One of the first things North London MC Little Simz says on A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons is that she's a "king." As someone who has often been mistakenly referred to as a grime MC, Little Simz is clearly tired of being put into ill-fitting boxes and is busy defining and redefining herself. So while her ability to rip mics with a variety of rhyming styles has become firmly established over a series of mixtapes alongside her SPACE AGE cohorts, her desire to be seen on her own terms dominates her approach to A Curious Tale.
An introspective affair, her new LP finds Little Simz maintaining her fierce rhyming skills and applying them to well-defined topics and themes over the course of ten tracks. "The Lights," on which the MC ruminates on her burgeoning notoriety, is hypnotic and ambient, perhaps the song closest to the SPACE AGE vibe of her mixtapes, while the next song "Tainted" shows the effects of giving in to the temptations of fame. Little Simz is definitely keen to relate a down to earth persona and conveys herself as someone who just happens to have prodigious rhyming abilities. "God Bless Mary" is a soulful, charming dedication to a next-door neighbour, and "Dead Body" features rhyming from the perspective of a homeless person, displaying her innate empathy.
It seems like Little Simz is writing these songs to demarcate her own personal boundaries, but in doing so she is showing off her limitless potential.
(Age 101)An introspective affair, her new LP finds Little Simz maintaining her fierce rhyming skills and applying them to well-defined topics and themes over the course of ten tracks. "The Lights," on which the MC ruminates on her burgeoning notoriety, is hypnotic and ambient, perhaps the song closest to the SPACE AGE vibe of her mixtapes, while the next song "Tainted" shows the effects of giving in to the temptations of fame. Little Simz is definitely keen to relate a down to earth persona and conveys herself as someone who just happens to have prodigious rhyming abilities. "God Bless Mary" is a soulful, charming dedication to a next-door neighbour, and "Dead Body" features rhyming from the perspective of a homeless person, displaying her innate empathy.
It seems like Little Simz is writing these songs to demarcate her own personal boundaries, but in doing so she is showing off her limitless potential.