The East Bay is flush with ascendant rappers. But Oakland’s Tia Nomore not only has swagger, poise, artful inflection, and cadence calibrated for impact, she’s got bars. Halfway through “My Favorite Song,” on Halloween, for instance, the rapper declares, Fuck chill. She then opts for dizzying imagery — melanin, acrylics, gunplay, thermals, gerbils — and intricate wordplay, such as I Cher like Sonny Bono/Black and white keys/Moving pianos. And for people keeping track of such things, this precocious lyricist has traded verses with E-40, too.
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