‘Room 25’ is not only smartly constructed and laced with intricate subtlety – it’s laugh-out-loud funny, too.
From beginning to end, Room 25 is a testimony to the power of telling your story and the hope that can be found in doing so without apology
The pleasure of Room 25 is in hearing a master wordsmith turn words into feelings so that the feelings linger long after the words have stopped.
Its 11 songs leave us wanting more. But brevity is one of her greatest assets on the album; as a snapshot of Fatimah Warner’s artistic individuality, Room accomplishes everything it needs to, allowing Warner to say her piece without stumbling into indulgence or, worse yet, running out of subjects to rap about.
Noname's Room 25 is vintage neo-soul and future rap hand in hand; a soulful sanctuary for those turned off by the austerity of mainstream mumble rap.
The immaculately crafted Room 25 is highly mature and immensely enjoyable. Simply remarkable.
The coming-of-age angst we found on 2016’s Telefone, has matured, as the 26-year-old embraces agency over her voice, lyrical prowess, and womanhood.
Even if the delivery is often delicate, the record’s deft lyricism is arresting and unflinching.
On Room 25, Noname reveals herself to be a formidable force with her heartfelt delivery and always-gripping conversational style. Her immense talent as a rapper is shown in her clever and biting word-play on this moving and incredibly charming release.
Noname's music has only gotten even more gorgeous and charming since her breakthrough mixtape Telefone.
Room 25 finds a more mature Noname than the one she introduced on her 2016 mixtape Telefone—wiser, more reflective, and maybe a bit more cynical, too.
If Noname has one glaring weakness, it's a tendency to ramble without ever seeing the need to switch up her rat-tat-tat triplet flow. She does, though, have the rumpled, mellower-than-thou swagger to pull it off, and why complain when Room 25 is the prettiest rap record to come along in months?
This is the debut album Chicago born artist, activist and poet, Noname. Since her stunning 2016 mixtape ‘Telefone’, a lot has been upgraded in her music, but many of her music’s best aspects remain. Noname’s jazz influenced style makes for an amazing listen. This time round though her instrumentals take on a more acoustic style with tracks ranging from a lush string arrangement in ‘Window’ to a funk infused bass guitar and drums cut on ... read more
(kinda rushed this review sorry, still kinda emotionally drained from my Saba review I did yesterday… still good enough though! :3)
Why did it take so long for me to get to this album? This is absolutely amazing! My favorite part of the US that has hiphop is the Midwest. Mostly because of Detroit and Chicago. Where is Noname from? Chicago! This makes me love midwestern hiphop even more. This is one of my favorite modern underground hiphop records already! I’ve been planning on ... read more
A beautiful jazzy modern record I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The first track always makes me laugh when I hear that one bar about 9th grade english, so random. The runtime is also at that perfect Illmatic length! Its still a new listen for me so not much more I can say as of yet.
She’s a good writer but a horrible rapper. No charisma and so uninteresting I almost fell asleep. The production is good but it doesn’t come anywhere close to saving this album.
1 | Self 1:34 | 89 |
2 | Blaxploitation 2:13 | 89 |
3 | Prayer Song 4:17 feat. Adam Ness | 86 |
4 | Window 4:38 feat. Phoelix | 89 |
5 | Don't Forget About Me 3:39 | 88 |
6 | Regal 2:48 | 85 |
7 | Montego Bae 2:43 feat. Ravyn Lenae | 87 |
8 | Ace 3:02 | 88 |
9 | Part of Me 3:15 feat. Phoelix, Benjamin Earl Turner | 86 |
10 | With You 2:29 | 83 |
11 | no name 4:05 | 91 |
#2 | / | The Key |
#3 | / | Bandcamp Daily |
#4 | / | Esquire (US) |
#4 | / | Treble |
#4 | / | Vinyl Me, Please |
#5 | / | NPR Music |
#5 | / | The 405 |
#6 | / | Uproxx |
#6 | / | Us Weekly |
#7 | / | NOW Magazine |