Little Simz proves she’s not your usual rapper at Sydney sideshow
By Shamim Razavi
MUSIC
Little Simz ★★★★
Hordern Pavilion, July 21
A clue as to where Little Simz belongs in the musical pantheon is in the outro jazz soundtrack that plays as the audience filters out after her powerful show: Miles Davis’ seminal Kind of Blue. Simz’ influences and ambitions far transcend any narrow genre definition.
Little Simz’ Sydney set was powerful.Credit: Janie Barrett
From the Afrobeat of Point and Kill through the Delfonics-inflected Two Worlds Apart via the nu-disco groove of Protect My Energy, Simz delivers a whirlwind musical education while tying the sound together with a distinctive flow and ebullient stage presence.
Ebullience is not usually associated with rap but Simz isn’t your usual rapper. While guns and violence feature as themes, theirs is a mournful presence given sober consideration.
She does dark, too – the walls ooze menace as she performs viral hit Venom – but it is a mysterious darkness, not a debasement.
Rather, the night’s overarching mood is joyous, grateful, even spiritual as she invokes God and higher forces in crowd favourites Introvert and set highlight Gorilla. This series of crowd favourites comes back-to-back in the middle of the 90-minute set and are the night’s peak experience; a glimpse of the artist fully flexing her powers.
Little Simz has celebratory, informed, empowering sound that is uniquely her own.Credit: Janie Barrett
What comes before and after this pinnacle is no slouch – but while the sonic range remains clever and varied throughout, the subject matter of her songs can sometimes feel predictable: a struggling artist trying to make her way.
Not that the audience minds much – as the show moves to its conclusion there are frequent interludes of audience adulation, repaid by Simz’ seeming astonishment at the crowd (together with a flattering comparison of the Sydney crowd with Melbourne’s) and by her performance of set-closer Woman.
By this stage of the night, the crowd has well and truly responded to the instruction to “make some noise”, and the word-for-word lyrical rendition comes more from the audience than the stage. It is a noise and a song that, more than any other, embodies what Simz looks set to achieve in her career: a celebratory, informed, empowering sound that is uniquely her own.
Miles Davis, make some space.
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