A partnership between Noname, Saba, and Smino has been a long time coming now. In July of 2018, Saba shared a photo of himself with Noname and Smino and captioned it, “A RARE PHOTO SET OF 3 YOUNG GOATS CASUALLY RESHAPING WHAT POPULAR MUSIC WILL SOUND LIKE FOR THE NEXT 20 OF THEM THANGS.” Later, he was asked if there would be a collaborative project between the three Chicago rappers, and he responded simply, “2019.”
It’s 2019, and sure enough, things are happening on that front. The three appeared on The Tonight Show together back in January, performing Noname’s Room 25 track “Ace.” More recently, the news everybody has been looking forward to was confirmed: The trio have formed a new hip-hop supergroup, Ghetto Sage. A few days after that announcement, they have shared their first official song, “Häagen Dazs.”
The three all go in on a woozy trap beat, and immediately, they sound like a natural fit together. That’s probably because this is far from their first collaboration. Aside from the previously mentioned “Ace,” all three also appear on “Shadow Man” from Noname’s 2016 album Telefone.
There’s no firm word about a full-length project from the trio yet. At least for the immediate future, though, Ghetto Sage appears to be Noname’s primary focus, as she recently retweeted a post from the Ghetto Sage Twitter and wrote, “All new Noname raps located here.”
Listen to “Haagen Dazs” above, and revisit our look at the potential of Ghetto Sage here.
