Little Simz is one of London’s greatest export. The rapper pours it all out in her music, unapologetically exploring topics such as depression, misogyny, and more. On her latest album, No Thank You, that’s still a community. However, the entertainer almost managed to squeeze in that when it comes to the art form of hip-hop, she goes apesh*t.
In the official video for her single, “Gorilla,” that’s crystal clear through her clever wordplay and admirable spunk. The visual directed by Dave Meyers proves that no matter the element, no one is lyrically messing with Little Simz.
As she raps, “Cuttin’ through the jungle in an all-black fitted / Hat low, incognito livin’ / Introvert, but, she ain’t timid / My art will be timeless, I don’t do limits / Be very specific when you talk on who the best is / How can I address this? / Basically, the rest is almost like to me what a stain to a vest is / You ain’t drop nothin’ in my eyes I’m impressed with,” how could you not be thoroughly impressed.
This level of creative imagination is only heightened by the video in which Meyers follows Simz and her friends as they effortlessly roam the world looking for competition.
UK rapper Little Simz is finally coming (back) to America after financial issues derailed her last planned tour, forcing her to reschedule it. Simz had planned to tour North America last spring after releasing her critically acclaimed album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, but as an independent artist, the tour would have left her in debt. “As much as this pains me to not see you at this time, I’m just not able to put myself through that mental stress,” she wrote at the time.
In the year since, the Mercury Prize winner put out another critically hailed project, No Thank You, and toured Europe, resulting in the On Stage Off Stage short film. Apparently, that’s put her in a better space, allowing her to announce a 10-date slate kicking off in Chicago on September 20 and hitting Atlanta, LA, and New York. Tickets go on sale beginning Thursday, April 13 at 10 am local time. Find more information here.
09/20 – Chicago, IL @ The Riviera Theatre
09/24 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Heaven)
09/27 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
09/28 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
09/29 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
10/3 – Los Angeles, CA @ The NOVO
10/8 – Toronto, ON @ HISTORY
10/9 – Montreal, QC @ MTELUS
10/11 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
10/13 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
Little Simz dropped what might just be the last great album of 2022 in No Thank You. Released seemingly by surprise on December 12, the 10-track album was produced entirely by Inflo. It sees Simz grappling with her mounting fame, pitted against society’s greater ills in the process. Now she’s put out a stirring short film to accompany the album.
Directed by Gabriel Moses and filmed just outside of Paris, it opens with her rapping “X,” the pivotal midpoint track to No Thank You. The visual looks like Simz is delivering a sermon. Images of afro-imperialism are interspersed and she delivers punishing verses like: “This is post-apocalyptic where we stand. You wanna give us the Bible and have us give up the land. They will dangle the carrot when nothin’ is in your hand. And tell you never to worry, ‘it’s all just part of the plan.’”
The video morphs into an interpretive dance number set to “Silhouette,” before “Sideways” kicks in and Simz extols her empowered self, rapping, “They say Black don’t crack. My complexion is iridescent.” The film shifts into the track “Broken,” set to powerful images of child soldier depictions, moments of death, and a feeling of running away from a haunting past. Still, Simz looks deeper within herself, and a particular stanza stands out:
“Look how far you’ve come and see you’ve only just started
You exist, you alive, you are deservin’ of life
You are a beacon of light, you are determined to fly
You have a journal inside, you have the power to write”
“Heart On Fire” closes the moving film and it’s the most literal visual depiction of her facing her recent fame. She’s the belle of a ball, being honored, but feeling inherent guilt. She’s clearly grappling with feeling like she deserves accolades like the Mercury Music Prize, and her willingness to lay out that struggle on No Thank You and no in the short film, is exactly why she’s becoming one of the modern greats.
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Whenever British rapper Little Simz felt like dropping the follow-up to her critical and commercial breakthrough, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, she would have had the world’s attention with every pre-album single and Instagram snippet teasing new music. Instead, she went the surprise release route, sneaking up on the music world with the thrilling NO THANK YOU, which sounds vital and fresh on the heels of Simz’s big breakthrough – a real-time reflection of an artist coming to terms with just how popular they are.
Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, which took home the Mercury Prize on October 18, introduced the wider rap world to the MC born Simbiatu Ajikawo in 1994. That the album exists at all is a bit of a miracle in Simz’s mind. During her acceptance speech, she said, “There was times in the studio I didn’t know if I was gonna finish this record, I was going through all the emotions.” Alongside producer Inflo – celebrated for his work in Sault, among other efforts – Simz pushed that record over the finish line and into the arms of an adoring audience obsessed with her vulnerable, honest examinations of life in the spotlight, and the unending quest to line up ones desires with a life of authenticity. On NO THANK YOU, it’s unclear if she’s squared the image of who she wants to be with the one she presents on record, but she’s more comfortable than ever expressing her discomfort and joys – the highs, lows, and crushing mids of life in the public eye.
A lot of what you need to know about NO THANK YOU goes down in the mesmerizing, down-tempo leaning minimalist headbanger of an opener, “Angel.” Inflo once again handles production, crafting crisp drums and hollowed-out synths that do their best to stay out of Simz’s way. She raps, “I can see how an artist can get tainted, frustrated / They don’t care if your mental is on the brink of somethin’ dark / As long as you’re cuttin’ somebody’s payslip / And sendin’ their kids to private school in a spaceship.” On a purely technical level, Simz is at her sharpest on the project. The quick internal rhyme of “tainted” and “frustrated” emphasizes the claustrophobia she feels as fans, label heads, and everyone in between pesters her to keep churning out music. She then expands the bar outwards, cleverly juxtaposing her career with those that profit off her. It’s worth remembering that it was only earlier this year that Simz postponed a North American tour because it didn’t make sense financially.
But what makes Simz one of the most exciting and daring artists in the rap game is that empathy is one of the chief motivating factors in her songwriting. Take the way she talks about label bosses on “Angel” and juxtapose it with her thoughts on “Broken.” Over a looped melodic sample and hi-hats that hint at chaos but never introduce it, Simz raps, “There’s a reason why the doves will never fly with the crows / Chapters eventually close, your friends will turn into foes / Everybody’s so obsessed with the CEO / She probably got the most troubles that she’ll never disclose.” Simz’ ability to not only show differing perspectives but imbue them with equal urgency is a talent that makes her stand apart from virtually anyone else in the game.
On both Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and NO THANK YOU, Little Simz surfs between joy and pain, trauma and triumph, isolation and community. On the former, she posited these feelings we perceive as negative as a bad thing to qualify. On NO THANK YOU, she owns each moment she encounters, finding positivity when she can, and refusing to apologize when she’s left needing more.
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, butfive 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.
