Source: PYMCA / Getty
Noname emerged as one of the most potent wordsmiths of her generation but currently spends her days leading a well-organized book club and embracing revolutionary themes. The Chicago native was absent from a track featuring her Ghetto Sage bandmates in Saba and Smino on a song from the Judas & The Black Messiah soundtrack, which she says had to do with the film’s portrayal of the late Fred Hampton.
Executive produced by Hit-Boy, Dash Sherrod, Ryan Coogler, and Archie Davis, the Judah & The Black Messiah soundtrack features a bevy of big names such as Jay-Z, Nas, H.E.R., JID, Masego, Rapsody, and a verse from the late Nipsey Hussle among others.
For “Plead The .45th,” which features St. Louis native Smino and Chicago’s Saba, Noname’s absence from the midwest supergroup’s song caught the eye of many.
This why they ain’t put you on the soundtrack sis ✊🏾 https://t.co/pYuAzJOE8b
— B.I.G.K.E.V. (@indiKEV) February 9, 2021
what’s crazy is they asked. i was supposed to be on the song with saba and smi but after seeing the movie i decided to pass
— 🌱 (@noname) February 9, 2021
The fan was assumably addressing a now-deleted tweet where Noname wrote, “[I] hope people actually go study fred hampton’s analysis on u.s imperialism and fascism beyond just seeing a movie.”
Another fan asked if the film is required watching, which Noname answered bluntly.
“[I]t was shot beautifully, the acting was amazing. but it’s a movie about an informant. fred is secondary and his radical communist politics are centered, at all,” she said.
it was shot beautifully, the acting was amazing. but it’s a movie about an informant. fred is secondary and his radical communist politics are centered, at all.
— 🌱 (@noname) February 9, 2021
The film itself does put some focus on Hampton’s radical views and Daniel Kaluuya but as the title suggests, the emphasis is put on William “Bill” O’Neal, a petty criminal turned FBI informant who got close to the Illinois Black Panther Party’s inner workings to the point he was named a leading member of the security detail for the group.
O’Neal was revealed to be involved in the raid by police that left Hampton and fellow Black Panther Mark Clark dead at the hands of crooked Chicago police officers. O’Neal was entered into the Federal Witness Protection Program and moved to California under the alias William Hart but returned to Chicago in the mid-1980s.
On January 15, 1990, O’Neal, then 40, reportedly ran into traffic onto the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway and was killed. His death was ruled a suicide.
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Photo: Getty
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