« There is a lot of strength in vulnerability » – Liberation

Barely Little Simz timidly responded to our greetings than she looks down and returns to her cigarette and her thoughts. In the courtyard of a Parisian building, she pauses. His bodyguard has the look and body language that does not deceive: as long as the interview has not started, no need to linger or try to relax the atmosphere, take the pulse. Come what can, and no need to formalize since the introversion of the London rapper is well known, that she chanted it in the world in 2021 with her fourth album, Sometimes I Might be introvertinternational card that definitively seated it as a spearhead of British rap.

And then, she is far from her house, in a reduced team, a little suspicious. Also injured. In March, the English press revealed that she accused her former producer, Inflo, architect of her greatest successes, of having defrauded him with around 2 million euros. A significant sum, of course, but a friendship, confidence and close artistic collaboration immediately swept away. His sixth album, entitled Lotuswhich comes out on Friday June 6, is imbued with this dirty experience. His gestation was difficult. Simbi Ajikawo, 31, an actress in her spare time, imposing, arrives, ends up sitting without completely lowering his guard. And in a soft voice, sometimes difficult to audible, replies.

Your latest album tells the story of its own creation, you