Little Simz stages his rebirth to the Alcatraz

Muscle and angular, but also surprisingly intimate and funny. Capable of changing in a beat of wings. Little Simz, born in 1994, English with Nigerian origins, one of the most relevant artists and rappers of this generation, Dressed as a researcher in a ruthless jungle, he presents his new album “Lotus” to the Alcatraz in Milan And he does it with a very played live, capable of mixing energy and vulnerability, fully revealing the ambition of this project, which is A great act of love towards Black Musicalso made real by the involvement in the studio of various musicians of the scene including Michael Kiwanuka. An operation, with all the debt proportions, at Pimp A Butterfly “by Kendrick Lamar Which already in 2015 defined it as “one of the most interesting names in the world”.

Simz, who has a magnetic scenic presence, is no coincidence that he is increasingly in vogue in the world of cinema, Rabpa and sings by spitting out his anxieties, accompanied in the first and last part of the show by a band, made up of four musicians, who makes the sound of all tracks dense and multilayer dense and multilayer. His live has a soul, makes the body movethe mind and is marked by an eclecticism In which the most genres merge, thus revealing its contaminated London background. Halfway through the concert, for example, There is a DJ set where Simz becomes the DJ of herself: at the console he plays with music, rats on the bases and then makes the sound to the sound towards a tribalism Liberating electronic. The audience, very hot, replies Ballandobeating and hands and transmitting enthusiasm.

There is a background relevant to understand how much “Lotus” is particularly felt by the British rapper and because it represents a new light: Simz has filed a legal cause against his former manufacturer, inflo of the Sault band, to recover 1.7 million pounds that the artist supports were given as a loan to cover the costs of the album and finance a live event. The cause, with consequent artistic separation, derives from an economic dispute between the two precisely regarding this loan that would not have been repaid. Simz felt helpless and defrauded of his workbut he was able to resurrect how A lotus flower from the mud, which in fact acts as a setting to the show. “Thief”, “thief”, who opens live, is not only a direct act of accusation, but also seems the caustic soundtrack of a thriller. It is the beginning of this ascent from oblivion that will go up to traces like “Free”. In “Flood”, A piece with an ethnic arrangement, through a game of numbers, Create a survival manual in the musical industry: “Number one is to take your position, do not trust all your hands tightening”.

The new tracks occupy the fulcrum of the ladder and are presented with an urgency that immediately makes them “mature material”. “Young”, in whose video is disguised as a old man, is a youthful manifesto with a pop refrain, to which the 2019 “Venom” mood is opposed. A feminist hymn. Before “Intrormt”which transmits a sense of revolt, lets herself go to a freestyle in which it recalls the genocide that is taking place in Palestine. Each sound carpet seems to push the narrative forward, with Simz alternating bars tight at more reflective moments. Here is his strength and the general one of the concert. The voice changes: sometimes it strips from the sound superstructures to become confession as in “Lonely”, in others it turns on and becomes a hurricane. The balance between power and fragility is the figure that distinguishes it. It seems to be able to do everything: On “Lotus” also comes to play the guitar. To this is added a pen that addresses thick themes, from the struggle for emancipation to mental health to positions criticisms towards the show business, without however “Santona” tones, but always motivational.

A song symbol, imbued with pure hip hop spirit, which collects all these topics is “Gorilla”, with which the live closes: the passage “Monkey to Gorilla” is a metaphor for growth, of becoming a safe figure of oneself. Inside there is a beautiful quote and obviously not obvious to Mac Millerartist often remembered as capable of reinventing himself, growing and maintaining a strong integrityquality that the rapper feels close to his journey. The Milanese evening confirmed what Little Simz’s recent path suggests: We are facing an artist in full evolution, capable of crossing genres without losing consistency, of transforming anger into catharsis and weakness into communicative force. After n records and mixtapes, will this lotus flower also bloom in the international mainstream? It would deserve it, but that’s not why he put his rebirth in music.