Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is released

Why it matters

Sometimes I Might Be Introvert came out September 3, 2021, on Forever Living Originals/AWAL. Little Simz (Simbiatu Ajikawo) is a North London MC who had been releasing increasingly ambitious projects since her teenage years. The album is her fourth and the one that consolidated her position as one of the most distinctive UK voices of her generation. The album is structured as an orchestral-soul-rap suite, with the producer Inflo (Simz's longtime collaborator) building extended string-and-horn arrangements that frame her writing in a way most rap albums do not attempt at this scale. The album-opening "Introvert" runs five minutes with a full orchestral build. The lyrics across the album are interior, autobiographical, processing Simz's own anxiety, family history, and ambition. The album won the 2022 Mercury Prize, making Simz the third hip-hop/grime act to take the prize (after Dizzee Rascal in 2003 and Dave in 2019). You should hear it as a complete listening experience. The album does not work as well in fragments. The arrangements are the point and they require their full running time to land.