Noname has never been one to hold her tongue when it comes to calling out injustice. So it’s no surprise that she took to social media to offer her thoughts about how Black artistry gets commodified by corporations, which often bleeds the culture dry. On Thursday, January 19, the poet and rapper took to Instagram to challenge her fellow Black artists to start gatekeeping Black culture.
“One of the biggest mistakes I believe we’ve made in our struggle towards liberation in this country is allowing white America unfiltered access to our entire culture. White America has created an institution of violent policing and medical neglect that is killing us EVERY F**KING DAY,” she wrote.
The Chicago native urges her Black contemporaries to understand their power and how easily accessible the culture has become to the masses.
“And every day we get on their platforms (Tik Tok, Twitter, etc.), and we create trends, music, art, and language that they turn into billions,” she continued.
The rapper, whose real name is Fatimah Nyeema Warner, compared that state of Hip Hop to that of Blues, both of which originated from the Black pain and trauma artists expressed through their music. She noted that the two genres have been co-opted by white dollars.
“As black artists making black art, we have a responsibility to our community and to our culture,” she wrote. “I understand needing to survive under capitalism, but there is power in collective action! What would it look like if we all said, unless festivals, streaming, [and] social media puts 10% of their profits into a black community fund we use to house and feed people, we will no longer contribute our content.”
Read Noname’s full post below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnmQIh3Lp3f/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
