No Thank You

UK hip hop at its best, No Thank You saw Little Simz tackling the music industry, exploitation and mental health with a controlled, carefully delivered anger, spitting “Everybody here getting money off my name, irony is, I’m the only one not getting paid” on “No Merci.” NO THANKYOU is Inflo-produced so there are plenty of interesting things going on: three minutes into “No Merci” the lyrics finish and the track ends on three minutes of instrumental synthetic-soul. Likewise, the first half of “Silhouette” is funky-snare, string-laden rap, the second a rich orchestrated and choral coda. Final track “Control” is essentially a soul-piano ballad, on which LS delivers her lyrics softly, at a conversational level, the words fitting together perfectly as they tumble out, strong enough that there’s no need to shout or project, and it’s an assured and affecting ending to a super-strong UK hip hop album.