Earlier this week J. Cole finally addressed the Black Lives Matter movement in a questionable new track where he tone-policed Noname for her activism. Now the Chicago rapper has responded like the intelligent and eloquent black woman she is, commenting on the disenfranchisement of black women and J. Cole’s weak diss in a new track with Madlib titled “Song 33.”
On the track, Noname effortlessly skewers Cole without even mentioning his name, making an important statement about the plight black women face even within their own communities. “I saw a demon on my shoulder/It’s looking like the patriarchy,” she raps over the Madlib-produced beat.
Noname goes on to reference Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau, the 19-year old BLM activist who was murdered earlier this week after being sexually assaulted. “Why Toyin body don’t embody all the life she wanted?/ A baby just 19 / I know Dream all black / I seen her everything immortalized in tweets / All caps.”
She then gives a brutally honest takedown of Cole, who only broke his silence on the movement to take down a black woman. “Look at him go / He really ’bout to write about me when the world is in smokes? / When it’s people in trees? / When George begging for his mother saying he couldn’t breathe, you thought to write about me?”
Check out Noname’s verse in detail below.
J. Cole’s controversial track dropped on Wednesday. In it, he reproached Noname for calling out big-name rappers for their silence following the murder of George Floyd and admitted “low key I be thinkin’ she talking bout me.” He also dropped the controversial line, “it’s something about the queen tone that’s bothering me.”
Noname’s rebuttal doesn’t dwell on petty beef, but instead classily segue ways into important themes such as abolishing the police, democratizing Amazon, and making Black Lives Matter more inclusive. It seems J. Cole bears no hard feelings, he even retweeted the track.
Listen to “Song 33” below.
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