The English rapper has released a 7-track EP today.
Drop 7 is the latest in a series of extended players, and was produced by Jakwob.
It’s the first release from Little Simz since the 2022 album, No Thank You, rather than Inflo of Sault who usually produces Simz albums.
The 14-minute release is out now.
No Thank You made it into my top 10 records of 2022:
A surprise December release from Little Simz who has things she wants to address, and releasing an album during the End of the Year list cycle is one way to signpost how done you are with the machinations of the music industry.
No Thank You is a course corrective, a get-shit-off-your-chest moment. Longtime producer Inflo with his band SAULT have showed Simz a way forward for her own art – drop albums on your own terms without losing the scope of what you’re trying to create. Case in point: the production on this is elegant and orchestral, possible made in the same room, at the same time as SAULT’s five albums they dropped in November this year.
No Thank You benefits from being looser and less grand than last year’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, with Simz detailing how wayward her career focus had become on ‘My Heart’s On’ and ‘Angel’ (“Yeah, I refuse to be on a slave ship / Give me all my masters and lower your wages”), dipping into generational trauma, set to shuffling marching drum beat on ‘X’ and mental heath on ‘Broken’ ( “Man, this week has been tough / I’ve been saying it for a year”).
“Fuck rules and everything that’s traditional,” is the mantra.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
