A 17-year-old rapper from Cleveland, NoonieVsEverybody has started putting out a series of singles that’ll lead up to the release of his debut mixtape.
"LOYALTY," the latest single, just came came out today.
“The neighborhood I lived in was never peaceful,” he says in a press release promoting the new single. “There was always violence. That’s why people don’t want to come here. Either you get out, or you die here. Even though it’s home, I’m going to get my mama and my people out of Cleveland.”
Weaned on classic hip-hop, Tupac, Jadakiss, Waka Flocka Flame and Gucci Mane, NoonieVsEverybody regularly got suspended from elementary school, but he channeled his troubles into raps, filling up notebooks with songs and ideas.
“The struggle was the main focus of my rapping,” he says. “I wouldn’t be rapping in the first place if I wasn’t telling a story about my neighborhood and everything I go through.”
In 2019, he was featured on tracks by his uncle Trapper Entertainment. His freestyle on Instagram caught the attention of a major label, and he immediately hit the studio. He made his official introduction with an appearance on the “LVRN Cypher” Spotify single alongside big-name heavyweights such as 6LACK, Westside Boogie, BRS Kash and OMB Bloodbath.
All that just set the stage for his proper solo introduction. "LOYALTY" tells a "heartfelt and heartbreaking story" in vivid detail. NoonieVsEverybody's Tupac-like confessional verses cut through sparse piano and beats as he admits, “I knew I was something/but I just couldn’t find nothing until I picked that pen up/hungry, stomach was rumbling.”
At the same time, he elegized another late uncle who, as he recounts, “told me if I want it, chase it, never think secondly.”
"'LOYALTY' is really the start of my story,” he says.
The "LOYALTY" video was filmed in the East Cleveland neighborhood where NoonieVsEverybody grew up.
In the end, NoonieVsEverybody hopes his lyrics will resound in his hometown and far beyond.
“When you listen to this, you’re going to feel it,” he says. “A lot of people go through similar situations. I’m just being honest about all of it.”
