Noname "Sundial" Track By Track Album discussion || Secret House Against Album Reviews

[@achronos178]

I am so excited for this. Her first two albums haven't left rotation for me.

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

You won't be disappointed.

[@achronos178]

@@secretHOUSEagainst I was not disappointed in the least!

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Two things: 1. Its either serendipitously dope or brilliant that this dropped on hiphops 50th anniversary. 2. When we made the review, the album cover had been included but not released to the public yet. So i wasnt sure if it was going to be the final cover. I saw some really absurd comments about the cover today and i gotta say... people are on some absolutely fuckin silly shit. Im not sure exactly what shes saying with that cover work but ive got some ideas. Seeing the people call it "ugly" and the "worst cover of the year" are kinda leading me to think its making an intentional statement about those very people.

[@ayronola]

100% on that last part, there's a Vice article with the cover artist Frank Dorrey where he kinda gets at those ideas and the root of his work. the album is incredible and so important, really appreciate how you guys went for the long ass in-depth convo for this one. SECRET HOUSE !!

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Yo thank you tremendously fam! Im really bad at keeping up with internet info but I've got to look into that one. I think this track by track breakdown came out pretty good and despite feeling like I didn't say enough, I'm happy with the end result. I definitely want to keep that in mind for other dense albums. Hopefully we have some other albums that demand this type of attention in the future. Either way, gotdamn this is a listen. Noname forever. And than you again for being apart of our small channel. Peace suchness.

[@keontesealey1870]

So far y'all absolutely got the best review/reaction for this album. Its so refreshing to actually listen to people who actually care & have knowledge on what Noname is actually talking about (ie we understand who this album is for) !

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Yo thank you much for your comment fam! We try our best! - Meg

[@QuixoticUkulele]

I'mma be hoenst: Ive been seeing a few yt reviewers 💩 ing on this record not realizing this record isn't for them.

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Yeah most definitely. Even outside of that. There are just a few too many weak takes about this album. To be expected but still got me kinda erked.

[@derfgerps4016]

This album contains multitudes for a 32 minute album and her pen was breathtaking. I play every track twice the replay value is powerful.

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Yeah word. For as dense as it is, it's also a really catchy vibrant listen. Amazing album.

[@cake_pilin_pona]

I'm glad you guys went into depth about this album. Great review

[@idiotdoomspiral666]

this feels like the end of a beautiful journey

[@bigmoneybusboy]

Subbed and definitely gonna watch this once the album drops in the US

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Thanks fam!

[@axlgzrdmattick]

I really liked the track by track review, cool format even if it was a one time

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Thanks fam. Might have to bring that out more often. Especially for dense albums.

[@Nitro-dv5pv]

Really enjoyed listening to you guys, thanks for going track by track, this album deserves all the praise and then some.

[@Pastorpresents]

Great review fellas, and this album is def one of my favorites for the year

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Thanks fam! Definitely one of ours as well.

[@bennettm4213]

So glad you guys gave this one the time it deserved. And it’s awesome that this channel has that noname connection as well. The guy who produced Beauty Supply, Emil, is one of the best producers coming out of the UK/London just fyi. Definitely recommend checking out his other work with Knucks, DC, etc… !

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Word. You stay tapped in with the dope art! Thanks for holding us down fam!

[@cajokolo]

I just subscribed to your page. Loving the album. Fam, your review is on point, you touched on all important points, loved the convo!

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Yo thank you for clocking in. Appreciate the sub, thought, and hopefully we review some other shit you rock with as well. - Meg

[@terrenceholden]

I'm listening tonight!

[@idkSTEREO]

Exclusive!

[@oldmanchristian4333]

Spade - just wanted to say I like your production brotherman first name last name

[@tokyostashandspade5695]

😂😂😂

[@arandomautizzy]

Probably her best album easily, gotta sit with this for sure. Not sure how I feel about the minor black people are gods stuff but maybe it's more metaphorical. This is aoty contender for sure!

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Word thank you so much for the comment fam! Definitely an album of the year contender. It's amazing!! As for the minor god stuff, I feel people should be about as concerned with the black people calling themselves gods like as they are with people calling themselves kings or queens or even children of god. I might argue that the approach is less toxic than other commonly thrown around terms like "alpha male" or HNIC. The idea grows out of a long history of extreme dehumanization coupled with religious colonization and the modern age of scientific genetic biology. It was and remains primarily black empowerment reification. As right, misguided, wrong headed, or reductive as all that may be, its a fairly common yet understated part of the popular western black ideology. Its oft ignored until someone wants to take a go at black people feeling superior. I could rifle off 30 mainstream emcees who share the belief that haven't gotten flack for it. To me, there are far more important material issues being spoken about on this album than any single personal ontological hang ups. If I had to pick apart everyone's ideological shortcomings I'd never enjoy art. Thanks again!

[@genericwhitename8776]

also I hope y'all review the Teezo album. love Teezo and am very interested in how y'all will feel about it despite not having heard it (i'm fuckin here watching a review of an album I haven't heard so)

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Defo will keep it in mind. Thanks for the heads up. Didn't know he was dropping.

[@dezatoosweet]

SHIT WAS GAS!!

[@Anacaonas_Flowers]

Has L-Spade ever explained why he doesn’t identify as a socialist/leftist but does identify as a feminist? I’m new to the channel and love your dynamic btw!

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

I haven't heard him explain that but from the west it's incredibly common to not hold leftist politics but have socially liberal positions about sex and gender. Identitarian politics, especially in 2023 are par the course. Wokeness is a less descriptive term for social justice politics, a successor ideology to liberalism.

[@TF-tn4ft]

This album and this review are incredibly refreshing. I'm exhausted by the constant virtue signaling and black-and-white thinking we see online. People feel that they are above criticism and don't take the time to interrogate their beliefs. This notion of a "perfect leader" is entirely flawed. Noname clearly knows this and that's why her project and the features turned out the way that they did.

[@TF-tn4ft]

I know many people were angry at Kendrick's last album, but I believe he shares a similar sentiment. We're all imperfect people, even "good" people trying their best to make an impact on society.

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

I feel you. While I typically stray from the term "virtue signaling" because how tethered it is to reactionary right wing idiots like Jordan Peterson, there is definitely something to be said about it. There is a tremendous impulse from woke liberalism to focus on individual social purity. The presentation of such and the rally against any impropriety. In our comments here, we've had people who were seemingly emotionally invested in Jay Electronicas verse because the Zelensky line. I began to feel like I missed something because I simply did not see how it was much of a statement on his position about the war or the people effected. His alleged antisemitic history (which I use allegeded because I personally did not hear any of it or see it) is definitely something I feel people could stand against in terms of not accepting his work. However, to tie that to Noname because she is vocal about socio-political issues is kind of wild considering she may not even be aware of those "improprieties." I feel confident in thinking that his feature was not a tacit endorsement of his politics or ideological positions. As it's clear the NOI is not something that she shares politics affiliation or even ideological similarities with outside a condemnation of white supremacy and colonialism. I saw Mike on Dead End Hip-hop say it would be like doing a song with Feefo and feefo saying something terrible. Then Mike would distance himself from the track or ask to remove feefo. This Jay elect feature does not say another other that the typical and TIRED 5%er nonsense about being empowered with godliness. So why is it being attacked as if the verse is from a woman beater that's talking about beating women? the 5%er shit gets a pass from whites Jews and others on virtually every other pro NOI, or godbody rapper. it's as if people don't understand what they're talking about. Curious. The mass popular culture narrative around Noname and her album have soured every review I've seen. They don't want to talk about the art but they want to talk about her ideological position that aren't on the record. And what makes it even more gross to me is that the vast majority of these woke liberals have no idea what socialism even is. So they barely understand her points on the record in the first place. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills lol.

[@alexlopes3930]

ALREADY? DAMN SON

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Word lol. She sent us the album last week.

[@alexlopes3930]

@@secretHOUSEagainst i just listened to it via VPN, and it's freaking AMAZING 10/10

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Agreed

[@genericwhitename8776]

mega as a five percenter is so funny to me idk

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

That fool was crazy but I was still dope af. Only b-boy rocking a kufi. Backpack full of spray paint and books. Dr Umar would be shook lol.

[@zeigeis]

I liked the album a lot but I do at least see some of the issue with the jay elec verse (Though not nearly as much as the internet tried to make it seem). Honestly my biggest issue is with the Zelensky line mostly because I got ukranian friends (I see what you said on the neo nazis on the ukranian front but come on man that's not a point when Putin has Wagner out there) and even that is only tangentially anti-jewish. Mostly just skip that track but I really enjoyed the rest of the album. I will say maybe it's my leaning and background but I really didn't see the woods verse as an optimistic take on Mugabe and all that he did as much as painting the picture of being in that crowd as a child, with the small boys with guns being more of an ominous thing there but like I said maybe I'm seeing it from a different lens.

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

My many point is more that there is so much emphasis on of Jays prior antisemitism and not on the actual substance of the verse. I'm honestly asking, the zelensky line is what? And what does that have to do antisemitism? Are we to read into that as an anti Ukrainian line? This is why I pull the contradiction of neo nazis in the Ukraine because the projection. I honestly don't give a shit about Jay Electronica or his religious ideology and he doesn't sour the experience for me any more than Common does. As for the woods verse. Yeah perhaps not a take that's indicative of his views on Mugabe now but the sentiment of what was in the air... Gospel. Jet pointed out my "History Will Absolve.." line and really that was just a throw back to woods first album cover.

[@akimdeen5751]

What would u rate all her albums from greatest to least

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

My personal order would be Sundial at 1 and Telefone at 3. She keeps getting better. - Meg

[@jet_axel]

@@secretHOUSEagainst 👆🏽

[@blackowopheus4396]

$ilkmoney is so slept on, it's crazy

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

You must be right because I ain't even know him before this fire feature.

[@blackowopheus4396]

@@secretHOUSEagainst you should definitely check out his album "attacks of the future shocked, flesh covered meatbags of the 85"😂😂 the name alone got me hooked

[@tokyostashandspade5695]

Oh man dude got off! 💯💯🔥🔥🔥

[@smidlem1117]

as a preamble: sorry if my tone Is raw in the comment below, i am from eastern europe and my boyfriend is jewish so when i talk about the jay verse below, understand that he is barging in on topics that touch a VERY raw nerve for me. you claim there's a need for nuance wrt the jay verse but funny how he isn't giving that nuance in return. the zelenskyy line is on its own with zero context and i'm sorry but what is supposed to be taken out of that except that he thinks that the entire war is basically faked? if he wanted to say something specific he could have; that he didn't and that ye are extending yourselves to defend him is very telling. i say this as someone who has had a loooooot of people i know having to move permanently because of this terrible god damn war, even those who aren't immediately in ukraine, because this is an empire trying to march again and reclaim its former glory. do you seriously think that there are less nazis on the russian side than the ukrainian side also btw? especially when one of putin's right-hand men, aleksandr dugin, is a nazi bolshevik himself and leader of the party of national bolshevism? focusing on the azov battalion without proper context is smokescreening in support of an empire, and if you guys don't know about this stuff then simply do not speak on it, end of. i'm seriously put off by everyone on youtube trying to downplay what happened on this song, and i even like the album in spite of it! but if you aren't ready to talk about where and how jay (and noname by proxy) fuck up (and fuck up severely) then i think that's messed up.

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

Thanks for the comment. I appreciate your passion for the topic and as long as someone isn't out of pocket on the channel I'm willing to engage with in most discussions. I am tremendously sympathic to your feelings and to all the people losing their lives and being displaced in that geopolitical fuck show. I want to be clear that my politics are not inline with Jay Electronica. In fact, the vast majority of our ideological pillars are tremendously different. I find his views laughable. I'm sure Noname and I have a variety of different views on socialist politics as well. So let me see if I can make myself more clear here. First off, I dont necessarily subscribe to picking part an individual's ideological dumb shit. I don't care to take the time to cancel culture people or boycott things outside of my purview. If I was to take my positions to task that way I wouldn't be able to support anyone or virtually anything. I respect people for not listening to r Kelly or for them disavowing presidents. I do too. With Jay, I am not really a fan of him and I have never given him a dollar. I can see talent but yeah. I have no idea what Noname's relationship is with him or if his ideology is something that she considered with this feature. If we go down the slippery slope of tacit endorsement were all gonna have a ton of skeletons. I do not like essentializing people in that manner. "Be kind to people and ruthless to systems." And that's where I find this interesting. That's where I want nuance. Not the individual but the system. I do think the nation of Islam, reactionaries, most conspiracy theorists, actual Nazi's and those that conflat Jews with some elite/ evil manipulation are absurd. Idiotic even. I have not done a deep dive into Jay Electronica allegeded anti semitism but intimately knowing the nation I can imagine the nonsense. The history of western post civil rights black empowerment ideology has been almost completely infiltrated by many of the values set forth by farakhans nation. From bootstrap black capitalism, Obama-esque technocratic community based upliftment programs, and particularly the bio-deterministic coin of religious genetic reality. Jays specific examples of antisemitism are functionally beset on all sides by a great majority of rappers. Particularly those that grow out of the 70s and 80s when these politics were emerging. The vast majority of fans give doom, Wu, ice cube, common, mos def, passes on this shit as, a "they must be talking about the bad whites and not us." Word most fuckin likely because it's a weak ideology and the contradictions that emerge are ridiculous on both sides. The contradictions are rampant. But here because something recent is said, the focus belies that instead of the actual ideology. I've yet to see anyone discussing the historical reasons why it emerged and continuing to focus on the purity of expression. A sanitized expression that can be whatever just as long as it stays within an approved spectrum. Which in my opinion is one of the most frustrating aspects of the terminally online culture war folks. To them I say: go ham, boycott, make a tweet, express yourself. To me, yeah I'm a bit more concerned about other things. I have no intention of pinning Noname to that NOI ideology as from what I feel about her takes on black expression are deeper and more nuanced by that. If she don't want white folks on her music well... She can go off, make a tweet, or whatever. Not my fight. She's her own artist and that's allowed in my book. Moving on to the actual verse from Jay, I'm not sure I agree with your thought on what he's saying in it. I think the context for the zelensky line is right there in the verse and I'm not getting a disavowing of the Ukrainians, an endorsement of Russians, nazbols, or pretty much anything deep from it at all. He says some 5%er NOI of Islam shit, he's not calling Jews being the infidels (he's talking about white people). He says he's fighting behind enemy lines around 85ers, which if you don't know is everyone without knowledge of self. If anything "evil elite Jews" would actually be the 10%ers. And he says the whole thing is a joke, like zelensky, the former comedian. If you want to read into it as him calling the war a hoax. Go off. I don't think that's it and I refuse to be called an apologist lol. I am a Marxist. And with that, my view of the war in the Ukraine isn't even on some Russian bad, Ukraine good. I believe it is a geopolitical war that requires as much a look at the problems with Russian as it does with western hegemony and NATO. It's fucked and the working class people on both sides are being fucked. I understand how your proximity to people being killed and displaced makes for a difficult topic but I really don't see how this Jay verse has anything to do with that. As I said passing in the video, anyone that followed that geopolitical football before Russia invaded was getting western news about the growing Nazi problem in the Ukraine. If Jay hated the Jews why wouldnt he be in support of a growing Nazi regime? Hopefully this gives a more clear insight into my position. - Meg

[@tokyostashandspade5695]

Hmm… totally respect your opinion and I’m a supporter of America’s presence in Ukraine and have Ukrainian loved one, but you’re doing that weird thing we’re you want a rapper to give nuance and answer for their problematic behavior but not doing so for a the leader of a country. A rapper has to explain himself but not the leader of a country that getting millions of American dollars by the day? A country that by the way mistreated African refugees escaping Ukrainian cities during Russian invasion. Even tried to make them fight in the war. I apologize but this argument kind of falls on deaf ears for me. What power does Jay has in comparison to a leader of a whole nation? I appreciate your passion and I only speak for myself (DJ L-Spade) not Jet or Mega.

[@Ed-ss1uh]

Quiet down radicalized affluent European, Ukrainians have every reason to fight for themselves but are not absolved of criticism if they re forced to use evil, to fight evil then so be it, but to dismiss it and pretend like they can't acknowledge the foul shit among they're ranks because of pro ukraine narrative, is some wack bootlicker shit yet we should be all fall in line, because some lackluster leader has become the idolized salvation/scapegoat for the war.

[@fleeness]

I agree with a lot of what you have to say. Not the sentiment about the war though. What was Ukraine supposed to do when facing not Russia or the Russian people but....Putin the imperialist dictator. Just let him have a little more Ukraine....then Belarus....Idk man. There are different levels to war. Vietnam no, WW2 yes.

[@secretHOUSEagainst]

@@fleeness word. I'm not sure if you're responding to me or Spade but my sentiment about the war is not quite as uncomplicated as "Putin = imperialist." The war is a geopolitical football with a variety of factors. One of them being western hegemony, particularly US imperialism, via NATO. The historical factors don't play out in a simplified version of propaganda that I often hear from westerners, be they liberals (Americans Dems/ Cons) or even the so-called "anarchists" I encounter. I am especially against the western takes of "good guys vs bad guys." I find the lack of historical materialism in those takes laughably bad and playing into the same propaganda that has allowed NATO and western hegemony to practice pseudo-imperialism and devasting interference in so many sovereign nations. My position is not an endorsement of the actions taken but does seriously take into account the causation therein. Just because Russia is one of the only non western powers does not necessarily align me with their politics. Again, nuance. And by that I mean, dialectical assessment of the material and historical conditions. That said, the Jay Electronica verse is absent of pretty much any serious assesment of the war or even his position on it, other than Zelensky being a former comedian. Thanks again for your thoughtful comment! - Meg