“No Harmonies Just Synonyms”

Quick, witty, substantive and modest, Noname Gypsy is perhaps Save Money’s most promising, best-kept secret. Fatimah Warner (who goes by the stage name Noname) came out of the same music scene as Chance, Vic Mensa and Milo & Otis, performing at the same YouMedia workshops. However, and there’s no other way to exactly put this, even amongst such a talented group of friends, Noname is unique. As a female emcee, she is already a rarity in Hip Hop, but her uniqueness stems from more than just that. Noname’s music is teeming with pointed social commentary and satire. What’s more, she uses one of the most extensive vocabularies I’ve ever heard from a rapper, and this diction expresses her sentiment. Pioneering her own blend between singing and rapping, Noname will surely be known in the future for her sharp, borderline nasally tone that delivers such rapid and concise wordplay.

The best way to show her talent is by examining one of her tracks, of which there is only a handful. The song “Sunday Morning” starts off with the pair of lines: “All my raps whisper unintelligence/ Unrelenting irrelevance chiseled in the sediment.” Her ability to use so much assonance and alliteration in such a condensed space is impressive and unmatched by many professional rappers. Noname’s music has meaning, it has purpose and it has drive, and communicates through aesthetically pleasing rhymes. The verse continues with her alacrity for explicit social commentary: “What’s that? A massacre/ A mass appeal to apple stores and raffle scores/ I wonder who gon’ win the lottery/ If Google maps can see my house I wonder who is watchin’ me/ Satellite hypocrisy, like right up the block from me.” In just a few lines, Noname calls out large corporations, the government and the technology generation, and does so with rhythm and flair. She then moves into her most loaded critique: “Right up the doctor fees/ Another brown boy down/ Another mother crying cause another brown boy found/ And all you wanna do is smoke weed and write songs.” Noname, like Chance, exhibits tremendous maturity and skill by using her art form to not only illustrate the problems around her, but also explain how her peers react to them. She finishes this already stellar verse with a final statement: “Bang Bang sound like violins/ Poverty was made to door frame all the violence/ Knock knock and guess who’s not there- The Police/ And guess who don’t care- The people.”

Despite her mastery, Noname is still an amateur. She is yet to come out with a mixtape, and has been soliciting donations on her twitter account so she can have the funds to finish her first project. Her feature verse on Chance The Rapper’s song “Lost” has significantly helped her raise an initial fan base, but she is still very much out of the spotlight. It’s been far too long since we’ve had a prominent, noteworthy female emcee though, and my guess is that Noname will fill that void. If you’re interested in independent, conscience, meaningful music with a simple and pleasant sound, Noname Gypsy is your answer.

Noname’s “Paradise”