Little Simz has begun a legal battle over allegedly unpaid loans against longtime friend and producer Inflo; for as masterful as Little Simz’ and SAULT’s discographies are, and for how intertwined they have been, this is a musical lose-lose for the listening world. Simz announcing this dispute and releasing an album in tandem is certainly the most chaotic rollout of 2025, one which could have seen a catastrophe of personal drama cascade through her craft. Instead, Lotus is an affirmation representative of her talent: the best revenge is just being better.
Lotus comes after the defiant run of Grey Area, SIMBI, and No Thank You, all produced by Inflo. With these records, Little Simz harnessed vulnerable shit-talking and defiant sensitivity like a therapeutic Avatar; no emotion was too taboo and no pit was inescapable. It’s a slew of instant classics now welcoming a fourth. Lotus toes the line between disparate emotions, ripping apart betrayal, mourning loss, and celebrating Simz as the revenant messiah of Conscious Rap. In the spirit of stamping out modern anti-intellectualism, where we must put up picket fences around emotionally compelling or lyrically profound music, I’ll just say she’s the messiah of all Rap. Get in line, world.
The runaway success of the gritty, pretty Grey Area in
2019 saw Simz embraced on a newly global stage, one that coincided with
Inflo announcing his presence as a powerhouse of the murky and melodic.
The glorious soundscapes of Lotus are more or less Simz’s
previous work with Inflo with a fake mustache under its nose, complete
with a dead ringer Cleo Sol-adjacent vocalist on “Peace.”
Between the distorted bass, semi lo-fi production, soulful
backing melodies, and cinematic sheen, I had to look up new producer
Miles Clinton James every four minutes; are you sure you’re not
Inflo? Is this an outlandish TV episode where Inflo got amnesia in a car
wreck and now thinks he’s someone else? It’s more of a mirror episode
where the main crew meet nearly identical versions of themselves; for as
wondrous as Lotus is, its aesthetic has been rebuilt from
someone else’s ashes. There’s even a song entitled “Free,” which, in
SAULT terms, accounts for 40% of the song titles in their catalogue.
Understand where Lotus falls for Simz, and you can rebuild it note for note; it’s Grey Area (Simz Version),
redone on different terms to expunge herself from its past connections.
Its highs are higher, its lows are non-existent, and it has the
government mandated Obongjayar feature, or it wouldn’t be a Simz
project. She infuses the record with breathless anger, some of it
excruciatingly centered around her anger and betrayal toward her past
friends, yet this turmoil is never the focal point of her message. There
is no narrative to spin or extract for the tabloids except the most
bare, most vital piece. Forget the headlines, Little Simz is the
greatest rapper alive. What else is there to talk about?
