Noname responds to alleged J Cole diss with 'Song 33', an eloquent and timely track about black injustices
The singer Noname has responded to the alleged J Cole diss in the song 'Snow On Tha Bluff' with her own eloquent and timely track, 'Song 33'. The Dreamville Records founder had previously voiced his opinions in a viral track about the Black Lives Matter protests that had enveloped the nation. In it, J Cole addressed the tone with which people were raising their voices against racism and police brutality and also admitted that he felt that he wasn't doing enough in doing his part to help the activists.
However, the constructive criticism he offered was viewed by many as a jab at Noname, who had previously been extremely vocal on social media about Black Lives Matter issues, that included tweets like, "Poor black folks all over the country are putting their bodies on the line in protest for our collective safety and y’all favorite top-selling rappers not even willing to put a tweet up. [N-word] whole discographies be about black plight and they nowhere to be found."
Although he did not specially name her, Cole had addressed his concerns in lyrics like: "Just cuz you woke and I’m not, that shit ain’t no reason to talk like you better than me / How you gonna lead, when you attacking the very same [n-word] that really do need the shit that you saying? / Instead of conveying you holier, come help get us up to speed." The ensuing storm soon got blown out of proportion, with people labeling Cole as "misogynistic" and Chance The Rapper even said : "Yet another L for men masking patriarchy and gaslighting as constructive criticism.”
And now Noname has responded with her own track, 'Song 33', that has been produced by Madlib. The track addresses the state of the nation's plight as well as the controversy involving Cole's alleged diss. To his credit, Cole even retweeted her song as soon as it came out, showing that he stood by his previous comments where he said, "Follow Noname. I love and honor her as a leader in these times. She has done and is doing the reading and the listening and the learning on the path that she truly believes is the correct one for our people."
The lyrics of 'Song 33' are compelling and pointed, talking about the tragic deaths of Oluwatoyin "Toyin" Salau and Breonna Taylor in lyrics like "Why Toyin body don't embody all the life she wanted?" and “One girl missin’, another go missin’ / One girl missin’, another.”
Noname also took direct aim at Cole with lines like: "But [n-word] act quiet as a church mouse / In the studio when duty calls to get the verse ..." she sang. "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 / There's people in trees when George was beggin' for his mother/ Saying he couldn't breathe, you thought to write about me?"
You can check out the whole lyrics here, which Noname tweeted on her official Twitter account.
