2/12/2024 0 Comments Autumn rapper dead![]() Hands up: rings by .uk and and hoops by. Records that any time you put on, you’re just in, it doesn’t feel dated.” Ah, see, look, I was just playing Baltimore. When I ask what her Desert Island Discs are, she gets excited and pulls out her phone. ![]() When making the album, she studied timeless music – “classic albums” by Nina Simone and Etta James – not so much to borrow their sound, but their structure. Though she’s best known as a rapper rooted in hip-hop, Simz draws from a kaleidoscope of influences ranging from soul to funk, jazz and grime. “Do you want 15 years or 15 minutes? Do not tire yourself out.” This is what the inside of Simz’s head sounds like. Spoken-word interludes are pit stops that give voice to her inner monologue in one of them, an anonymous narrator who speaks in a clipped English accent is her Glinda the Good Witch. “It’s me,” she says, “being this introverted person that has all these crazy thoughts and ideas and theories in my head and not always feeling like I’m able to express it if it’s not through my art.” The 19-track album is an epic, Wizard of Oz-style quest as Simz confronts her fears and counts her blessings. “I wanted to just let people know like, yo, I’m actually this way inclined.” And so the theme of the new album emerged – an excavation of the things Simz would prefer to bury. “I’m just very to myself and I didn’t know how to really navigate that, especially coming in this industry where you’re expected to have this extroverted persona all the time.” Unlike many of her colleagues, Simz is notably low-key on Instagram and Twitter. “I know that I’m quiet, innit?” she explains. “I spent the time doing what everyone was doing really, just reflecting.” That period of reflection has led to some of her best work. Suddenly, she was home alone, in her own head. “As soon as I got home, I think the next day, lockdown.” Then, shortly after, her manager called, panicky, and put her on a flight back to London. ![]() “I got a birthday outfit to wear later – a dress and heels, a little bag, a whole situation.” That night, she had dinner at Soho House with some friends who were in town, including Top Boy co-star Micheal Ward and singer-songwriter Jacob Banks. When she thinks about that last burst of freedom before the pandemic, her mind takes her back to a changing room on the morning of her birthday. She and her producer, Inflo, had recently started work on the new album and she was celebrating turning 26. Photograph: Jameela Elfaki/The ObserverĪbout a year ago, Simz was in Los Angeles. In the hot seat: Little Simz wears top, trousers and corset, all by track top by ahluwalia.world hoops by Īnd sandals by .uk. But there are two Simz: the one that is by nature reticent and the Simz who wants to show you her universe. “I’m definitely not the greatest at opening up,” she says today. Yet from its overture, her fourth studio album reveals an interior world of cinematic proportions. When she talks, she is purposeful, precise, politely withholding. Simz, full name Simbiatu Ajikawo, doesn’t waste her words. “People think I’m rude, or antisocial, or awkward, because I’m not chatty,” she says. Still wearing full makeup from the shoot, Simz is swaddled in comfortable grey sweatpants and a black, shiny puffer jacket. The combination of closed cafés (England is still in lockdown) and persistent March drizzle has meant we’ve ended up in the car, an enormous 4x4 with TV screens built into the seats. The British-Nigerian rapper-singer-actor, 27, has spent the morning doing a photoshoot. It’s a drab afternoon on an industrial estate in London and I’m sitting, somewhat awkwardly, in the back of a parked car with Little Simz.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |