‘Lotus' by Little Simz Review: The Beat of Betrayal
London rapper Simbiatu Ajikawo, who has released albums as Little Simz since 2015, is an important player in her city's fertile hip-hop and R&B scene. In her home country, the 31-year-old can fill an arena, but, like many of her peers, she's more of a cult figure in the U.S. While she's critically respected and admired by American artists—Kendrick Lamar has praised her work, and Lauryn Hill, one of her musical heroes, took her on tour—she's hasn't quite reached the mainstream. Some of that has to do with cultural barriers and lost-in-translation references. And some has to do with her more grown-up style.
Across five full-length albums, including 2021's 'Sometimes I Might Be Introvert,' which won the Mercury Prize for album of the year, she has generally favored what one might call a 'classic' aesthetic, with recognizable instruments playing funk and R&B riffs in the tradition of hip-hop artists who emerged in the late 1980s and early '90s. (This stands in contrast to much of the most popular youth-oriented rap of today, in both the U.S. and U.K., which tends toward electronic textures.)
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