word poet, her wordplay is vivid and imaginative, the lines “Let it be a bygone how you python/Mama said never dance wit snakes wit the lights on”. She effortlessly dances between rapping and singing and, as the name would suggest, breathes a modern twist into the blues genre that is still recognisable between her bars.

Whilst originally released on her Soundcloud, Pollakoff’s documentation of the work of Chicago artists has done a great deal for the lesser known natives of a city that boasts a certain Mr.West as one of its children. Bringing this, and many other, singles onto streaming platforms has allowed for much wider consumption of the art, and everyone is better for it.

 

Spotify Playlist Link: https://spoti.fi/2CKuVex