In a by-gone era, when visiting the ridiculously big (and now non-existent) Virgin record store in Manhattan was one of the highlights of my life as a young music enthusiast, the first thing that would have drawn me to Telefone would have been the cover. Like many great album covers, the art that accompanies the mixtape makes a statement without words, a statement that, more or less, lets the observer know what the content of this project will be. It's a simple, but powerful image: a young black girl, with flowers in her hand and a skull on her head. She is young, innocent, but weighed down by death - mourning. Telefone is a mixtape that deals with innocence, youth and growth. However, the most interesting - and at times heartbreaking - aspect about Noname's debut is how she juxtaposes the innocence, sonically and lyrically, with the harsh reality, which comes in the form of racism, police brutality and loss.
Noname is from Chicago, having first introduced herself to many hip hop fans by a feature on fellow Chicago MC, Chance The Rapper's mixtape, Acid Rap. With artists like Chance and Mick Jenkins, a thoughtful, lyrical and (crucially) youthful Chicago hip hop scene has gotten a lot of attention in recent years. Noname is of this scene and is undeniably of this ilk. Musically, throughout a good portion of its 34 minutes Telefone, fittingly released in summer, gives off an extremely sunny vibe. It's an album drenched in beautiful, lush keys. The production, more than anything, seems to be marked by a strong Neo-Soul and at times gospel influence ("Yesterday", "Shadow Man") .
Upon a cursory listen, what may stand out initially, before one dives into the lyrics and Noname's style, is how well wrote and sung the choruses are. Although there is evidence on Telefone that she can carry a tune herself, Noname frequently opts for soulful guest vocalists, such as theMIND, Cam O'bi and Phoelix, to handle the hooks. Another thing that leaves an immediate impression is just how light and gorgeous many of the beats are here. Songs like "Sunny Duet", "Diddy Bop", and "Reality Check" build themselves around playfully arranged vocals, warm keys and delicately played xylophones respectively, each sounding like the musical equivalent to a perfect summer day. In particular, "Diddy Bop", perhaps more than any song on this mixtape, captures the innocence, youth and for some, familiarity, of Telefone, where, before Cam O'bi's beautiful chorus, Noname delivers a fantastic bridge that gives the listener a taste of the summers of her youth in Chicago ("Run, run, run, mama say come home before the streetlights do/Ice cream on my front porch in my new FUBU and my A1’s too/Watching my happy block my whole neighborhood hit the diddy bop").
The mixtape starts strong, with "Yesterday" arguably one of the best songs on Telefone. With its gospel influenced keys, at times autobiographical nature and tales of shock and loss ("Me missing brother Mike, like something heavy/Me heart just wasn't ready/I wish I was a kid again"), "Yesterday" is a near perfect introduction to Noname. Despite how well produced the song is, Noname herself still manages to be the most crucial point, casually delivering clever, but at the same time unsettling lines, such as asking the listener to "check [her] twitter page for something holier than black death". Noname has roots in slam poetry, and that shows in her rap style, as she often raps as if she was just having an innocent, but poetic, conversation with the listener. Her voice, subtle and sweet, is a great medium for this style. At times her flow shifts slightly off-beat, but still keeps within its own rhythm, which can give her delivery a very "stream of conscious" type feel, despite the fact that these lyrics have clearly been carefully written. All of this, plus the brilliant use of background vocals throughout "Yesterday", which alternate between interacting with and following the melody of the keys, make this tune one of the highlights of the mixtape.
Another standout track, and for me personally, the most moving track on the project, is "Casket Pretty". "Casket Pretty" delves into a sad reality of being black in America - police brutality. Noname's verses hit extremely hard here, with "Casket Pretty" being direct commentary on the fact that so many of her friends are being dressed up - be it to attend funerals or as a dressed up corpse at a funeral ("all of my niggas is casket pretty/ ain't no one safe in this happy city/ I hope you make it home"). It may be the shortest track here, clocking in at less than 2 minutes, but Noname doesn't need long to get her point across, stating that she is "afraid of the dark, blue and the white/ badges and pistols rejoice in the night". "Casket Pretty" is a great example of how Noname uses juxtapositions on Telefone, with the contrast between the repetition of the sample of the baby giggling ("too many babies in suits") and the heartbreaking subject matter being impossible to ignore:
Back before the dawn/ Ricochet the pawn/ Bullet in the chest/You ain't mean no harm/ Collecting your check mate/ I know you in love with the power/ It's flowers at every occasion/ I need me a medicine man/ Somebody heal me/ Somebody take my hand
Overall, more than anything, Telefone comes across as an extremely honest mixtape. Although one could say that the project could have been longer, and that it does not deviate far from the mellow Neo-Soul/Gospel influence that is established in the first track, one criticism that can not be thrown at this record is a lack of authenticity. This is clearly a project born out of extremely personal, but at the same time very relatable experiences. Telefone is about love, family, death, racism, black-self love, childhood, and how all of these things have fit into Noname's past and present. Whether she is finding interesting ways to describe love ("I need a nigga to follow me to the rabbit hole/And fall in where I fall in/I'm ballin") over hypnotizing jazzy guitar samples ("All I Need") or writing a sad conversation between a potential mother and her aborted child ("Bye Bye Baby"), Noname manages to keep it all extremely interesting. Despite its relatively short runtime, between Noname's charming spoken word flow, the impressive production and some great guest appearances, there is a good amount to dive into on this mixtape and its brevity invites repeated listens. Telefone is a stellar debut and with it Noname has established herself as an MC who is just as (if not, more) talented as her peers - definitely one to watch out for in the future.
