Like her artistic moniker suggests, Noname, aka 25-year-old rapper Fatimah Warner, is a very private person. She doesn’t do many interviews, and of the few that she’s done, many of the publications billed the feature as “a rare conversation” with the breakout Chicago musician and poet.
Her hesitation to open herself up to the press may seem at odds with her songs, a refreshing and necessary blend of confessional and poetic rap music that culminated in her long-awaited debut project “Telefone,” undoubtedly one of the best full-lengths of 2016, which was released last July. It also feels at odds with her breakout success, which saw her appearing with Chance the Rapper to perform “Finish Line/Drown” on “Saturday Night Live” in mid-December, just days before her interview with RedEye. But as we sit and chat at the Argo Tea in the Tribune Tower, I realize that her undeniable warmth and perceptiveness in conversation illuminate a truly independent artist in charge of her image and music—something that’s defined her short career since she first appeared with a verse on Chance the Rapper’s “Lost,” a highlight of his 2013 tape “Acid Rap.”
“I grew up in my grandparents’ home until I was 13, and then I moved in with my mom. I grew up on the South Side. [I was] awkward and not really able to find a niche for what I wanted to do,” Warner says of her Avalon Park and then Bronzeville upbringing. In high school at De La Salle Institute in Bridgeport, she began to find her passion through obsessively watching Def Jam Poetry videos and immersing herself in slam culture, which included a brief stint performing in Louder Than A Bomb, though the competition aspect of the event was a turn-off.
“In terms of me like figuring out what it is that I wanted to do in life and who I kind of felt home around was in YouMedia,” she says of the teen-centered learning and creative space at Harold Washington Library. Her interest in writing led her to the after-school program, and from there, she workshopped poems and found like-minded young people and, later, open mics. She continues, “I spent a lot of my teenage years kind of just moving around the city freely and discovering new creative spaces.”
But YouMedia was her creative home and where she and so many others found their voices. “When a lot of people talk about YouMedia, what they’re really talking about is Lyricist Loft, which was the open mic that was the catalyst for the boom of Chicago hip-hop and art that we see now,” Warner explains. Those who also got their start there include Chance the Rapper, Saba, Mick Jenkins, Lucki Ecks and many more.
But for Warner, the biggest inspiration was her mentor Mike Hawkins, aka Brother Mike, an educator, poet and activist. “A lot of my memories of YouMedia aren’t just attached to that open mic, it’s more so than just being in space and being with Brother Mike specifically,” she remembers, before adding, “What he instilled in me and in all of us really is to be of service in whatever way our talents would allow. And to just know that we are lovable and we are worthy of whatever the universe decides to bring to us.”
Hawkins died unexpectedly in 2014 at age 38, but his legacy lives on: Chance the Rapper and YouMedia alums started free high school-oriented events called “Open Mikes,” and on “Telefone” opener “Yesterday,” Warner eulogizes him with “Me missing Brother Mike, like something heavy/Me heart just wasn’t ready/I wish I was a kid again.” At YouMedia, it was his message of self-love that led her to expand her focus to music as well as poetry, performing as Noname Gypsy (a stage name she ditched in 2016). While she released several songs in 2013—solo cuts like “Sunday Morning” and collaborations with Mick Jenkins, Saba and the O’My’s—it was Chance the Rapper’s “Lost” that drew the most eyes to this Chicago talent.
From there, there was pressure to release a debut project. Warner, who revealed as early as 2013 that she was working on a project called “Telefone,” remembers that initial pressure: “It was difficult because there were a lot of people, even people who I love and people whose opinions I value, telling me, ‘If you don’t strike while the iron is hot, this moment won’t exist anymore.’ “
But what might have been good for her career would not have been good for her as a person and artist. “It’s been difficult these past couple of years not coming out with ‘Telefone’ in like everyone thinking that after ‘Acid Rap,’ I missed my opportunity,” she explains. Warner kept on, listening to herself rather than outside pressure. “I’m just glad that I’d listened to myself and trusted myself because I could’ve put something out, but it wouldn’t have been good! It wouldn’t have been what I wanted it to be and what I knew I could do.”
From the time of “Telefone’s” incarnation to its eventual release, she boasted notable team-ups with Chance the Rapper and the Social Experiment that included “Surf” standout “Warm Enough,” loose single “Israel (Sparring),” “Drown” off “Coloring Book” and many more.
“While it took me three years to put it out, actually making it took like a month,” she explains of the monthlong studio session she did with Saba and producer Phoelix, who were simultaneously working on the former’s “Bucket List Project.” In fact, she ended up scrapping the original concept (which was about a literal phone conversation) to make what would become a new and improved “Telefone,” releasing it in July.
The result was something darker but more human. “It’s more so supposed to be this life story of this girl, this little black girl in Chicago trying to figure shit out and maintain happiness and sanity. It’s hard because of all the things that go on in the world, but I feel like this is the album little baby Fatimah would have made.” Take “Casket Pretty,” the song she wrote in Chicago just days before the project’s release, where she draws attention to the city’s gun violence with the heart-wrenchingly evocative line, “Too many babies in suits.”
As she looks to 2017 and beyond, she’s approaching the future with an even stronger confidence. Her upcoming “Telefone” tour is completely sold out (including two nights at Metro); the night before our talk, she appeared on a surprise Christmas EP from Chance the Rapper and Jeremih; and most importantly, her recent “SNL” appearance was a life-changing success. She says, “I know it sounds cheesy, but the ‘SNL’ thing kind of changed me. I never thought someone like me could be on TV, that someone like me could feel comfortable in this space and feel joy. It’s crazy.”
But one thing she won’t do is let the internet or anyone else spark her doubts as an artist. “Now I’m in a place where I can see what the internet is doing, but I don’t allow it to sway my opinion about my art or my process,” she says, before joking of her biggest pet peeve about well-meaning fans or critics, “Whenever I outlive people calling me the female Chance the Rapper, that’ll be my testament to when I finally make it. It’s weird. No one calls Adele the female whatever, she just gets to be Adele!”
Live: Feb. 8 and 9 at Metro. Sold out.
@joshhterry | jterry@redeyechicago.com
