Little Simz – ‘Lotus’ review: a raw reckoning from rap’s quiet warrior

Jun 4, 2025 - 09:14

0 0

Little Simz

Although lotuses symbolise rebirth, Little Simz isn’t being “born again” on her sixth album. Instead, she’s peeling back layers, exposing the bruised psyche of an artist in recovery from emotional betrayal and now finding a way back to herself. After a flawless trilogy with ‘Grey Area’ (2019), ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ (2021) and ‘No Thank You’ (2022), Simz has become synonymous with refined, thoughtful hip-hop. But ‘Lotus’ dials down the grandeur in favour of raw, sometimes uncomfortable introspection. It’s a heavy listen – not for lack of quality, but for how deeply personal it gets.

This is also her first release without longtime producer InFlo – who she’s currently suing for over £1million in unpaid debts. There’s clearly more to that story than we’ll ever know, but ‘Lotus’ feels like the fallout: the sound of Simz clawing herself out of creative limbo and finding her voice again.

Her voice growls on ‘Thief’, as twangy bass underscores a brutal takedown of a pivotal figure in her career. “That’s what abusers do / Make you think you’re crazy and second-guess your every move,” she spits with a new venom-soaked bite that’s more ferocious than we’ve ever heard from her before. There’s no room for euphemism here – each bar lands like a final nail in the coffin as the deceptively sweet hook rings through. This ominousness oozes into ‘Flood’, but soon, this defiant anger softens, injecting ‘Young’ and ‘Free’ with levity and pulling her back before rage fully takes over.

If ‘Lotus’ isn’t about revival, it’s definitely about redemption. After burning the bridge with her manipulator, Simz bolsters her hard-won confidence with ‘Lion’ and ‘Enough’. These funky, percolated cuts revel in funk and highlife, swiftly turning into affirmations. On ‘Lion’, Simz calls herself a young Lauryn Hill while Obongjayar warns others of the duo’s greatness.

‘Enough’ is one for the resilient, self-assured Black girls as she raps, “You didn’t know I is that girl / I am an electric black girl,” while daring anyone to test her credibility. But Simz’s boastfulness peaks on the titular track where, alongside Yusef Dayes and Michael Kiwanuka, she vows to never dim her light again. “You brought that woman to a low / I might amplify her,” she raps with newfound clarity. “Like dew from a flower, I see the break of dawn.”

Still, the album isn’t flawless. Flows can drag. Some hooks feel drawn out, especially on ‘Enough’. ‘Young’’s caricatured British accent doesn’t land as playfully as intended. And ‘Blood’, despite its moving narrative about fame and family, featuring Wretch 32 and Cashh, feels out of place in this narrative about rediscovery of the self.

But the heart of ‘Lotus’ lies in its quiet moments. ‘Only’ is a lush, jazzy song that shows the evolution of Simz’s signature style. Soul-soothing notes blanket her observant and eloquent tales across the album, this one focusing on an indulgent and overwhelming love, as the pillowy vocals of Jungle’s Lydia Kitto ground the song in warmth and serenity. Then there’s ‘Lonely’, the album’s true emotional epicentre. It’s heavy, harrowing, and heartbreakingly honest as Simz has nowhere to hide on the revealing song, realising how powerful her own autonomy is: “I was lonely making an album / Till I realised I’m all I needed to get through.”

‘Lotus’ isn’t always an easy listen, and sometimes the truths in its bars feel more like diary entries than rap lyrics, but maybe that’s its purpose. Across 13 tracks, Simz sifts through grief, pressure, burnout and spiritual reckoning with a vulnerability that is admirable, making it among her most important works emotionally rather than sonically. Here, Simz is stripped to the root, healing in real time. Raw, flawed and deeply human – this is what blooming really sounds like.