Little Simz - Drop 7

In the time since the previous chapter in Little Simz’s ‘Drop…’ series of EPs, a lot has changed if not for, then at least around her. 2021’s ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ won the Mercury Prize, cementing her in the British mainstream, while 2022 follow-up ‘No Thank You’ - alongside her starring role in hit Netflix series Top Boy - offered single ‘Gorilla’, which sealed an international breakthrough. Where ‘Drop 6’ opener ‘might bang, might not’ claimed “You ain’t seen no one like me since / Lauryn Hill back in the ‘90s, bitch” over a Missy Elliott-like beat, ‘Drop 7’ comes as Simz’s name is referenced alongside, not merely in comparison to, her predecessors. Her creative flex this time around is an anxious one, the claustrophobic production creating a dark, introspective mood that hints it could turn at any moment, a mood reflected in the deliberately delivered lyrics of ‘I Ain’t Feelin It’: “Know some people waitin’ on the day for me to fail / Never going back to bein’ broke, man, can’t you tell? / Talk behind my back and then they go into a shell (Shell) / Shell (Shell), shell (Shell), shell when they see me / Shelley’s nail bar only exist on the TV (TV)”. Potentially parasocial moments aside, the use of clubby beats adds an urgency (opener ‘Mood Swings’; the minimal ‘SOS’; the insistent interlude-like ‘Power’) and with bilingual bop ‘Fever’ already offering another viral moment for the now-superstar (there was no avoiding “She is a 10 / I is a 10” on a certain shortform video app for a hot minute), ‘Drop 7’ maintains Simz’s high-set standards while keeping excitement for her next move at its current high.