The best Little Simz albums
My love for Little Simz is split into two separate, but equally vivid memories. The first was during an uncomfortably hot summer in Australia, where in the fleeting moments of peace I would seek from the chaos of the hostel walls, I would flick on Grey Area. It was like nothing I had heard previously, bursting with character, innovation and most all style, I then knew Simz was on a path to greatness.
A path was reached two years later, in 2021, upon the release of Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. As I watched from the wings of Cardiff’s Great Hall, a shockingly small venue considering her trajectory, I stood in awe. As her silhouette flickered in front of the stage lights throughout the set, I knew I was in the presence of true greatness. Those who know Simz’ setlist well would know that’s a tagline she’s adopted, for she is fully aware she is an icon operating at her artistic and performative peak.
“I need you to understand that you’re witnessing greatness,” she declared, last summer on the Pyramid stage of Glastonbury, in what was a seminal set that stared Chris Martin in the face, boldly asking him to follow that. She continued, “I say that not with arrogance but with confidence. It took me a while to get to the Pyramid but I’m finally here!”
“Finally here” is the key point. Because they say it takes ten years to become an overnight success and Simz certainly served her time. While the glittering success of her recent releases may seem somewhat instant, they’re anything but. Her debut album, Blank Canvas, was released back in 2014, and each album since, she’s fine-tuned her cadence to fit what is now becoming a signature soundscape that blends intricate and atmospheric instrumentals to cross multiple genres.
With suitably wet appetites, we now await her 9th studio album, Lotus, scheduled for release on June 6th. The lead singles ‘Free’ and ‘Flood’ have indicated that the rapper is leaning into her melodic style rooted in live instrumentation once again, enticing what could be yet another classic album. So before we forget the existence of all other music upon the release of Lotus, let’s run through the nuggets of genius that exist in her remaining work.
Simz’ first masterpiece: ‘Grey Area’
Release Date: March 2019 | Producer: Inflo | Label: Age 101
Okay, I’m willing to compromise on this ranking slightly, for I truly believe Grey Area is her greatest album of all time. At 10 tracks long, it was a succinct masterclass in dynamic hip-hop production. With old-school drum beats paired with killer melodic lines that verged between soul, funk, and outright grime, she flexed the diversity of her vocal muscles with complete ease.
On the album that preceded Grey Area Simz teetered on the edge of lyrical expansion and for this record, it was suitably concentrated. In Stillness In Wonderland she rapped, “All I could think about in my maths class was / Rhyming and figuring out my timing”. She understood her acute ability to observe her surroundings was lost without cadence. As she burrowed away on this 10-song epic, her edge was suitably sharpened and she was ready to unveil it to the world. So after 90 seconds of the second track, it was time to strip away the safety of instrument and descend into a truly transfixing monologue that celebrated the new found power of a rapper finding her voice. From that moment on, contemporary rap would never be the same.
Hard-hitting one moment, brutally vulnerable the next, she created an album where tracks like ‘Venom’ can comfortably sit between ‘Wounds’ and ‘101 FM’ without being jarring. And the sole reason for that artistic unison is Simz’ voice and presence, which is a safe tour guide through the jungle of modern music.
Defining track: ‘101 FM’
Simz’ magnum opus: ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’
Release Date: September 2021 | Producer: Inflo | Label: Age 101
And so we get to the jungle, where Simz now finds herself. The self-assured North London rapper had risen through the ranks to become the uncrowned Queen of hip-hop and usually, heavy lies the crown. But no, not for Simz. “Ain’t your typical rapper, I ain’t got my neck froze / Still your favourite artist couldn’t even step close / Heard they want my crown but I ain’t never stressed though / ‘Cause to your career that would be detrimental, c’mon” she sings on ‘Fear No Man’.
This was an album where she ran away from the rest of the pack, asserting her dominance as the true voice of artistic innovation and she knew it. In hip-hop, baseless arrogance is transparent while confidence is steeped in a genuine ability that she had in bucketloads on this record. She had fine-tuned her concept-album interests to create something thematically coherent but individually understandable from a song level only. While she may now be the world’s most interesting rapper, she still grapples with the same troubled identity woes as your average millennial and addresses them with fierce brevity.
But what’s more impressive is her ability to create something clearly commercial and credible at the same time. Expansive brass sections recorded in Abbey Road don’t hem the record into simply the experimental avant-garde, instead they are paired with groove-laden sensibilities to make them universally palatable. She opens the door into a wider understanding of hip-hop and crucially, urban British communities with both a tender handshake and a stern trigger warning, as her ability to traverse multiple pop soundscapes comes only with high lyrical intellect.
Defining track: ‘Woman’
Simz’ effortless classic: ‘NO THANKYOU’
Release Date: December 2022 | Producer: Inflo | Label: Forever Living Originals
After her 14-song concept epic Sometimes I Might Be Introvert jet off into space, becoming an all-time rap classic, the mechanics on the ground dusted their hands and considered it a job well done. But if you listened closely on ‘Speed’ you would have known that was merely the beginning. “Got a hard drive full of classics / I keep that shit locked up in the attic / If I bring ’em out, it’s a wrap though / I’m not sure if these niggas can hack it” she rapped on a tune released just one year prior to NO THANKYOU. An album without the narrative thread of it’s predecessor but the production prowess to catch up with it in the stratosphere.
It was an absolutely effortless showcasing of an artist at their creative peak, whereby lyrics and melodies seem to rain from their mind with breathtaking ease. Once again, the record skipped between hugely diverse genres but in seamless fashion. The timbre of vocals, combined with a consistently established tempo, meant what could have been muddled instrumentation is instead a kaleidoscope of textural coherence.
Her vocals rarely lose breath, even when travelling at full speed and ooze the self-assurance of a rapper striding in the slipstream of greatness. It’s rare for an artist to follow up their opus with anything as respectable, but to do it in just a year with a lead single as powerful as ‘Gorilla’ is nothing short of frightening.
Defining track: ‘Gorilla’
Simz biggest flexing of skill: ‘Drop 7’
Release Date: February 2024 | Producer: Jakwob | Label: Forever Living Originals
Okay, so you’ve won a Mercury Prize and garnered an army of fresh fans. The palettable soundscapes of your biggest hits have become somewhat of an albatross for part-time critics who are desperate to keep you in you’re own lane. But you’re Little Simz, an artist with seven albums under your belt, all of which have demonstrated a deft, diverse touch, and you’ve already dodged the commercial trappings of submitting to mass expectation. Yeah, it’s time to put a hold on the live instrumentation for a while and head back to the laptop.
As lush at the soundscapes of a brass band in Abbey Road are, it’s not what got Simz there and she knows it. On Drop 7 she took what is now a mercurial ability to adjust deliver razor-sharp cadence and thrust it back onto the steely environment of electronic production. The record was steeped in productive immediacy, yet Simz operated with vocal patience, almost toying with the audience who were desperate for her to descend into a scatter gun monologue.
She gave space to the expansion of the songs’ respective arrangements while sprinkling in distorted vocal lines in varied timbres to seriously flex her melodic muscles. It was rap ala Kendrick Lamar, where the voice was used as a layered instrument and maximised through it’s character. Her acting experience no doubt informed the nuance of her delivery to depict the varying characters of her inner workings. Even the grand idea didn’t float your boat, I challenge you to criticise her opening verse on ‘Torch’. You simply can’t.
Defining track: ‘Mood Swings’
Simz’ most underrated lyrical take: ‘A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons’
Release Date: February 2024 | Producer: Little Simz | Label: Age 101
Before Simz’ lyrics burst into the stratospheric on Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, the foundations of her genius were being laid on her early records. Her genius was rattling at it’s cages, desperate to break free and find the space for it’s voice to flourish. Unable to it packed dense lyricism with an unrelenting cadence to showcase her unique talent.
“All I could think about in my maths class was / Rhyming and figuring out my timing” she raps in the opening bar of ‘God Bless Mary’, acknowledging the growing pains of her genius, before descending into a song that showcases her acute observational quality. Be it her neighbour next door, her mother whom she feels crippingly indebted to, Simz was proving her unique ability to tap into the soul of everyone around her with wicked judgement and astounding self-awareness.
It was qualities that helped her set out a stall for a revolutionary brand of rap steeped in egalitarianism, not egotism. But underneath the surface bubbled a tension that would explode in feminist anthems like Grey Area’s ‘Venom’. ‘This the type of music that ain’t never gonna sell / Well, you should’ve never ever told me that’ she sings on Wings, preparing to ramp up an assault on the naysayers who reduce her qualities down to her mere femininity. On this record, she had the bit between her teeth and the pen clutched firmly in her hand, honing skills that would go on to serve her future greatness.
Defining track: ‘Wings’
