Inflo
Little Simz’s New Album, ‘No Thank You’ Came Out Today By Surprise
It’s been a year of high, lows, and now one final big payoff for Little Simz. After cancelling this year’s US tour in support of her fantastic 2021 album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, because of financial concerns, Simz’s album would up winning the 2022 Mercury Music Prize as the top album in the UK. Then just last week, she announced an upcoming follow-up album, No Thank You. Now today, without any singles or build-up, it just came out.
No Thank You was produced by Inflo, who’s been plenty busy himself, producing three tracks on Adele’s 30 and releasing not one, not two, not three, not four, but five albums at once from his Sault project last month. Mentioning Sault in the same breath as Little Simz makes a lot of sense when you press play on No Thank You, as the first song features Sault’s Cleo Sol, who’s become a right-hand vocalist of sorts for Inflo and also appears on tracks off of Introvert, like “Woman.” Furthermore, the choral, angelic, and cinematic production of No Thank You also feels extremely congruent with what Inflo has been exploring on his most recent Sault drops. It’s hard to listen to all of this music and not feel like it’s all part of a great ecosystem within Inflo’s Forever Living Originals label collective.
You can listen to that opening track, “Angel” above and check out the No Thank You album artwork and tracklist below.
1. “Angel”
2. “Gorilla”
3. “Silhouette”
4. “No Merci”
5. “X”
6. “Heart On Fire”
7. “Broken”
8. “Sideways”
9. “Who Even Cares”
10. “Control”
No Thank You is out now via Forever Living Originals. Buy or stream it here.
Little Simz Releases New Project “No Thank You”
In the past six years since releasing Stillness In Wonderland, Little Simz has truly lived up to the potential that everyone saw in her early on. The British rapper made a statement on GREY Area in 2019, cementing her as a generational voice in the UK. Since then, she’s gone on to collect plenty of awards and star in Top Boy before unleashing last year’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.
Fans might have thought that they would have to wait until 2023 for a new album from Little Simz. She barely released any music this year but last week, she announced that she was coming through with a new body of work.
Today, Simz shared her new album, NO THANK YOU. The 10-song effort has a run-time of nearly 50 minutes without any features credited. However, the project is entirely produced by SAULT’s INFLO. The results speak for themselves as Simz’s lucid flows and penmanship meet the versatile musicality of INFLO’s production. Together, they came through with a buzzer beater for Album of The Year.
As the album dropped, Simz shared a brief statement regarding the project.
“emotion is energy in motion.
honour your truth and feelings.
eradicate fear.
boundaries are important.”
Hopefully, the release of NO THANK YOU leads to a tour in 2022. Press play on Little Simz’s new project and sound off with your thoughts in the comments.
Inflo Wants To Establish A Base Rate And Royalty For Young Producers
Inflo, the reigning BRIT Awards Producer Of The Year, has been absolutely on fire as of late with his work as the creative force behind Sault, producing tracks for Adele’s latest album, 30, and for British R&B singer Cleo Sol. But as the London producer (whose real name is Dean Josiah Cover) sees his success skyrocketing, he has his mind on protecting the interests of aspiring creatives who are looking to follow in his footsteps.
In a recent Instagram post, Inflo indicated that he and Nathan Burke, his partner on the Forever Living Originals label (that releases Sault and Cleo Sol’s music), are trying to establish a base rate and royalty structure for up and coming producers in the UK. Inflo said that they’ve been engaged in talks with music industry leaders in hopes of changing the paradigm.
“This will ensure young producers are protected on any major label releases and have a code of conduct to go by,” he said.
He acknowledged the significance of being the first Black person since 1977 to win the Producer Of The Year award at the BRITs and notes, “Most young producers, especially young black producers, come into the business really pure, with friends as management and no real guidance, protection or understanding.”
You can read the entire statement from Inflo below and power to him and this effort.
“Nathan & I have been on a mission to introduce a base rate and royalty for young producers in the UK.
This will ensure young producers are protected on any major label releases and have a code of conduct to go by.
We’ve been having conversations with producers, artists, labels and lawyers to see what that rate can be. Everyone agrees no young or upcoming producers should be exploited, and the artist shouldn’t have to give up any further royalty share than they already have been.
Most young producers, especially young black producers, come into the business really pure, with friends as management and no real guidance, protection or understanding. They’re often eager for placements and would sign without fully understanding contracts, in desperation of life-changing opportunities.
I honestly feel most of us have come into the music business to make it a better place creatively and economically, for the opportunity to leave a legacy that our children and children’s children can be proud of.
I didn’t want to speak on my award without any real progress being made, but we are now at the halfway point and I wanted to acknowledge the moment.
Thanks to the Brits for acknowledging me as Producer of the Year. I feel very humbled and grateful to be the first black producer to win in this category since 1977. Big up all the Black British producers before I & I and killing it right now everywhere, so inspiring!!
Love to Nathan & my Forever Living Originals team for supporting me in every way.
Love to Mummy, DD Cleo & Little Man
Love to God.”
Sault Just Dropped A Surprise New Album Out Of Nowhere Called ‘Air’
Everything Sault has ever done has come with an aura of mystique, so dropping a new album out of nowhere should surprise nobody. Their last album, Nine, was only available for 90 days and they dropped two albums in both 2019 and 2020, including their crown jewel, Untitled (Black Is). We know that the group is largely the brainchild of British producer Inflo, who came up working with Michael Kiwanuka, Jungle, Cleo Sol, Little Simz, and most recently, producing three songs off of Adele’s 30. Sault’s first five albums have featured vocals from Sol and Monica Young (aka Kid Sister), but Air, the newest addition to the groups quickly growing discography, sounds nothing like the others.
The group purged every post from their Instagram page and then today started fresh by posting the Air album cover and then five subsequent previews of some of the album’s tracks. Everything on Air feels incredible cinematic, almost like it’s earmarked as a soundtrack for a visual component that’s yet to come. The opening track “Reality” establishes chamber orchestra-like instrumentals with a vocal chant as a motif through each of the seven tracks. The title track feels like the score of a movie where springtime is in bloom, as strings unfurl, cymbals crash and an indistinct female vocal comes in midway through the song. At the end of the fifth track, “Time is Precious,” we hear the first distinct lyrics from what pretty clearly sounds like Cleo Sol backed by a choir as she hums the song’s title in ethereal fashion. Album closer “Luos Higher” introduces spaghetti western strings and the whole album comes across like an interlude towards whatever the next step is. Whatever the next move is for Sault, it’ll certainly be a calculated one. For now, listen to Air in full below, with the album artwork in the player and the tracklist at the bottom.
1. “Reality”
2. “Air”
3. “Heart”
4. “Solar”
5. “Time Is Precious”
6. “June 55”
7. “Luos Higher”
Little Simz Shares A Blistering New Track About Her Father, ‘I Love You, I Hate You’
British rapper Little Simz has a blistering new song out today called “I Love You, I Hate You,” which is the latest offering from her forthcoming album Sometimes I Might Be An Introvert, her first full-length release since 2019’s critically acclaimed Grey Area. Unrolling pointed verses over swells of horns and strings, with a sung chorus of “I love you, I hate you,” Simz addresses her father on the Inflo-produced track.
She says in a statement, “Flo asked me, ‘What do you love and what do you hate?’ I knew the answer immediately, but I was adamant I didn’t want to talk about it.” The song’s lyrics echo her inner-conflict, as Simz asks, “Is you a sperm donor or a dad to me?” Later, she gets even more blunt: “You made a promise to God to be there for your kids […] You made a promise to give them a life you didn’t live / My ego won’t fully allow me to say that I miss you / A woman who hasn’t confronted all her daddy issues.”
Prior to this, Little Simz released the singles “Rollin Stone,” “Woman,” and “Introvert.”
Listen to the poignant “I Love You, I Hate You” above.
Sometimes I Might Be An Introvert is out 9/3 via Age 101. Pre-order it here.