The Quiet Power Of Little Simz
You would never know that the chaos of Camden Town is just moments away, the hawkers, hustlers, homeless and hipsters in constant kinetic transition with each other on the filthy, enthralling streets that Amy Winehouse once called home. Inside this 19th-century converted warehouse – with its softly smoking incense and exposed-brick walls drenched in the shifting sunlight of this warm spring day – it’s as serene as its occupant, the musician Little Simz.
Simbiatu ‘Simbi’ Abisola Abiola Ajikawo didn’t so much arrive as appear at her north-London office. One moment she’s not here, the next she is, loping in alone, all 5’10” of her, dressed in black boots, black bomber, Carhartt cargos and Seventh hoodie, her long dreads tucked under a plain New Era cap and a tranquil smile on her face, as she greets her PA, PR and me, her inquisitor for the next couple of hours.
As her 2021 Mercury Prize-winning album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert attested (see what she did there with the acronym?), Little Simz can be shy, yet she exudes a calm confidence. She’s all ‘Great to see you’ and warm hugs, responding politely to enquiries about the vinyl on the coffee table – Prince’s 'Purple Rain', Arlo Parks’ 'My Soft Machine' and Frank Ocean’s highly covetable 'Channel Orange' – and the art on the walls. One is an expressionist piece by the Nigerian painter and skater Olaolu Slawn, and another a joyous landscape painting of young people by her friend Kaiya Jaid.
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‘Erm, yeah, we’ve got the Mercury, the NMEs, Mobos, the Ivor Novellos...’ Simz says softly of the battalion of trophies that guard the recess of one wall. And the Brit for Best New Artist, 2022? ‘It’s with my mum. Yeah, she’s holding onto that one.’ Who could forget Mummy Simz, foster carer and Nigerian single mother of three, and the true star of the Brit Awards 2022? ‘This is all her doing.’ We tilt our necks, contemplating the awards. They’re very impressive, I observe. A soft murmur. ‘I think they’re just...’ She motions her arms. ‘...in the space.’ She pauses, changing tack as we head towards an expansive sofa. ‘Sometimes I do catch myself looking at them and thinking, wow, once upon a time that was so empty, and it just keeps... filling up.’
There will be more to come. Since she released her first mixtape in 2010 at the age of 14, Simz’s output has been almost patholog- ically prolific. A rapper first and foremost, she’s dropped five albums (a sixth is on the way), four mixtapes and 11 EPs, which, between them, have earned 17 major awards and numerous nominations. That’s two records every one year average, to paraphrase one of her heroes, Jay-Z. ‘For as long as I can remember, I’ve always put out music. From Bandcamp to MySpace to Soundcloud, it’s so instilled in me,’ she insists, genuinely bewildered by observations that her work rate is rapacious. ‘I’ve built everything brick by brick. I make music that represents a certain point in my life, and I let it go. I’m a consistent person, whether that’s my friendships, my family or my work, so it’s more a character thing, I think.’
Earlier this year she released her eleventh EP, 'Drop 7', an exuberant electronic offering with her college pal, the producer Jakwob. Unlike her albums, Simz’s EPs don’t tend to reflect on social ills, the self, the struggle. They’re instead a reset, a celebration, a chance for Simz to simply spit. ‘It’s just whatever’s being felt at the time in the studio. We were having a party, just us two, having fun.’
One thing is for certain; the record won’t merely be good. Simz doesn’t do average. There’s a distinct spirit of excellence that cuts across her creative oeuvre. It’s in her artfully articulate rhymes, the cut of her cargo pants, the trumpets that flare fantastically on the capricious ‘Gorilla’, it’s in the beautiful lighting for videos such as ‘Point and Kill’, shot in Lagos, and her captivating, commanding stage presence. You see it in whatever Simz turns her attention to, whether acting (she returned to the screen in 2019 to play Shelley in the hit Netflix drama Top Boy), modelling (for Miu Miu AW24) or photography (she released the beautiful coffee-table tome The *Book last year). ‘It’s all storytelling,’ she says of her ability to creatively shapeshift. ‘I love the idea of telling stories in whatever capacity it might be.’
Simz has been compelled to create since the age of eight or nine, when her older sister played 'The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill'. ‘As much as I loved music when I was young, I wasn’t emotionally intelligent enough to understand how it can physically impact you; give you goosebumps, make you cry, make you laugh. I didn’t get that until Lauryn, and then I started searching for it. How do I invoke that feeling in someone?’ she asks.
She set about summoning those emotions, initially via St Mary’s Youth Club, a few minutes from her home on Essex Road, and at the Anna Scher Theatre school. She also took herself to radio, going up against the boys. At just 11 years old, she was on 1Xtra, rapping about the power of the pen. Where on earth did that conviction come from? ‘My sisters. The energy that surrounds me to allow me to have confidence was my family, because of the way they used to gas me up and make me feel like I am Jay-Z. I am Missy Elliott. That went a long way,’ she says. In 2010, she made her official debut with 'Stratosphere', the first of many releases.
Despite her compulsive productivity, Simz is acutely cognisant of the importance of work-life balance. She recently changed her routine in order to create more quiet. She now gets up at 6.30am and meditates, reads, looks out the window at the still-sleeping streets of her home in north-west London. ‘I find I’m not bombarded with the world yet – social media, messages, all that. When I first started doing it, I was mad bored. Like, where is everyone,’ she admits with a laugh. ‘Then I realised that was the point: it’s all me. I want to use that time, I really enjoy it.’ As the world wakes up, she eases herself into it, journaling, playing chess with a good friend, recording music and coming here, to this office that she’s had for nearly two years.
Downstairs there’s a gym, where her trainer, Keith, schools Simz in the full-contact combat sport Muay Thai. ‘It’s a fun way for me to keep fit and train for what I do. It’s very physical being on stage, touring, so this builds up stamina, endurance, all-round strength. I’m trying to get my physical form as top-tier as it can be.’
She’ll need it – next month Simz will perform at Glastonbury, her fourth time on the Farm but her first time playing the Pyramid: the penultimate act before Coldplay. When her manager told her the news, she was immediately ‘buzzing’ with excitement and ideas. She got her laptop out to watch sets by her peers in similar slots: Lizzo, Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z and Stormzy, and began ‘planning my set list, what I’m gonna wear, what I want the show to feel like’.
It’s not only the Pyramid calling her name, but Miuccia Prada, too. In March, Simz found herself at Paris Fashion Week facing her first ever catwalk as a Miu Miu model. ‘Hands down the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done,’ she says, remembering her heart pounding as she stood backstage beside Kristin Scott Thomas and Gigi Hadid, trying to take in the instructions, trying to breathe. ‘They’re saying, “Go down here, take a right there, come back up, find the camera,” and I know I’m a performer – I was so happy they
didn’t put me in no crazy wedges – but the minute you have to concentrate on your walk, it’s so techie,’ she says, putting her head in her hands. ‘It goes so quick, you come off buzzing. Credit to the models, too. It gave me perspective and made me really respect the art of it. It’s not easy.’
From Worthy Farm to walking for Miu Miu, it’s important to underscore that Simz has done this as an indie artist on her own label, first Age 101 and now Forever Living Originals, via a distri- bution deal with AWAL. She doesn’t have the weight of a major label or publisher to secure streaming playlists, Radio 1 airtime, Brit Award performances, ELLE covers, brand campaigns or festival stages. Simz has done this alone. She’s had to believe in herself, so others could too.
Initially, she didn’t have much of a choice. Labels liked her, but she didn’t quite look right. ‘It was always the same situation,’ she remembers, miming someone looking her up and down. ‘“Yeah, this is cool, but this is what’s selling” – which was less clothing. And that’s just never been my vibe. I’ve always made a point to not conform to the industry status quo of how women – especially in hip-hop – should dress to appeal to the male gaze. I want to ensure that young girls who are like me – a bit quirky, a bit tomboyish – can see me. But also, I can fling on a dress,’ – or a skirt like she has for today’s shoot – ‘and make it look sick. I want them to know that there’s options.’
The labels eventually came calling, especially after the success of the Mercury Prize-nominated 2019 album Grey Area – but she was determined in her decision not to sign, no matter how long it took. Success for Simz hasn’t exactly happened overnight: that Brit arrived 12 years after she dropped her first mixtape. She’s had to stand by and watch peers including Dave, Stormzy and Skepta soar. It must have been hard, sometimes, to keep going.
‘I have had those moments of “I’m out, I’m actually done”,’ she admits, contemplating her career. ‘So many people have let me down. But so many people have showed up, so equally, I’m blessed. I’ve had a strong [support] system, but there’s been times when it’s just been me, roughing it, doing whatever I need to do to try to make something pop, and it’s been hard, man. Really hard.’ When acclaim came, it wasn’t without struggle. ‘I made an album basically saying I’m an introvert, and then I got mad attention.
So that was a weird time. An interesting, strange, bit of a challenging time to break through.’
And now, more success; here she is on the cover of ELLE. For years it wasn’t just difficult, but virtually impossible for a Black woman – particularly a Black British female musician – to regularly secure the cover of any magazine, let alone a fashion title. ‘I’m just so grateful to be living in a time when things like this can happen,’ Simz says. ‘There are so many women that have done the groundwork to allow me to be on the cover of ELLE. It’s not a me thing, it’s beyond that. People have been doing the graveyard shift so I could have this opportunity. Now, I wonder how I can make it easier for the next ones. There’s still a way to go, but I’m happy and grateful for how far we’ve come.’ Among her change-making predecessors, Simz names Viola Davis, Oprah Winfrey, Ms Dynamite, Missy Elliott, Lauryn and, of course, Joan Armatrading, the vastly underrated singer and guitarist who appeared with Simz at the 2023 Baftas to perform the redemptive ‘Heart On Fire’.
‘I heard Little Simz’s music on the radio and thought right away that she was a big talent,’ Armatrading told ELLE. ‘When she asked me to play guitar at the Baftas last year, it didn’t take me long to decide that I would say yes. The show was great, I loved it. She did a fantastic job and I had a fantastic time playing the guitar. What’s not to like?’
Simz recognises her own role in the lineage. She mentioned wanting to make it easier for the next generation; how does she hope to do that? ‘Allowing people to see me on the ground is super important, because I want people to feel like it’s in reach; I’m in reach; your dreams are in reach,’ she says. ‘I’m working out how I can be more present – going into schools and youth centres. I hope an experience like that might stay with a young person: I’m there, with them in this youth club, and tomorrow I might be walking the catwalk. I want people to see me and say, “Yeah, I could be doing that.”’
As a kid, Simz would race home from school, dump her bag and dash straight back out to St Mary’s, where she made music with other future Brit winners such as Inflo. How does she feel about the huge cuts across youth clubs and the arts in general? ‘It’s frustrating. I can’t imagine what my life might have been if I didn’t have that. It’s not like there’s that much to do in the environments we grow up in, so you end up on the road. Kids are creative by nature and trying to axe their creativity at such an early age is super-detrimental.’ It’s more than art for art’s sake, too. ‘Creativity is a way of life. When it’s tended to and nourished, you learn how to figure things out, how to make and create things, and that really helps you in your future. It’s not just about doing a painting.’
There’s a line on the track ‘Introvert’: ‘I’m not into politics but I know it’s dark times’. Is this still the case? ‘Not really, to be honest.’ She shifts about a little. Will she vote? ‘I’ll do what’s nec- essary for there to be good change but, I don’t know, I still have this stance of being young and feeling like [politicians] aren’t doing anything for me. But, ultimately, it’s about the next generation, so I’ll do what I can to help.’
What would Simz consider meaningful change? ‘My money would go towards mindfulness and teaching kids how to understand their bodies, their feelings, understand emotional intelligence. I think kids are just mad anxious. And I think social media plays a part in that so I would start with the mental wellbeing of young people. I would love to see that taught in schools. Journaling. Meditation. Small practices like that can go a long way.’
Mindfulness and introspection are, Simz says, absolutely key to all that she does. She recently turned 30 (she celebrated with friends and family at Sparrow in Mayfair, the sort of upscale Italian restaurant that doesn’t have prices on the menu) and, when I ask about future life goals, in keeping with her character, she doesn’t mention the usual awards, marriage, kids. Her ambitions are more interior than that. ‘What does future me look like?’ She takes time to consider. ‘It’ll be nice to feel at peace, firstly. I don’t want to lose my nut, you know?’ Why is that a fear? ‘One thing I’ve always been scared of is not having my feet on the ground. I don’t want to embarrass myself; I want to stay grounded and be happy, healthy, consistent, in my relationships, in my work. And I want to help as much as I can, and hopefully it’ll make a small difference.’ How about the world, this planet, which many feel is tipping upside down? ‘I actually feel hopeful,’ she says. ‘That’s why I talk about kids learning mindfulness, because this lot are going to take over. If they have these things instilled in them, it’s only going to be peace and harmony. I believe in people,’ she gestures to the office, towards Camden, London, the world. ‘I believe in us.’
Little Simz is the cover star of the June issue of ELLE UK on newsstands May 9.
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