Noname has shown she’s not afraid to hold some of the biggest names in music accountable by calling out JAY-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Rihanna for their relationships with the NFL.
The Chicago rapper released her new album Sundial on Friday (August 11), ending the five-year wait after her critically acclaimed 2018 project Room 25.
Common, Jay Electronica and billy woods headline the impressive supporting cast, but it’s one of Noname’s solo offerings, “Namesake,” that commands listeners’ attention as she criticizes the aforementioned megastars for cozying up to the National Football League and performing at the Super Bowl.
“Read in between the line at the crime scene/ I ain’t fucking with the NFL or JAY-Z,” she raps on the funky, Slimwav-produced track. “Propaganda for the military complex, the same gun that shot lil’ Terry/ Out West, the same gun that shot Senair in the West Bank/ We all think the Super Bowl is the best thing.”
Adopting a cheer-squad voice, she continues: “Go, Rihanna, go! Watch the fighter jet fly high/ War machine gets glamorized, we play the game to pass the time/ Go, Beyoncé, go! Watch the fighter jet fly high/ War machine gets glamorized, we play the game to pass the time/ Go, Kendrick, go! Watch the fighter jet fly high/ War machine gets glamorized, we play the game to pass the time.”
Noname doesn’t just punch up at the big names, though; in the very next bar, she turns the microscope on herself and raps: “Go, Noname, go! Coachella stage got sanitized/ I said I wouldn’t perform for them and somehow I still fell in line… fuck!”
JAY-Z struck a partnership with the NFL in 2019 to become the league’s live music entertainment strategist while also contributing to its social and racial justice initiatives.
Three years earlier, his wife Beyoncé headlined Super Bowl 50, delivering what many consider to be one of the best performances the game has seen off the back of her blockbuster album Lemonade.
With Hov wielding his influence in the corridors of football power, R&B and Hip Hop has continued make its presence felt at the Super Bowl, with Kendrick Lamar joining Dr. Dre for his Emmy-winning set in 2022 alongside Eminem, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige and Anderson .Paak.
That was followed by Rihanna’s halftime show earlier this year, where she famously unveiled her growing baby bump, confirming she was pregnant with baby number two with boyfriend A$AP Rocky.
Despite these wins, Noname is far from the first to question Hip Hop’s relationship with the NFL. The news of JAY-Z’s partnership came two years after the league had effectively blackballed Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem to call attention to racial injustice and police brutality.
Some felt Hov was effectively giving the league a pass by going into business with them, with allegations also put forth that it was a move motivated purely by personal financial gain, not wider social change.
Others, however, believed the billionaire rap mogul was looking to play the long game and change the system from the inside.
Even Rihanna herself turned down the opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl back in 2019, telling Vogue at the time: “I just couldn’t be a sellout. There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”
Asked about her U-turn in an interview with British Vogue earlier this year, RiRi explained she had a change of heart after becoming a mother.
“There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes,” she said of the NFL, “but it’s powerful to break those doors, and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level. Two Super Bowls back-to-back, you know, representing the urban community, globally. It is powerful. It sends a really strong message.”
She continued: “Raising a young Black man is one of the scariest responsibilities in life. You’re like, ‘What am I leaving my kids to? This is the planet they’re gonna be living on?’ All of those things really start to hit differently.”
Stream Noname’s Sundial in full below:
Nothing advances a black cause like dissing your own people.
Bet she knows a few dealers in the hood who she still rocks with though.
I’m curious to the mental gymnastics she had to contort her way into for arriving that the music played at halftime of a football game is “Propaganda for the military complex”. Not everything is a conspiracy….
She may be talking about the National Anthem specifically. It’s been revealed that the U.S. military literally pays the NFL for them to perform it at games and to fly the flag and all the theatrics. People think that was always a tradition. It wasn’t.
The DoD has not paid the NFL since 2016. And when they did, they used the NFL as a recruiting vehicle. Just adding context.
@Listener A – but Jay / Kendrick / Beyonce didn’t sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. They sang their own songs. This just screams “please give me attention”. If she’s going after anyone associated with the NFL for the National Anthem, she left out an awful lot of people….. like the owners and players and the millions of people that watch ever.
I get her idea, but that’s not the move. We need more not less brothers at the decision making tables, and Jay has put his money where his mouth is once he’s gotten in those doors. Also, taking shots at people who don’t control the system but who are just doing their job, which is being an entertainer, is silly. They can’t change the world in the position they’re in because these white people will listen to only what they want to listen to. Like somebody could criticize her for her album being posted on white owned sites and distributed by white owned labels and streaming on white owned platforms. However, she’s just trying to reach the largest audience, and that’s where she has to go.
However dissing Jay, Bey and Rihanna is a great move, I don’t fully understand the point of view. She should’ve dissed them simply because they make wack radio-friendly bs.
but why she didn’t add 50 , Dre or Snoop to that list .. they were on the same super bowl as Kendrick… hmmmm
You know damn well she don’t want nothing with 50…lol..50 would have her crying for forgiveness..
This is awesome, the Black liberal pretending to care about Black folks but willing to sell them out for money thing is getting old. Glad she called it out, so much hypocrisy and it hurts Black folks when they do this.
Yeah well, they don’t fuck with you either
Who….3yrs ago and u jus coming with dis shit….people will do whteva too get a name…y not talk about the people in the upper room….maybe they’ll respond…but too who. Lololololol …silly broad
She just seems like such a miserable chick. The kind you take out on a date and she has a problem with everything. I get most of it probably comes from her being unhappy because of how unattractive she is but gah damn… let up a little.