Sometimes there are only nuances between a polite rejection and a “Fuck you”, at least with Little Simz. In “No Merci” when she talks about shutting up when others have to show off (“Whenever they chat shit, I just say nada”), she then pronounces the friendly “No, thanks” from the song title like “No mercy”: No mercy!
In “Angel”, the opener of her new album NO THANK YOU, she reveals to whom or what the London rapper is saying no so ruthlessly: to the dirty business, to the music industry, to everyone who now wants to have a piece of the ingenuity of this self-made -Artist with the real name Simbiatu “Simbi” Abisola Abiola Ajikawo, who after years in the insider tip limbo celebrated her biggest success to date with her opulent album SOMETIMES I MIGHT BE INTROVERT in 2021 – not only with critics and the jury of the Mercury Prize , but actually also with the fans who are willing to pay.
NO THANK YOU is an album that resists all attempts at monopoly
Without much anticipation, Simz released NO THANK YOU, the famous heavy album after the super record, just before the end of the year. The big orchestra, which had inflated their classic, technically enormously adept boom bap rap on SOMETIMES I MIGHT BE INTROVERT to a huge spectacle, also plays here and there on NO THANK YOU, but this time Simz very consciously refuses the really big serve to everyone who she now had on the list as a maximalist.
NO THANK YOU is a little like Kendrick Lamar’s sleek DAMN to SOMETIMES I MIGHT BE INTROVERT, if you will. to the epochal predecessor TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY, which frayed into jazz and funk: It is an album that resists all attempts at monopoly, sovereign and in some gestures ostentatiously low key.
Simz’s unconditional will to follow SOMETIMES I MIGHT BE INTROVERT with something no less meaningful, but more casually thrown in, can be felt right away on the second song “Gorilla”, an outrageously great retro number in which Simz accompanied the deceased rapper Mac Miller to a simple acoustic bass riff does the honor – and himself at the same time.
As a producer, Simz has once again brought in her childhood friend Inflo, who is (most likely) behind the collective Sault. He can now play out what also makes Sault’s sound so irresistible: Songs like “X” sound with their gospel and soul moments – sung by the R’n’B singer Cleo Sol, who (also with high probability) Sault also lends her silky-smooth voice – so warm and sublime, it’s like being in a museum of black music history.
Little Simz fights for her integrity stunningly
“How can I stand with the opps and not with the tribe?” Asks Little Simz in “Angel”: How can she take responsibility for standing with the oppressors and not with her people? What sounds like a rhetorical question is the not at all uncomplicated core concern of NO THANK YOU: Little Simz, the highly praised and much loved one, fights for nothing less than her integrity. Struggles to be allowed to remain credibly combative. Say “no” mercilessly so as not to become merciless yourself at some point. And by the way, it sounds so stunning that you want to bite your knee for joy.
Little Simz’ new album NO THANK YOU streaming:
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