NO THANK YOU by Little Simz

NO THANK YOU, Little Simz's fifth studio album, dropped on 12 December 2022 with less than a week's warning, a surprise package from an artist who had just won the Mercury Prize with Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. She kept the circle tight: longtime collaborator Inflo on production, Cleo Sol on backing vocals.

The music is hip-hop shot through with gospel, afrobeat, soul, funk and electronics, the grooves played low and supple under swelling orchestral arrangements, while Simz raps about her life in the music business, the conversations she has with herself and moments of spiritual clarity. "Gorilla" is the swagger break. A ten-minute short film followed four days later. Critics fell hard for its emotional depth, its smooth production and her writing; The Daily Telegraph called it the best UK rap album of 2022, and Rolling Stone was among those ranking it high on year-end lists. Lotus came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.