When I think of Little Simz I relate her to artists like Kendrick Lamar. As im am listening to the lyrics, the message that I think she is trying to get across is basically how it is to be a woman artist. Little Simz isn’t speaking on how difficult it is being a woman artist in a male-dominated field. She is talking about how nobody can stop me. She walks with a bunch of confidence which is something that I love. With lyrics like “Big time driller, Monkey to Gorilla, Who is this woman that I’m seein’ in the mirror? Drink ’42 and smoke cigar, Name one time when I didn’t deliver, Silent figure, I was just on the end droppin’ gems with my friends”, this lyric just speaks to how she does not let the stereotypes that have been set onto her affect her ability to create. With that one lyric, I was able to see that she believes she can rap with the best of them and she smoking cigars like a Boss. when Little Simz says “Ooh, pain tolerance couldn’t break us, pay homage if you respect how we came up, cool (Cool), Tryin’ to get to the paper’ She is paying her respects to her upbringing and that it was something to look at. Something to glorify. Something to respect. Now she is all about that paper: that money. In many songs, artists are normally telling a story through their art. Little Simz was doing exceptionally well with telling a story throughout the song. Toward the end of the first verse, she speaks about how her money has grown and that with that she got more music that she is ready for the people to listen to. Overall I would say that this song is a testimony to her success. She has been able to step on the stereotypes placed on her when she got into the industry and become a successful female artist. As an artist, Little Simz tells stories that are more than impactful. Gorilla is a great song. I relate this back to what was learned i one of my classes about African woman in rap. When you look at artists that are woman today they sometimes have to do what is best for their career even if that means glorifying woman in a sexual way. Little Simz does the complete opposite. she is her genuine self and even when watching the music video there was nothing showing that she had to make herself more sexually appealing to get a larger audience. She did perfectly fine without it. Great song!

by Michael Adeniyi