Noname Appears to Respond to J. Cole on New Song “Song 33”

Noname appears to address J. Cole and the controversy surrounding his record "Snow on tha Bluff" on her surprise new song.

On Thursday (June 18), two days after the Dreamville Records founder dropped the single "Snow on tha Bluff" and received widespread criticism for purportedly taking shots at Noname, she seems to have rapped about the incident on a new single titled "Song 33." Cole's song featured him criticizing Black women for not taking the time to educate the Black community on social justice issues in a way that is easier to comprehend.

The rapper-activist shared a link to her new record via Twitter. In a follow-up tweet, she posted an image containing the song's lyrics. The song follows a series of tracks she previously released over the years titled "Song 31" and "Song 32."

Before addressing Cole on the song, she speaks on other important issues within the Black community. She starts off the track mentioning the death of Oluwatoyin Salau (referred to as Toyin), a 19-year-old Black Lives Matter activist, who was murdered last week after being sexually assaulted by a man from a church that offered her refuge. The Chicago-bred rhymer also touches on the countless other Black women who have been victimized, killed and displaced by society.

"One girl missin’, another one go missin’/One girl missin’, another," she rhymes, before presumably addressing the events that took place earlier this week. "He really ’bout to write about me when the world is in smokes?/When it's people in trees?/When George was beggin’ for his mother/Saying he couldn't breathe, you thought to write about me?," she spits over the Madlib-produced beat.

"He really ’bout to write about me when the world is in smokes?" appears to be directed toward J. Cole, who rapped lines like "I scrolled through her timeline in these wild times, and I started to read/She mad at these crackers, she mad at these capitalists, mad at these murder police/She mad at my niggas, she mad at our ignorance, she wear her heart on her sleeve/She mad at the celebrities, lowkey I be thinkin' she talkin' 'bout me/Now I ain't no dummy to think I'm above criticism" and "Just ’cause you woke and I'm not, that shit ain't no reason to talk like you better than me/How you gon' lead, when you attackin' the very same niggas that really do need the shit that you sayin'?" on "Snow on tha Bluff." Critics and fans alike thought he was referring to Noname.

Noname has used her own track to bring the spotlight to the many issues being faced within the Black community. The 28-year-old rapper pulls the focus from the J. Cole controversy, which seems to have stemmed from this since-deleted tweet she wrote in May: "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. Niggas whole discographies be about Black plight and they nowhere to be found."

On "Song 33," she shifts the conversation back to the Black Live Matters Movement. She relies on her bars to express that whatever issues have spurred from Cole's comments do not outweigh the importance of spreading awareness about the lynchings and killings of Black people at the hands of the police and racists.

Shortly after the track was released, Cole tweeted a link to "Song 33" to help further spread awareness of Noname's message.

Listen to Noname's new "Song 33" below.

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