Little Simz - Grey Area

Pitchfork 81

The third album from the 25-year-old UK fire-spitter is a wickedly assured, highly entertaining, coming-of-age marvel.

The Guardian 80

(Age 101)

On her third album, the famously introverted north Londoner Simbi Ajikawo reaches outwards. Gloriously self-assured and grounded, Grey Area feels fuller than her myriad EPs and two preceding albums. She frees herself from self-consciousness on opener Offence, with “I said it with my chest / and I don’t care who I offend” setting the tone.

The Guardian 0

Long stuck on the brink of success, the Londoner balances idiosyncrasy with big tunes on her winning third album

The waiting game can be long and lonely – just ask Little Simz. The 25-year-old rapper has released two albums and will drop her third, Grey Area, this week. There have been props from Kendrick Lamar – who once called her “the illest doing it right now” – and tours with Lauryn Hill and Nas. A spot on Forbes’s prestigious 30 Under 30 list. A track with Gorillaz and another that was featured on hit HBO TV show Insecure. And yet for the past nine years, Simz, AKA Simbi Ajikawo, has evaded household-name fame. Her last album, 2017’s Stillness in Wonderland, was reviewed positively but didn’t reach the Top 100. Her star has risen in tandem with grime’s renaissance and yet that hasn’t translated into the kind of accolades given to Stormzy and Skepta. You do not see her name atop festival bills like her contemporaries J Hus and AJ Tracey. “The silence surrounding Little Simz’s name,” said one critic, “has become deafening.”

Perhaps that’s because the north Londoner was always a touch ahead of her time. Born to Nigerian parents in Islington, Simz starred in various television shows and released a whopping five EPs before her first album, in 2015. That was long before Cardi B had charted with Bodak Yellow and Stefflon Don sashayed on to sold-out tours. Simz was making weird, narrative hip-hop with bold concepts (Stillness in Wonderland came with a graphic novel, an exhibition and festival) before triple-threats like Kojey Radical bounced forth, blurring the boundaries between performance artist, poet and rapper. Her tunes trilled with trumpets before the UK jazz scene properly erupted and made those sounds popular once more. (She has also, it’s important to stress, remained independent throughout, self-releasing her records through her Age 101 imprint.)