Little Simz Found Her Stride on 'GREY Area'
Little Simz Found Her Stride on 'GREY Area'
Any questions about who the "boss" is? We’re revisiting Little Simz’s breakout LP.
“Me again.”
About dusty drums and creaky bass, Little Simz asked for attention again last September, very politely at first: “Allow me to pick up where I left off.” But that’s it with British restraint. “I don’t care who I offend,” the Londoner clarifies and underlines her claim, in which she compares herself with JAY-Z, Picasso, and Shakespeare in passing.
You can do it. Always assuming that you have everything from technology to content to attitude, you have also chosen the perfect producer and the right role models:
“Learnt from Ye, then I went and touched the sky.”
Yes, you can do it. Provided you are Little Simz and “boss.”
“All I do is kill sh*t even when I’m chillin’,” her performance can actually be summed up badly. With GREY Area, this woman does so many things right that I don’t even know where to start. She effortlessly flows from every line. Little Simz struggles with herself and the world, with disappointed expectations, uncertainty, fear of the future, and discrimination.
“Life sucks,” such as the ungratifying statement at the beginning of “Venom.” “Pressure,” “Therapy,” and above all, the really painful “Sherbert Sunset” shine deep into an injured soul. In “Wounds,” Little Simz then rather gives the observer from the outside. She doesn’t have to formulate the stories she’s telling there in order to say to them. Highlights are enough because it sets exactly the right ones.
Little Simz’s technical strength makes the quality of her poetry shine twice as bright.
“I mastered my flow like Dizzee and Busta.”
Here, too, the high-sized comparisons do not seem exaggerated but almost impose themselves. Conscious rap with hip-hop hubris, grumpy as grime and sensitive as soul: a stunning combination in every respect.
Finding the right beats for this should be somewhat difficult. Unless you are Little Simz and “boss” and have exactly the right person at hand, she has been friends with Inflo since childhood. The British producer has already put Michael Kiwanuka or The Kooks in the right light, among other things.
She creates his very own sound aesthetic for GREY Area. It dominates gnarled, oblique bass lines and almost classic drums, which give the tracks a minimalistic paint. Crazily, this impression cannot be dismantled even if you look at the abundance of musical details.
Strings and choirs in “Offence,” synths and electronic finesse in “Boss,” piano and soul singing in “Selfish”: There is so much in every single track that I don’t understand how these beats can look so slim, tidy, and reduced (we love you, Inflo!).
The acoustic guitar at the beginning of “Wounds” sounds for a moment, like caught up in the unplugged set of Alice in Chains, before strings and bass tip the atmosphere into the ghost. At the same time, Little Simz is picking up speed. Her superficially unmoved lecture makes it clear here, as in many other places, that she has worked hard, very hard, for the external calm.
There are still far too many unteachable people walking around. Men who undeterredly believe that they have to tell the world what someone can do “as a woman” or can’t, instead of simply listening (“F*** those who don’t believe”) would then get their sexism beaten around their ears.
“They would never wanna admit I’m the best here
From the mere fact that I’ve got ovaries.” — Little Simz on “Venom”
Assistance would actually not be necessary. Little Simz could easily carry GREY Area all alone. But why should she? Cleo Sol’s sweetly breathed soul song forms in “Selfish” in maximum contrast to Simz’s own darker, more angular voice. Likewise, Chronixx’s hook on “Wounds” adds an enriching facet.
Michael Kiwanuka helps close out the tenth and last track with “Flowers.” “You already won,” it says. “You got the power, flowers all for you.” These flowers are dedicated to a whole series of colleagues who died too early, but for Little Simz, at least one thick bouquet should also fall off.
“Teach my daughter about the wonders of the world
I’m convinced if she’s anything like me, I’m raisin’ a king.” — Little Simz on “Therapy”