No Thank You cover

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

Suggestions
7 cover

7

Sault
True Spirit cover

True Spirit

Carleen Anderson
Prism cover

Prism

Say She She
Happiness In Every Style cover

Happiness In Every Style

Nicole Willis & the Soul Investigators
UGLY cover

UGLY

slowthai
Dear Annie cover

Dear Annie

Rejjie Snow
The Beauty Room cover

The Beauty Room

The Beauty Room, Kirk DeGiorgio