Noname defends her song collaboration choice with antisemite artist, Jay Electronica

Noname is dropping her new song “balloons” featuring Jay Electronica & Eryn Allen Kane next Friday. 

This is the lead single to her upcoming album ‘Sundial’ set to release this year.

While the online reaction to Noname’s announcement has been mostly positive, some fans took issue with her choice to work with Jay Elect in light of his affiliation with the Nation of Islam and his apparent allegiance to the group’s outspokenly antisemitic leader, Louis Farrakhan. Some twitter users also pointed to Jay’s 2012 track “Bitches and Drugs,” in which he refers to himself as “Jaydolf Spitler, rap Hitler,” and his continued support for Kanye West despite Ye’s recent rash of antisemitic tirades, to make the case that Jay himself is an antisemite.

On Thursday (July 13), Noname announced that the lead single from her second studio album, Sundial, would drop next Friday, July 21. Titled “Balloons,” the track will feature R&B artist Eryn Allen Kane and rap legend Jay Electronica. The full album, which would be Noname’s first since 2018’s Room 25, was initially scheduled to drop in July. But after Thursday’s news was met with a mixed reception online, the Chicago rapper, poet, and activist said she’s now thinking of canceling the record’s release.

“niggas legit rap about actual murder and sexual assault that they commit in real life and y’all can’t take a jay elect verse?” she wrote on Twitter. “please drink water and be safe out here. i’ll see y’all when my album drop in a few weeks. sending love and prayers.” However, when fans responded poorly to that tweet, Noname tried to elaborate on her choice, then seemingly got frustrated when her points were met with more pushback. “y’all don’t want the album,” she wrote. “fine.”

Today (July 14), in a string of increasingly defensive tweets, Noname responding to criticisms of her decision to feature Electronica on her new song. “n***as legit rap about actual murder and sexual assault that they commit in real life and y’all can’t take a jay elect verse?,” she wrote this morning. “please drink water and be safe out here.” In another tweet, she implied that the backlash stemmed from the fact that she’s perceived by many hip-hop fans as “the mascot for the woke mob” due to her vocal critiques of other rappers’ politics (or lack thereof). She also dismissed gripes with the “Jaydolf Spitler” lyric, pointing out that rappers tend to “compare themselves to anything for a punchline,” and rightfully called out comparisons of the Nation of Islam (a largely nonviolent organization) to the Nazi party (who exterminated more than six million Jews between 1933 and 1945) as absurd.

When another fan argued she should “stick by the action instead of wasting time arguing and then getting upset,” she conceded, “oh the song fa sho coming out lol. the album is another story. i’m good on the selective outrage. anyways hip hop is in a great place right now. another noname album ain’t really necessary.”

It’s easy to understand why Jay’s appearance might have come at a poor time. Hip-hop fans are perhaps especially sensitive to perceived antisemitism after Kanye West’s antics last year, which came at the same time as NBA star Kyrie Irving’s faux pas of sharing a link to a conspiracy video. Unfortunately, because Noname has a reputation for scrutinizing other artists’ politics, it seems that fans are taking the opportunity to fire back at her. For what it’s worth, though, artists have threatened to cancel album releases in the past, only to release the albums anyway — so perhaps when cooler heads prevail, that’s what will happen here, too.