A voice from North London has been shaking up the global hip hop scene. This is the story of Little Simz. With exceptional rap skills, lyrics on profound subject matter, and an extraordinary ability to put albums together, she’s risen like a wildfire. To her, rap is more than just a means of expression—it had been a way to survive and find structure in the world. Simz says she pieced her identity together as a child bit by bit through rap—who she is, where she belongs, what it means to be a woman, and the weight of being Black in society. And her music was born out of continuously posing these very questions.

Simz stood apart right from the beginning. While many emerging artists seek to work under the umbrella of a major label, Simz charted a path all on her own. The fact that she named her indie label Age 101 Music shows just what her philosophy is and what her creative morals look like. On top of that, she’s incredibly prolific. Between releasing her first mixtape, “STRATOSPHERE,” in 2010, and her debut studio album, “A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons,” in September 2015, she dropped three other mixtapes and seven EPs—all equally impressive.

Above all, Simz’s music transcends any need to aim for the charts. It exists at a place in hip hop where gender, race, identity, mental health, and more all converge, seemingly saying, “I’m a woman, I’m Black, I’m introverted—but none of that can stop me from changing the world.” As such, Simz never gets swept up in the latest trends. What’s more, she’s shown no hesitation in making rap a social movement, an emotional tool, and a philosophical genre. Her lyrics are so informative they could be featured in school textbooks, yet they also carry the rebellious spirit of street poetry.

When “A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons” came out in 2015, she was pouring her heart out to the world in a way that made it feel like the new artist had already attained perfection. Her second album, 2016’s “Stillness in Wonderland,” unpacked the boundary between fantasy and reality within her, and she rose to even greater status after critical acclaim for her 2019 album “GREY Area.” Her next album, “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert” (2021), was nothing short of literature, a speech, and a theatrical epic rolled into one. Narrative monologues and orchestral interludes found their way between tracks, and the mix of metaphors and raw truth in her lyrics made the end of each sentence come on like the beginning. With “Introvert,” Simz won the Mercury Prize, an accolade given to the best album released in the UK and Ireland each year, at which point countless critics around the world began naming her one of the most intellectual rappers of our time. Her follow-up album, “NO THANK YOU” (2022), was yet another masterpiece that made no compromises for commercial appeal. With a defiant stance toward the music industry and the media, the record was all about intense introspection and hypocrisy within the industry.

But despite her triumphant musical journey, Simz faced personal difficulties. Money was an issue. Earlier this year, she sued her former producer, Inflo, for failing to repay £1.7 million in loans. Inflo, who had worked with Simz on her music since “GREY Area,” allegedly put the majority of the cash toward a concert that Simz had nothing to do with whatsoever. As a result, Simz found herself unable to pay her taxes in 2024. To make matters worse, Inflo had been a close friend of many years. Being betrayed by one of her most trusted collaborators cut deep, but amazingly enough, Simz didn’t let the anger and despair get to her and instead channeled it into her creative work. She went on to cut her sixth studio album, “Lotus,” with the help of a new producer, Miles Clinton James.

“Lotus” was born out of betrayal, anger, pain, and healing, making the themes of suffering, conflict, and recovery—topics Simz has long explored—hit even harder this time. Right from the very first track, “Thief,” she confronts the collapse of an interpersonal relationship head-on, laying bare her hurt without holding back (“This person I’ve known my whole life coming like the devil in disguise.”). Though she doesn’t name names outright, the thief she’s rapping about won’t be a mystery to anyone familiar with her situation. Simz’s rapping here feels almost like courtroom testimony. Her flow is restrained but boils inside with suppressed rage, and the dynamic, suffocating beat captures the raw emotion of betrayal in a strikingly tangible way.

Where “Thief” opens the album with anger and betrayal, “Hollow” comes in halfway through and represents the midpoint on the emotional arc between fury and healing. Simz musically recreates an emptiness born out of loneliness and loss, rapping deeply introspective lyrics over beautifully serene strings. This delicate splash of light into the emotional depths continues later on the album with the track “Lonely.” Here, Simz begins by confessing the loneliness and loss of confidence she experienced while creating the album, laying bare the crushing loneliness she’s experienced like a poem. With its lyrical piano and guitar riffs, swelling strings that grow into emotional whirlpools, and an ethereal chorus, not only is “Lonely” the most introspective and intimate moment of the album, but it’s also a quietly explosive one, both lyrically and musically.

Meanwhile, in the song “Blood,” Simz looks at mending the relationship between siblings as the family grows apart. Featuring acclaimed British rapper Wretch 32, the artists explore the subject of the struggle in a hip hop exchange over the phone, progressively wrapped up in elegant strings that elevate the heartbreak of the song. Simz carefully lays out the emotional trajectory of the whole album chronologically while also imparting a message of hope. On “Free,” the album’s most traditional hip hop sounding song, the rapper emphasizes that the ultimate catalyst for true liberation—both for herself and others—is the power of love.

“Lotus” is an album of extraordinary musical craftsmanship and emotional depth. The experimental and intricate sound design is a masterful fusion of soul, jazz, Afrobeat, and classical ideas on top of a hip hop frame. The result of Simz’s new collaboration with Miles Clinton James is so successful that Inflo’s absence is hardly worth noting. It’s also full of her characteristically awe-inspiring bouquet of poetic language. What’s most striking is that Simz doesn’t romanticize her pain. Instead, she fully embraces it, singing about finding beauty and strength even when suffering. Her rapping comes in emotional waves, flooding out fiercely at times, while sinking into thoughtful calm at others.

Most tracks on “Lotus” aren’t the kind of songs you put on when you just want to chill out. There’s a subtlety to the emotional texture and layers of sound that you could easily miss if not paying close attention. For the same reason, it could be challenging to fully grasp the album’s true essence after a single listen. But if you keep listening, you’ll come to a point where it no longer feels restricted to an individual’s personal story and instead grows to encompass a collective narrative that we’re all wrapped up in. Like a strong-willed lotus blooming in dirty water, Simz elegantly proves herself to be an artist reborn from the pain of her emotional wounds. And with her autobiographical rap, she helps us up gracefully onto its lily pad.