No Thank You

Released

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.

Harold Heath

Recommended by