Days after she shook up Hip Hop with the release of “Song 33,” Noname is pulling back from the song, blaming her ego for continuing the melee.
On Sunday (June 21), the Chicago poet and activist took to Twitter to explain that although the song resonates with many people, it’s ultimately a distraction in regards to the bigger fight towards unity as well as taking down systems of oppression.
“i’ve been thinking a lot about it and i am not proud of myself for responding with song 33,” Noname wrote. “I tried to use it as a moment to draw attention back to the issues i care about but i didn’t have to respond. my ego got the best of me. i apologize for any further distraction this caused.”
She added in a follow-up tweet, “madlib killed the beat and i see there’s a lot of people that resonate with the words so I’m leaving it up but I’ll be donating my portion of the songs earnings to various mutual aid funds. black radical unity.”
Her tweets come on the heels of J. Cole’s “Snow On Tha Bluff” single released on Tuesday (June 16) and the backlash the song received in regards to timing, its policing of tone and the assumption that the woman in question on the song has been groomed in an environment to make her more aware of structural racism and how to deal with it.
Cole responded to the backlash on Wednesday (June 17), asking fans to follow Noname but not without a few Hip Hop peers checking him over “Snow On Tha Bluff.” Chance The Rapper considered it an “L” for Cole, saying that the song “undermines all the work Noname has done.” Others such as Chika condemned Cole saying, “if a man was saying half the shit our good sis was saying, nobody would be concerned with her tone. imagine telling someone to treat the ignorant like children while critiquing their tone… like a child?”
Ultimately, Noname’s response echoes sentiments that Bun B shared on Instagram on Friday (June 19).
“I don’t want us to divert our attentions from what’s at the core of our cultural conversation right now,” the UGK rapper wrote. “If we have issues with someone or need clarity on something, let’s try to have that conversation behind closed doors. We don’t need our people feeling like they need to choose sides right now. Because we are all in this together.”