Noname has cancelled the release of her highly-anticipated second album ‘Factory Baby’.

The Chicago rapper made an initial announcement about the new album and its lead single ‘Rainforest’ earlier this year. The song, which sees her rap about racism and classism in America, is produced by The Kount and features vocals from frequent collaborator Adam Ness.

She confirmed that fans could expect ‘Factory Baby’ at some point in 2021, with an exact release date to be revealed. But yesterday (December 5), Noname took to her Instagram to explain why the new album would no longer be on the horizon.

“Most days I’m not sure if I’ll ever make music again,” she said on her Instagram Story, as reported by HotNewHipHop. “The last time I was consistently making songs was four years ago. It’s been so hard to find producers to link up with and who I genuinely connect with sonically. I’m truly grateful for the art I was able to release but that might be it from me.”

She continued: “Like, it shouldn’t be this hard. No lie this sh*t actually makes me incredibly sad and I rarely leave the crib these days. I don’t want to keep lying and saying there’s an album on the way when there’s not. I’m sorry I’ve lead y’all on. I wanted to believe things would change but they haven’t.”

‘Factory Baby’ would have been the follow-up to 2018’s ‘Room 25’. In a five-star review of the album, NME‘s El Hunt wrote, “‘Room 25’ is not only smartly constructed and laced with intricate subtlety – it’s laugh-out-loud funny, too.”

‘Rainforest’ marked the first new song from Noname since ‘Song 33’ last year, which was written in response to apparent criticism she received from J. Cole in his song ‘Snow On The Bluff‘.

She later apologised, writing on social media that she regretted writing and releasing the song. “I tried to use it as a moment to draw attention back to the issues i care about but i didn’t have to respond,” she said.

“My ego got the best of me. i apologize for any further distraction this caused.”