Che Noir released It Takes A Village, her new 12 track album, on October 23, 2026. The Buffalo born rapper built the record around motherhood, family and personal growth, with production from Havoc, Nottz, Conductor Williams and Mathematics.
The album is a personal statement that stays inside her gritty underground hip hop roots. Che Noir assembled collaborators to match the title: Black Thought, Ransom, Bruiser Wolf and The Uce guest on the record, while the production bench runs from Mobb Deep Havoc to Wu-Tang Clan Mathematics. The result is a short, dense album in which the village is not a theme pasted on afterwards. It is the credits list itself.
It Takes A Village tracklist in full
The It Takes A Village tracklist runs 12 songs, with producers credited track by track:
1. Unity Of Thought (produced by Bopman)
2. This Morning (produced by DJ Design)
3. Grandma’s Cookies (produced by Playa Haze)
4. Urban Essence featuring The Uce (produced by Havoc)
5. A Caged Mockingbird (produced by Havoc)
6. Fame & Fiction featuring Black Thought (produced by Mathematics)
7. Conductor’s Interlude (produced by Conductor Williams)
8. Blood Bath (produced by A Guy Called Purple)
9. My Village (produced by Nottz)
10. Olive Branches featuring Jynx716 (produced by Kage Green)
11. Wasted Time featuring Ransom (produced by Conductor Williams)
12. Magic featuring Bruiser Wolf (produced by Chuck Strangers and Ill Brown)
Read as a sequence, the tracklist is built in halves. The first six songs move from unity and morning reflection through family memory to the Fame & Fiction duet with Black Thought, the album’s most decorated pairing. The second half turns harder with Blood Bath, then resolves through My Village, Olive Branches and Wasted Time into Magic, a closer that lets Che Noir and Bruiser Wolf distance themselves from past issues over a chipmunk soul beat from Chuck Strangers and Ill Brown.
Fame & Fiction and Grandma’s Cookies set the tone
Two singles prepared the album. Fame & Fiction, featuring Black Thought and produced by Mathematics, arrived on October 16 as the advance single, a pairing that placed Che Noir verse for verse with one of the most respected lyricists in the genre. Grandma’s Cookies, produced by Playa Haze, carried the album’s family theme in its title alone, and Che Noir explained the song in her own words when its video arrived:
Grandma’s Cookies is really inspired by the memories that stay with you long after you’ve grown up. This is me just rapping, no gimmicks, and no distractions. Playa Haze gave me this gritty smooth backdrop, and the title is so nostalgic; but at its core, the song is really about the kind of substance and authenticity I feel like Hip-Hop is always going to need.
Those two songs frame the album range. One is a credential record, trading verses with Black Thought over a Mathematics beat. The other is a memory record, built on a grandmother kitchen and a claim about what hip hop needs. It Takes A Village keeps moving between those poles, public proof and private grounding, for its full running time.
A village of producers and guests
The production choices reinforce the writing. Havoc handles two consecutive songs, Urban Essence and A Caged Mockingbird, giving the album’s middle a hard, minimal spine. Conductor Williams appears twice, on his own interlude and on Wasted Time, the Ransom collaboration, where a soulful instrumental carries a conscious exchange about time and hustle. Nottz produces My Village, chopping a soul sample while Che Noir writes about her hopes of making her mother proud. Olive Branches pairs her with fellow Buffalo voice Jynx716, keeping one guest slot for home.
Early review coverage has landed in the same place. Vibe My Life scored the album 7 out of 10 and called it among the most personal music in her discography, noting that the production picks up near the midway point while the themes hold throughout: transitioning into motherhood, the support systems it requires, and the sacrifices and community needed to build a life and a career at the same time. HotNewHipHop’s album listing confirms the October 23 release date and the same 12 song sequence published here.
It Takes A Village is available now. For listeners who follow lyric driven underground rap, it is the week’s essential album: a Buffalo rapper, a bench of proven producers, a Black Thought feature that earns its place, and a title the record actually lives up to.
