Noname, the hypnotic rapper from Chicago, is among the best young artists coming from the US these days. Actually, she’s more than a rapper. She’s a groovy poet that came to the stage when she popped up in Chance the Rapper’s orbit, in the early twenty-tens. There is always something surreal in the crystal stainlessness of her delivery and tone.

Room 25, her newest album, showcases a great complement with the album’s main producer, the instrumentalist Phoelix, who supports Noname with docile loops of R&B compositions. Independence is on Noname’s mind, in her life both as an artist and as a woman. She is not interested in signing to a label, and she financed the production of this project using the proceeds from touring Telefone.

On Room 25, she unloads it all - joy, pain, and stress - in a breathless, ruminating flow that requires deep listening to fully absorb. When Noname raps, she’s leaning in to speak only to you. Much like Telefone, Noname’s breakthrough 2016 mixtape, Room 25 presents her as a conflicted soul in the midst of deep thought, embracing life as it comes.