Noname - Sundial Review
A project that flows seamlessly between tracks, Noname uses her knowledge and sense of humour to build on her previous album and offer the fruits of her readings and ruminations.
“She’s a rapper too”, Noname mentions after a list of roles she has garnered from her time away from the limelight. ‘Sundial’ sits as a reflection of her engagement with Black critical thought and theory, packed into 30 minutes for the lauded rapper’s meticulously crafted sophomore album.
Here, Noname is a woman living in multiple truths. In spreading her gospel throughout the album, she also doesn’t hold back from throwing punches. ‘Hold me down’ mentions images of Wakanda before pointing out the hypocrisy in the much-celebrated success in Obama’s presidency despite his violent foreign policy and the irreparable impact left on those countries, whilst ‘namesake’ goes on to enlist high profile Black celebrities and their half-hearted motions towards the betterment of their own community.
The much talked about track ‘balloons’ has sparked controversy for the vocal feature of Jay Electronica, which comes as a bit hypocritical, much like the defence of the feature, a disheartening moment for Noname fans in the face of what she stands for so ardently. Barring Jay Electronica’s nonsensical, antisemitic spew, ‘balloons’ is a track that shows the veil behind success and the darker halls of it. Talking about rap music at large, the genre has seen great success in the mainstream for the past two decades but at what cost? There is validity in questioning the need for sad songs and albums detailing of trauma, with it being a sincere act and release for the artist whilst at the same time, unavoidably being marketed, sold and sung along to by those who relate but most of the time, those who don’t. This critique on audiences is not the first time the artist has spoken out about her uncomfortable feelings towards her listenership, previously commenting about how she did not like performing for predominantly white audiences.
Laced with a prevailing nihilism and sense of black fatigue despite the co-existing calls for liberation, Noname provides a side to the Black experience that goes amiss in public forum and cultural conversations, even more in the music-sphere.
What is revolutionary and defiant about Noname’s music and what works so well in this album is her lack of pandering towards white audiences, what I’d call brave considering that a large sum of her fans fit into this demographic. Certain points made will go over the heads of those not versed or engaged with issues regarding Black liberation but she’s not here to educate the audience and doesn’t dummy down her lyrics for those to understand her message more.
The tyranny of features and sung choruses give a sense of community to the album that support the calls for togetherness made in multiple tracks. Both features on the track ‘Gospel’ are a showcase of storytelling at its highest form, $ilkMoney speaking on where he puts his voice towards and being outwardly against taking up violence as a means for so-called resolution, and billywoods recounting men coming back from war in a victory march but noticing a deadness within them that adds an antithesis to the jubilant display taking place. freedom isn’t there for everyone and the fight for it is far from over.
Providing the sonics for Noname’s flow to be unleashed upon, the basis of the production hasn’t switched too much from her debut album yet there’s nothing loss on the leading bass and percussive drums that succumb to vocal embellishments, alien-esque synths and acute piano progressions.
A project that flows seamlessly between tracks, Noname uses her knowledge and sense of humour to build on her previous album and offer the fruits of her readings and ruminations. It might be a bit too much for some people to look past the Jay Electronica feature but something Noname does in calling out adored Black figures is unconsciously put herself in that group. The shared desire for the betterment of Black people fruitions into different outcomes and is not as simple as a one-way street. Rather dejecting, perhaps, yet the last lyrics performed by Common ties up the project as neatly as one can, words that counteract the pessimism that has been brought into the project, a simple “into oblivion, we gon dream”.