Concert by rapper Little Simz in Frankfurt causes enthusiasm
Llittle Simz is a musician whose performance is just as recognizable in evening dress with string orchestra like in the hoodie with sound system. Her music manages with a light hand to combine her very personal raps, which mediate between anger and a clear social analysis, with the orchestral opulence of southern soul, the coolness of eighties electronics and intricate rhythms.
On Sunday evening, the British artist opted for the hoodie variant with sunglasses and baseball cap, literally helping the frenetic U-30 audience at Frankfurt’s Zoom music club to get going.
“Energy” was the most used word in their announcements. And indeed, a visible connection is formed between the 28-year-old Londoner with Nigerian roots and her audience.
They interpret the elegant songs of their current album “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert” very dynamically, among the titles of the previous record “Grey Area” there are some fast and rhythmic ones that get their fans moving by themselves.
“Frankfurt, I need your energy”, she calls out to them to their hit “Elfish”. “My best friend is I,” she sings in it and provides a little guide on how to get through life more easily as an egocentric. The audience contributes text-safe.
“Protect My Energy” is the name of one of her songs from the latest album, which picks up on her motto. With his nods to Prince, he marks the electronic extreme of their repertoire – “Point and Kill” is the clearest nod to their original roots.
Little Simz, who was born as Simbiatu Ajikawo in the British capital, keeps throwing out autobiographical fragments. “Growing up, people didn’t think I could do anything,” she said in an announcement. But the all-rounder played in the English television series early on, recorded her first rap title as a teenager, founded her own record label Age 101 and has since been nominated several times for important music awards.
The initials of her record “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert” spell out Simbi, another nickname given to her by friends along with her stage name. She has been friends with the musician Dean Josiah Cover since she was a child. With the stage name Inflo, he has meanwhile become the country’s most respected music producer.
From The Kooks to Michael Kiwanuka to Adele enough the guild of musicians who are already being supported by him. His own project, Sault, has shown unprecedented creativity and productivity over the past few years. Inflo is co-composer on all tracks of Little Simz’ fourth album.
Halfway through the concert, the Frankfurt concert hall is bathed in red light. Little Simz pulls the hood of her red hoodie over the cap. The bombastic string riff of the album’s title song “Introvert” fills the entire hall, which by the way is the best-sounding one in Frankfurt. Something between Grace Jones’ Slave to the Rhythm and Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds in effect, but much angrier. A classic for the 1920s.
Here are all her personal issues that she denounces: corruption and racism – “Parts of the world still living in apartheid” – and finally the question of how she personally puts it: “Sometimes I could be introverted.” You need one License to feel inner wounds.
Discussions left open whether Simz, the artist, or Simbi, the girlfriend, was meant. The song is a document of artistic reflection in this decade. “One day I’m wordless, the next day I’m a wordsmith,” she sings, continuing that all she has is hope to achieve the goal of her role model, Amy Winehouse.
The best songs from their repertoire create this poignancy from social circumstances and personal concern. In the solemn Little Q, with its irresistible la-la-la melody and choral arrangement to match, her lyrical self raps about the life of a 14-year-old girl in south London, about a life-threatening injury, an absent father, a brother in prison.
Little Simz looks like the female equivalent of Los Angeles rap genius Kendrick Lamar. She is imaginative and open to musical influences. Her multifacetedness is challenging, but she manages to consistently weave her genre role models into her own style. Like Lamar’s, her charisma is exceptional, and her qualities as a rapper are remarkable.
But the most remarkable thing is her songwriting, this joy in creating melodies that you won’t soon forget, making them through arrangements and singing about social circumstances, which makes her ruthless.