Album Review: Sometimes I Might Be Introvert by Little Simz
Little Simz returns with ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ and stakes her claim as one of the best rappers in the world.
Taken from Phil’s defunct blog, The Wax Report, an extensive review of the most important albums, covering everything from production to lyricism and overall cohesiveness.
HOLY FUCKIN’ SHIT. That roughly shot through your head in view of the first harbinger of this album, in capital letters. What the hell did Little Simz put there? In any case, she has already surpassed the expectations that ranked somewhere high in the clouds after her celebrated predecessor album with the first track of this new project, even though Introvert does everything entirely differently from GREY Area.
Instead of the brittle currency that dominated at the time, there is pure opulence here, in the sound as well as in the visually stunning video staging. Again, producer Inflo is at the helm. However, he throws the minimalism of the past overboard and instead pulls all the stops: fanfares, stirring drums, strings, and choirs march up for the very big train station provided by Inflo, and no one, really no one, would have deserved it more than Little Simz.
How effortless, at any time, one hundred percent on point it flows through this monumental scenario seems so intense and compelling, and it seems impossible not to be carried away by it. Her “I’m a black woman, and I’m a proud one” sounds like a battle cry. “... And so it begins,” reminds actress Emma Corrin (one or the other possibly familiar as Lady Di from The Crown) towards the end of the track with a spoken passage that this was only the beginning.
Sometimes I Might Be Introvert fully fulfills the great promise that gives its opening number. Especially the immediately following pieces, “Woman” (with a hook by Cleo Sol) or “Two Worlds Apart” (with a Smokey Robinson sample), bathe in precisely the same soulful obsession. Nevertheless, thoughtless insuffling in nostalgia has no chance. Much too sharp-tongued, Little Simz cuts lines again and again through the melodic healthy world and addresses social grievances as well as very private problems, sometimes even both at once.
When Little Simz sings a hymn to femininity, especially a song of praise to Black women, then it doesn’t sound as terribly discreet how damn necessary such empowerment was still in 2021. Women still need support, backing, and the request “Fear No Man” because the crazy idea that women could be equal to men has still not found its way into every turnip, unfortunately not even into that of every girl and every woman. “I get what I want when I want it” therefore serves as a self-affirmation as well as a motivation.
Musically, “Fear No Man” also knocks out what is possible and plunges its listeners into a shimmering, colorful sound and voice bustle with percussion overload, African call-and-response chants, exclamations, and a bass dancing across the picture. You feel like you're at a street party.
On the other hand, there are significantly reduced tracks that follow the minimalist aesthetics of GREY Area: “Speed,” for example, which leaves a lot of room for reverb and rap, the heavy grim-heavy “Rollin Stone,” or “Point and Kill” despite its musically-y-yodeled ending, “Point and Kill,” which is limited to funky bass and click-clacking percussion. In any case, SIMBI holds a lot of funk. The most unexpected backdrop for the croaking wah-wah sound is probably the discoid flashing synths of “Protect My Energy.” This album has many surprises in store. Who the hell really expects an ecstatic, jubilant choir in the quiet piano bar ambience of “How Do We Get Here?”
The way here led through “The Garden,” one of the numerous interwoven interludes. I guess we also hear Emma Corrin here, sharing life wisdom in a dozen, strangely without acting like a human fortune cookie. Before the change of instrumentation after half the runtime gives the impression that the moon has risen over the described garden after a sunny day of the moon, immersed by harp strings like colorful butterflies, we learn here, among other things, the central lesson of this album: “Be your best friend, not your worst enemy.”
In addition to the big contexts, Little Simz deals extensively with herself and her most private sensitivities this time. She analyzes family relationships, such as the relationship with her sister (“Miss Understood”) or, even more obviously, the difficult relationship with her absent father: “I Love You, I Hate You” already sums up the eternity in the title. A kind of inner peace, or at least calm from unceasingly blowing anger, finds the torn daughter at the end of forgiveness: “I’m not forgivin’ for you, man, I’m forgivin’ for me.”
Little Simz looks at the world, yes, but she is also looking for her place in it. She addresses what is happening around her (“I see sinners in the church”) but also participates in the processes that take place inside her. Overwhelmed by her own success, she asks the question at the end: “How Did You Get Here?” The answer is also good again to stick it over the bed of every little girl as a motivating wall decal, just like every little boy and everyone else who can’t find a suitable drawer in the limited binary system: “The key is to have faith in your dreams and never stop chasin’, and you'll make it. Trust.”
However, you have to get to this point of knowledge first. “It has been a long road,” Little Simz also leaves no doubt about it. However, she can easily afford the short laugh after that, after an album that reconciles introspection and consideration of social conditions, rap, spoken word and singing, hip hop, grime, soul, funk, and disco completely effortlessly.
How can a record like Sometimes I Might Be Introvert be possible at all? Although many questions remain unanswered, Little Simz has an answer to this: “They told us: no. We said yes... and we keep pushing on.” In turn, we can confidently understand this as a promise. It is quite possible that we have just listened to the most technically, content-related, lyrically, and musically savvy rapper who is currently walking on this planet. Did I say it already? HOLY FUCKIN’ SHIT.
Standout (★★★★½)
Favorite Track(s): “Introvert,” “I Love You, I Hate You,” “Standing Ovation,” “How Did You Get Here”