- The last couple of years have been big for Little Simz. One of the most unique voices out of England's hip-hop scene, she's slowly garnered attention through a string of consistently killer features, standing out as one of the few highlights from Damon Albarn's recent Gorillaz work. Grey Area is Simz' fourth full-length release, but feels like a new beginning of sorts. Many moments are deeply personal and offer previously untapped emotional depth. Young artists often face the challenge of incorporating life experience into their work, but there's a lot at play when it comes to Simz' success.
Grey Area follows a loose emotional arc that's led by the one-two punch of Offence into lead single Boss. Both tracks see Simz spitting ferociously atop stripped back banger beats, her cockiness matched by tongue-twisting flows. These flows carry most of the record, constantly switching up to accommodate for a range of beats and emotions. It's almost too scatterbrained at times, jumping from the icy grime of Venom to melodic trap on 101 FM and then a middling feature from indie-pop darlings Little Dragon. Simz shows impressive versatility in these moments but it's not enough to compensate for the overarching aesthetic confusion.
Speaking of confusion, it's not just Little Dragon that weighs Simz down. I can appreciate the vocal features on Flowers and Selfish as complement to her impassioned verses, but both performances do absolutely nothing for me. What's more, the featured artists are barely incorporated beyond your standard verse-chorus structure, making these cuts appear deceivingly generic. Aside from a few corny word choices here and there, I've got nothing but praise for Simz MCing. It's her choice in production and features that holds Grey Area back from being truly great.
Focus on the rapping itself though and you won't be disappointed. Simz is a wholly captivating MC, delivering biting wit in the album's first half before transitioning into more intimate storytelling later on. Wounds falls somewhere in-between, adapting a classic grime flow to tell cautionary tales of gun violence. Jamaican vocalist Chronixx is a perfect fit to round things out. It's clear Simz refuses to be boxed into a single style, sometimes to her detriment.
Despite my gripes there should be little debate that Grey Area is one of the UK's finest hip-hop releases in recent memory. Simz is clearly an incredible talent on the mic and I can only see her improving from here. Aesthetic inconsistencies and questionable features be damned, Grey Area shows a British MC rapping her ass off for just under forty minutes. Does it need to be more than that?
- Boddhi Farmer.