Locked down in London, UK Hip-Hop heroine Little Simz has released with her new EP Drop 6. For Simbi Ajikawo, following up her sensational 2019 release Grey Area would be no simple task, the album was her most confident, radical and well received yet. But, to do so independently and from the confines of her apartment, and for it to be as good as it is, only exemplifies her ability.
The record embodies this isolation, its minimalist production is a single bed apartment incarnate and it makes the record feel like one that could only have ever been born out of lockdown. Even if on some tracks – mainly ‘damn right’ – the production seems a vbit lacklustre, I think it gives the record its own personality and sets it apart from the rest of Little Simz back catalogue.
Despite the obvious talent behind the five track EP, it seems we’ve found Little Simz at her most uncertain, as self doubt trickles through the cracks of the record. She starts out with two confident and hard hitting tracks in ‘might bang, might not’ and ‘ one life, might live.’ But as you move through the EP this confidence alleviates into an air of cautious introspection, one where you can tell Little Simz is delighted to be at this stage of her career, but also anxious about whether she can maintain it. This is embodied within the culminating track, ‘wheres my lighter’, in which she contemplates being in the ‘deep end’ whilst also ‘focusing on her next masterpiece’, all whilst the haunting tones of Alewya lift the track into the ethereal.
Drop 6 maintains the attitude of the Little Simz we’ve known previous, whilst also exposing us to the inner working of her dubious mind. It’s the type of EP that we may look back at retrospectively as necessary in her development. It feels like Little Simz in on the cusp of greatness and whatever follows is bound to cement her as queen the rap scene.
