Artist of the week: Little Simz’s ‘Lotus’ is revenge served hot

In eastern cultures, the lotus flower often symbolises purity and resilience, its elegance in marked contrast to the muddy waters from which it grows. Lotus – Little Simz’s sixth studio album – was conceived at a time of great personal turbulence for the lauded London rapper, whose profile has gone from strength to strength since winning the Mercury prize in 2022. She’s curating this year’s Meltdown festival, for one, which begins this week at London’s Southbank Centre.

You might call Lotus Simz’s own Lemonade, after the 2016 album in which Beyoncé pondered a betrayal, its roots and ramifications. In March, the news broke that Little Simz was suing her feted former producer, childhood friend and Sault band leader Dean “Inflo” Cover, for non-payment of funds she had loaned him to stage Sault’s only gig to date, a December 2023 extravaganza ecstatically reviewed at the time. Out of pocket to the tune of £1.7m, Simz was unable to pay her January 2024 tax bill.

Simz does not mention the man she met at the music youth club in north London – she literally bleeps his name on Lonely. But the end of their long and fruitful association, which has brought them both fame and commercial success, is the focus of much of this complicated, engrossing record, one in which an alternately furious, sad, thoughtful and re-energised Simz emerges from under the influence of her former collaborator, shaking her head as though to clear it.

The first track is called, quite simply, Thief. “This person I’ve known my whole life coming like the devil in disguise,” Simz raps, “My jaw was on the floor, my eyes never been so wide.” Those are some of her more measured words on a record that pulls few punches. Fury, weariness and self-doubt all recur like basslines as Simz processes events.

Her anger doesn’t always come paired with blistering beats. Musically, Hollow is a jazzy, string-laden reverie. “You told me be wary of the sharks and then you became one,” she seethes. Singer Cleo Sol, Inflo’s wife, was Simz’s go-to backing vocalist. Her place has been taken by Jungle’s Lydia Kitto on the bossa nova love song Only, and by Miraa May on Peace.

A variety of other fresh musical approaches are in evidence as Simz follows up No Thank You, her knockout 2022 album. Some are more successful than others. Lotus boasts more guests than any other Simz album: Sampha appears on the contemplative Blue, and the American singer Moses Sumney on the guitar-led Peace. All this signals a healthy opening of arms to new influences. It also makes for a few too many underpowered, contemplative tracks. Simz’s most-streamed outing, for comparison, remains 2019’s fierce Venom.

The producer of Lotus is Miles Clinton James, known for his work with the jazz outfit Kokoroko, and some of the most beautiful passages here have an expansive, airy quality to them – like the outro to the title track, where the drums operate at the meeting point of jazz and drum’n’bass. We know who isn’t here. Who is here is instructive. Lotus, the song, also features a significant guest spot from another major Inflo client – Michael Kiwanuka.

Ultimately, this album is not all about the body blow of a friend’s betrayal, but about Simz’s recovery, too; and where she goes next as one of UK hip-hop’s most versatile exponents. A satirical, London-themed punk tune, Young, marks the biggest stylistic departure. Simz shouts out Amy Winehouse to a backing of live drums and her own foregrounded bassline, with the Streets and Parklife-era Blur as supporting influences. Elsewhere, the tang of Gorillaz punk-funk powers Enough. You have to applaud these experiments in constituency expansion.

Better, though, are a pair of standout tracks bearing a Nigerian influence. Simz twice renews her collaboration with the artist Obongjayar, who first featured on 2021’s Point and Kill. Lion finds Simz flexing hard (“Understand I’m Lauryn in her prime when you see me,” she declares; “Lauryn” being Lauryn Hill); it’s even better than the lead track, Flood. On the excellent Free, a retro-soul cut, Simz is operating at peak Hill.

Lotus is new and different, then – but in a way, it cleaves to type. Simz’s last album, No Thank You, was also an uncompromising record, in part about the pitfalls of the music industry, which bore the scars of Little Simz’s painful disentanglement from her former manager of seven years. (Simz has reportedly had to shelve four albums’ worth of material because of her dissociation from Inflo.) You could argue that the general public might not be set alight by two Little Simz records in a row about backroom industry personnel changes. But it’s the betrayal of trust, the rueful life lessons here, that make her themes universal.

Moreover, Little Simz’s work has often touched upon her difficult relationship with her father, a topic that is addressed directly on I Love You, I Hate You, from 2021’s Mercury-winning Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. A great many male figures, notionally protective, have let down the artist born Simbiatu Ajikawo.

Lotus is, then, principally the sound of a woman overcoming more adversity, again, standing on her own two feet – and transmuting bad fortune into what will surely be more awards nominations.

Lotus by Little Simz is released on Awal

Photograph by Thibault Grevet