Little Simz: 15 minutes of total freedom

A fifteen minute long breath. A fifteen-minute scream of freedom for one of the strongest and most intense rappers on the world scene. Winner of the Best Hip-Hop Act category in the 2024 edition of the Mobo Awardsthe UK’s largest celebration of black music and culture, and with three BRIT Awards Nominations to be celebrated on March 2, Little Simz has released “Drop 7”, a new EP of unreleased songs on Forever Living Originals via AWAL Recordings. The London rapper has always alternated high quality albums, in 2021 he released the award-winning “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert”to smaller projects: a series of EPs that has been going on for ten years and which represents great spaces of freedom and experimentation. “Drop 7” is the successor to 2020’s groundbreaking British rap EP “Drop 6”and it is an important work that also marks the tenth anniversary of the release of “Drop 1”, released in 2014.

Always evolving and oriented towards the futureas also highlighted by the cover in which he shows himself with a human face on the body of an android, the surprising EP made up of seven tracks, lasting just over fifteen minutes, shows Simz once again expertly weaving his trademarkor an introspective lyricism, to experimental beatscreated by the acclaimed producer Jakwob. The productions, oriented more towards a club and dance style, however offer various forays into unexpected styles: “Far Away” it is soft and sees a jazz piano emerge, “SOS” is tinged with more powerful percussion, “Fever” it has a Rosalìa beat, and indeed there is also no shortage of moments of use of Spanish. In the lyrics he highlights the importance of cultivating and defending what matters and is precious, despite the difficulties of existence. Little Simz once again makes her own way. His music documents his history, his journey, his becoming and his generation. He is constantly in motion as this work demonstrates.

“Sometimes I Might Be Introvert”, the 2021 Mercury Music Prize-winning album, catapulted her into the Top 5 of the UK Albums Chart, a project followed by 2022’s “No Thank You.”published as a surprise and the first sign of an unexpected, but honest and extremely propulsive change, although this last album wasn’t as successful and wasn’t as focused as the previous one. Hence perhaps the need to create a quick, fifteen minute, but extremely liberating EP. In 2023, she performed across England, Europe and the United Statesreceiving an enthusiastic reception and five-star reviews, and has continued to blaze her own trail as an actress, returning to stardom in the final season of “Top Boy,” the Netflix TV series and produced by Drake. “Drop 7” is the new piece of a puzzle. “Not the last one this year”, as the rapper herself explained.