The chorus of the opening track of Telefone, Noname's exceptional 2016 debut, sets the tone for the entire album. Telefone is an album drenched in nostalgia. Noname uses her dizzying lyricism to paint the past with thick strokes. From trips to the ice cream parlor to lamenting police brutality, Telefone presents life in Chicago with the wide-eyed romanticism of a children's book. This time, however, she isn't telling you a story, she's inviting you to converse with her.
"Maybe this the album you listen to in your car when you driving home late at night, really questioning every god, religion, Kanye..."
Room 25 flips the script completely. Gone are the endearing blips and bloops she was rapping over, Room 25 finds Noname rapping over a full orchestra. The maturation in musicality sets the stage for the more mature themes discussed throughout the album. Her bars are razor sharp, piling rhymes and double entendres on top of each other so fast its like she's playing Tetris and trying to lose as quickly as possible. Here are some lines from the album's penultimate track, With You.
"A penny for your thoughts
A pretty Ricky Ross
A may-black music
I woke up in my sympathy, became black Judas
All my everythings for sale
All my second hand discoveries, dungarees faded pale
All my halfway hallelujahs are tippy-toed in the mail
All the fluctuations on scales
And the missing therapy sessions of bullies treating me well-well"
Can you think of another rapper who commands the English language with such power and grace? You'd be hard-pressed to find one. From the lush orchestrations to the acid-jazz bops to the dazzling wordplay, Room 25 is a remarkable sophomore effort, demonstrating growth in every category.
Nobody else is doing what she's doing. While all of her contemporaries busy themselves blending their sounds with their friend's sounds into a hazy mush, Noname is blazing new trails. She made 2018's best rap album in the process.