Little Simz: a review of hip-hop’s hidden gem
Cinematic strings, blaring French horns, the steady beat of drums, and an enchanting choir slowly erupt. There's no question a war is brewing, but between who? The hip-hop industry is currently oversaturated with issues that are external and environmental, such as the hardships of poverty, trapping, and gang violence. In Little Sim’s fourth studio album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (a play on the artist's nickname SIMBI) she reveals that more conflict might be within oneself than the world that surrounds them.
photo by meghan meier
The state of the hip-hop industry last year was stale. The decade-long beef between the two biggest artists, Drake and Kanye West, was finally coming to a climax: both dropped albums within a week of each other, battling for Spotify listeners' ears and attention. Even though knowledge of the drama between the two rappers was mainstream. The two only included sneak disses about each other in their albums, not full-on diss tracks.
You may be asking, “Wait, Rowan, this is a review of a Little Simz record. Why are you giving us this convoluted back story about the music industry?” Well, reader, it’s important because it’s the same reason you didn’t hear her album. Drake, arguably the most popular artist in the world, dropped his album Certified Lover Boy on the same day Little Simz dropped Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. I, myself, didn’t hear Little Simz’s masterpiece until around a month after it was released.
Little Simz filled her album to the brim with soul samples, common in lyrical rap since Wu-Tang popularized it in 1993 with their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Soul samples add melodic tones that are pleasing to the ear, but Little Simz brings a new dimension to each instrumental with her unique cadence.
Every time I heard a soul sample on this project I knew Simbi was about to spit some insane bars. Like in my favorite track “How Did You Get Here,” Simbi’s first two bars on the track are: “How the hell did I get here? Sometimes, I sit here and I wonder. / I’m the version of me I always imagined when I was younger.” Which is a bigger flex than saying you have a frozen wrist or a multi-million-dollar mansion.
The most honest song on the album, “I love you, I hate you,” is a reflection of Simbi’s relationship with her father. Her tone is melancholy, and the soul sampling fits perfectly with the theme of the song. A man passionately singing (an obvious contradiction) plays in the background as Simbi precedes to body the beat. A lyric I couldn’t get out of my head for days was: “My ego won’t fully allow me to say that I miss you (I love you) / A woman who hasn’t fully confronted all her daddy issues (I hate you).”
Although this album has perfect songs and in many ways is fantastic, just like any other project by any other artist there are bound to be flaws. Initially, the soul samples are fun and create a nice atmosphere, but by the end of the album it can be hard to remember what songs you liked and didn’t like because the key, cadence, and instrumentation of the entire album is similar. On first listen parts of this album mush together. The worst part of the project is the cinematic fairy godmother character in every interlude of the album, and there are five. Five interludes. Nobody needs five interludes on an album. It is safe to say that you will skip every single interlude, maybe even on the first listen.
Overall, the album has moments of vulnerability you don’t see as much from the hip-hop landscape as of today. These delicate moments are complemented by soul samples that were intricate in each song's layers. I’m excited to see the next direction Little Simz takes with her music career. If I had to rate this album out of ten I would give it an eight and a half.