One of the biggest themes across Little Simz’s last two albums—2019’s GREY Area and 2021’s Mercury Prize-winning Sometimes I Might Be Introvert—is the mental anguish of navigating isolation amid public triumph. “I’m paranoid, I feel my life is a mess/I’m just usin’ my voice, hope it will have an effect,” she raps on “I Love You, I Hate You.” Simz’s limber flows and commanding voice helped her cut through the anxiety of these intrusive thoughts. But on “Gorilla,” from her latest album NO THANK YOU, she sounds fully relaxed. “Drink ’42 and smoke cigar/Name one time where I didn’t deliver,” she boasts over thick bass plunks and light drums courtesy of producer Inflo. The bleating fanfare of horns adds to the victorious mood as Simz slings lines with cocky casualness: “I’m cut with a different scissor/From the same cloth as my dear ancestors/That’s why this shit gives you the shivers.” “Gorilla” is a retort against rap game bullshit, but it’s also the loosest Simz has sounded in years. It’s great.
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