The Top 30 Albums Of 2019 (So Far): Little Simz – 'Grey Area'

"Grey Area is intense, inventive, and earnest, a rare rap album where bluster gives way to bluntness and bravado isn’t bragging but actually brave." – Nic Addenbrooke

Little Simz has dropped the definitive rap album for 2019. To quote Simbiatu Ajikawo herself, she’s come out swinging on this one, the Boss big-noting herself – with a wink – as “the biggest phenomenon”, “Jay-Z on a bad day, Shakespeare on my worst days” and “Picasso with the pen”. 

The millennial rapper borrows from across the history of rap and hip hop, from jazz beats to trap, her bravado and tight, hyper-articulate flow capturing something raw about the experience of a young woman of colour dealing with such things as accusations of selfishness or toxic celebrity culture.