Noname ether J. Cole in a fiery response.
The radical social commentator/rapper Namename has called what many believe to be J. Cole’s bluff, with a new song tackling not only George Floyd and Toyin Salau deaths but also Cole himself. “Song 33” comes as a followup to Cole’s “Snow On Tha Bluff,” which dropped two days ago. The Chicago based rapper and poet gained the attention of Cole after her assertive tweet about entertainers whose entire catalogs spoke about the upliftment of the black race and the underprivileged, yet they were missing from #BlackLivesMatter protests.
While the female rapper that sports the Noname moniker did not mention any specific rapper, it was widely believed that she was taking aim at both Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. With “Alright” seeing exponential growth in streams and sales, Kendrick’s voice has truly earned its place as the voice of the voiceless. The ‘battle’ is indeed being fought on multiple fronts. Therefore, the Compton rapper also laced up his boots and participated in a Compton Peace Walk to support the BLM movement. This left Cole to the mercy of critics who were left to ask if his music was enough for him to not also be on the frontlines.
Following Noname tweeting exerts of J. Cole’s track “Snow On Tha Bluff” that seemingly referenced her, Cole let off his own response on social media.
“She has done and is doing the reading and the listening and the learning on the path that she truly believes is the correct one for our people,” he said. “We may not agree with each other but we gotta be gentle with each other.”
Check out some of the lyrics from Noname’s “Song 33,” which was produced by Madlib. “But n**as act quiet as a church mouse/In the studio when duty calls to get the verse …” she raps on the Madlib-produced track. “It’s time to go to work, wow, look at him go/He really ’bout to write about me when the world is in smokes/There’s people in trees when George was beggin’ for his mother/ Saying he couldn’t breathe, you thought to write about me?”
While some of “Song 33’s” content does address Cole directly, the song can and should be used to weigh anyone who previously preached black excellence, yet, they are now missing from the combat zone.
Nonetheless, J. Cole has retweeted the link to Noname’s track. The move seemingly solidifies the stance of Cole and his supporters, which is that they are both fighting for the improvement of the black race.
