Photo by Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images
Two days after J. Cole appeared to question Noname’s politics on his latest song, “Snow On Tha Bluff,” the Chicago rapper responded with “Song 33.” Just a few days later, however, she’s regretting it. On Sunday, Noname revealed on Twitter that she didn’t feel proud of the song, saying “ego got the best of me” and that it distracted from the political moment.
She also thanked Madlib for producing the song and said that she would donate the proceeds to “various mutual aid funds.”
On “Song 33,” Noname criticized Cole—without mentioning his name—for deciding to write a song questioning her tone and political messaging at a time of intense strife for Black people in the US. The song notes his silence on social media in particular in the face of recent tragedies like the deaths of Oluwatoyin Salau and George Floyd as well as several incidents of Black men found hanged from trees:
But n-ggas in the back quiet as a church mouse
Basement studio when duty calls to get the verse out
I guess the ego hurt now
It’s time to go to work, wow, look at him go
He really ‘bout to write about me when the world is in smokes?
When there’s people in trees?
When George was beggin’ for his mother sayin' he couldn’t breathe?
He thought to write about me?
Cole hasn’t responded to Noname’s song, although he posted it on his Twitter shortly after its release. The North Carolina MC faced pushback after dropping “Snow On Tha Bluff,” which some said amounted to him “tone policing” a Black woman and encouraging her to dumb down her message. Chance the Rapper called Cole out directly, saying his song was “not constructive.” Cole stood behind the song’s lyrics in a series of tweets posted shortly after its release.
Although Noname offered an apology for the “distraction,” some of the lyrics to “Song 33” showed up on signs at Black Lives Matter protests:
Catch up on all the lyrics to Noname’s “Song 33” and J. Cole’s “Snow On Tha Bluff” on Genius now.
