Hidden away under the piles of toss-away rap made overly abundant by the likes of Drake and Migos is a quiet voice, a voice weaving pure emotions into gold. This is the voice of the elusive rapper Noname, Fatimah Warner.
2016 was gifted a small album by the name of “Telefone,” Fatimah’s debut. It was on best albums of the year lists from Pitchfork to Rolling Stone and beyond. Noname appeared from thin air — with a whirlwind round of festivals and tours she collected a small following, and like a light breeze was gone without warning.
Two years after creating “Telefone,” Fatimah returns with another short blip of an album titled “Room 25” which expands on her talents as a curator, lyricist and a profoundly talented recording artist.
“Room 25” is a much more spacious and minimal album compared to her first creation. It’s also versed in maturity, containing the politically serrated track “Prayer Song,” the overtly sexual sly track “Montego Bae” and the sobering, wandering track “With You.”
Created in a month, Fatimah reflects on her 25th year on Earth, a point in time where her life took huge steps forward. In an interview with The Fader, Fatimah talks about moving from Chicago to LA, losing her virginity and feeling the financial burdens of being an independent artist — all driving forces in the creation of “Room 25.”
Out of the eleven tracks off of “Room 25,” “Ace” is a bright roaming ember in the slow burning fire that Fatimah fashioned together with producer Phoelix. Featuring none other than returning Chicagoan collaborators Saba and Smino, the trio of jazz influenced rappers find flows that fit together like perfect puzzle pieces in this animated posse cut.
“Radio n****s sound like they wearing adult diapers/And globalization scary and f****n’ is fantastic/And frankly I find it funny that Morgan is still actin” spits Fatimah, in a flourish of lyrics much more abrasive than anything she’s ever delivered.
With both of Fatimah’s parents coming from the book industry, her mom more specifically owning her own book store, it’s not hard to imagine a young Fatimah’s face glued to a Toni Morrison novel taking quick breaks to jot down fleeting lyrics about black America and her place amongst it all.
These notes more than likely forming into opening tracks “Blaxploitation” and “Prayer Song,” where on the latter Noname steps out of body to rap from the perspective of an overly enthusiastic cop on a mission to lock up every minority in sight.
The room that Fatimah opens up on her sophomore album is a quiet, personal space, a place where you’re allowed a quick tour. In this room listeners sit in a single chair as Fatimah fingers through a notebook scribbled with song lyrics, she doesn’t look up and starts to deliver an almost shy, whispered delivery of her giddy song “Window” in only a way someone new to love can.
Rooms are places that temporarily house us, keep us safe and places we eventually leave. For Fatimah her 25th year of life was her own room, a place where she grew, a place where she found love and as she grows older a place she leaves behind. This room of her life is effortlessly captured in “Room 25’s” beautifully sprawling landscape.
“Only room I died in was 25,” raps Fatimah on her fulfilling closer “no name.” Here Fatimah leaves listeners with one final reminder that life “don’t let it pass you by,” and just as quickly as she opened a door to her usually private room she gently pulls it closed and with a click, locks it up until she decides it’s time for another visit.
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Noname will be performing at this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival, which will be covered by Daily Lobo Photo Editor Colton Newman.
Colton Newman is the photo editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted by email at photoeditor@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Coltonperson.
