Noname has announced that she will release her highly anticipated second studio album, Sundial, later this summer, her first project since 2018’s Room 25.
In 2016, the Chicago poet burst onto the music scene with her mixtape Telephone — which she immediately followed with her debut studio album, Room 25 in 2018. She has released a string of singles between her projects, including “Song 31” (featuring Phoelix), “Song 32,” “Häagen Dazs” (featuring Saba and Smino) in 2019, as well as “Song 33” in 2020, and “Rainforest” in 2021.
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Now, the poet/rapper has announced that she is releasing new music. In an Instagram post made on Sunday (April 9), Noname revealed the name of her next project to her fans.
“My new album is called Sundial. It will be released in July 2023. Thank you for everything,” she wrote.
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Noname is known for her outspoken opinions and critiques of racial and social injustice, and she even started a book club in 2019.
It was back in 2020 when she dropped her “Song 33” diss track, responding to J. Cole’s “Snow On Tha Bluff,” where she reiterated her criticism that mainstream rappers weren’t using their platforms to address social injustices, police brutality, and racism.
Nothing has changed since then. Earlier this year, she called on Black artists to join forces to reduce the amount of access white-owned platforms give to their art.
The rapper and activist shared a long message divided into four images as a slideshow on Instagram. In it, Noname started with a statement about the myriad ways Black art can be accessed by white consumers.
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“One of the biggest mistakes i believe we’ve made in our struggle towards liberation in this country is allowing white america unfiltered access to our entire culture,” she wrote. “White america has created an institution of violent policing and medical neglect that is killing us EVERY FUCKING DAY. And every day we get on their platforms (tik tok, twitter etc) and we create trends, music, art and language that they turn into billions.”
After pointing out that she believes social media is sometimes manipulated by law enforcement officials, Noname called out the apathetic attitude white consumers seem to have when it comes to music “about the plight of living or the struggle to make it out.”
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She went on to draw comparisons between Hip Hop and the evolution of Blues, adding that both genres have a predominantly white audience.
“Do yall never think, maybe white people don’t organize to end economic/racist exploitation that black people face simply because they love consuming the art we make out of survival,” the rapper suggested.
