#Little Simz

[inlovewetrust-555]

[leikeliscomet]

Actually I dgaf what tumblr has to say about hip hop and rap music actually because Black art will always be loved and supported by us matter what. Thank you Black women of hip hop and rap for giving us an outlet to be angry and voice our emotions in spite of the angry Black girl trope. Thank you Da Brat, Queen Latifah, Salt and Pepa and more for starting the lane for women in rap and giving us the Black tomboy rapper. Thank you Lil Kim and Foxy Brown for birthing the sexual hypefeminine Black Barbie and crossing hip hop with high fashion. Thank you Missy Elliot for revolutionising production and choreography in hip hop music. Thank you Nicki Minaj for keeping women's rap alive in the 2010s and showing the versatility of rap with pop music. Thank you Rico Nasty for giving us Black female rage and giving us alt Black girl rep. Thank you Doja Cat and Tierra Whack for giving us quirky Black girl rap representation. Thank you Flo Milli, Leikeli47, Megan Thee Stallion, Lola Brooke, Doechii and more for carrying the torch for the next wave. Thank you especially to Doechii again for proving darkskin women can do anything and that our art matters. Thank you RoXXXan, Lioness and Amplify Dot for starting the renaissance of women in UK rap in the 2010s. Thank you Lady Leshurr for putting UK women's rap on the map. Thank you ENNY for giving us the Black British girl anthem, Peng Black Girls. Thank you Little Simz for carrying the UK rap game on your back no matter how long they doubt you, no matter how long it takes the UK industry to recognise your excellence. Thank you Cristale for paving the way for the next generation in the UK.

Thank you Black women of hip hop for giving us representation across the board . That we can be just as masculine just like the men of rap but also as girly and as feminine as can be. That we can reclaim our sexuality either through open sexual expression without shame or none at all no matter the stereotypes thrown at us. That as queer Black women we exist and we can thrive. That no matter the misognyoir, colourism and queerphobia we exist and we will always be here.

Thank you Black women of rap and hip hop. I love you all!

[maxeine-txt]

LITTLE SIMZ

Nigerian

1994

400x640

🎵 Bien sûr j'suis affamée comme 6 pits 🎶

crédit : maxeine.

[luckythings]

[wildspringday]

little simz via instagram

[neo-soulfuls]

Little Simz for her album “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert” (2021)

[raveledits]

[soundslivemagazine]

The music industry has a funding problem

Earlier this month, Newcastle-based indie singersongwriter Sam Fender released his fourth studio album, People Watching, and embarked on a week of media duties talking about what influenced the new album. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Fender talked about his working class upbringing, and how difficult it was for an artist without a moneyed background to make it in the music industry today.

Sam Fender. Hannah Victoria Kenyon for Strong Island.

“The music industry is 80 percent, 90 percent kids who are privately educated,” he said. “A kid from where I’m from [North Shields, Newcastle, UK] can’t afford to tour, so there are probably thousands writing songs that are ten times better than mine, poignant lyrics about the country, but they will not be seen because it’s rigged.”

It was like a lit match to tinder. Many artists spoke up confirming that they were currently facing challenges staying afloat in the music industry despite hitting many of the milestones that traditionally looked like success in the music industry. Many talked about how funds were the main things separating them from their peers who had ‘made it’. Many others have talked about how money has hindered them from taking steps that would greatly advance their music careers.

Beloved artists like Little Simz and Rachel Chinouriri have over the last few years had to cancel international tours that would never add up for an independent artist without the backing of a major label, or great personal expenses. Songwriter Kate Nash, who was in the news recently for turning to OnlyFans to sell pictures of arse to fund her upcoming tour in a campaign she called ‘Butts For Tour Buses’, estimated that the production cost of each show she puts on a single night, costs her about $10,000. A cost even half of that would be devastating to a kid starting out in music with no savings.

Little Simz. Dave J. Hogan/Getty Images

There is another aspect to this discussion. Last week, British indie songwriter Ellie Dixon was asked on her social media about the phrase ‘industry plant’, a highly contentious word meant to indicate that an artist has not authentically reached the level of success they are at, and instead owe it all to some undisclosed industry connections that were allowing them access to avenues of career growth unfairly.

On surface level, this would seem to be something that only adds to the woes of independent, hard-working musicians, once again locked out of opportunities that should’ve rightfully been theirs if only some golden child with the right connections hadn’t swooped in and snatched their livelihood right out of their hands. In reality, who and what this ‘industry plant’ really is, is less clear. Often, it is used as a catch-all phrase to indicate that you don’t think someone deserves the plaudits they are receiving. But whether or not a certain kind of music is inherently deserving of success or not can only ever be a matter of subjective taste, and so something as concrete as having insider connections, becomes a matter of opinion where stylistic preferences become equated with worth, and the word loses all meaning.

Rolling Stone magazine, in a recent article defending the rising rap star Doechii, wrote a good piece about how the phrase is being misused to discredit artists who have put in all the work themselves over the years, only to be unfairly torn down by people’s fundamental misunderstanding of the phrase.

Doechii receives her Grammy for Best Rap Album. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy.

Money in music is a really important conversation to have, namely in that it is simply not possible to sustain a career in this (or any) industry without it, and that artists, the backbone of the industry, have seen increasingly diminishing returns on it. We find ourselves returning to the music industry of old, where as rents go up and incomes for independent artists dry up, many musicians find that it makes sense for them to rely on traditional record label deals.

This has been enough for many people to start lobbing the accusations of ‘industry plant’, somehow mistaking having a label put any investment into an artist as some sort of insideous and undeserved, unfair advantage, as if the music industry was exclusively meant to be run from bedrooms of one and from behind YouTube and TikTok accounts.

If anything, artist development is only a recently neglected area by labels, opting to let artists themselves be the creators, marketers, publicists, cinematographers, bookers, promoters, merch and poster graphic designers and much more, all on that lucrative label budget of $0.00.

Who can afford to do all that? An artist that can either afford not to have a full-time job outside of their self-employed music career, or someone who can afford to pay others.

Which brings me back to the discussion about wealth in music. Sam Fender was completely right when he spoke out about how hard it is for working class artists to break through. The Dublin-based singer CMAT (incidentally, on tour supporting Fender at the moment) talked about how she wanted to write a guide on how working class musicians can make it in this treacherous industry, because to realise that everyone living your dream is doing it on the back of wealth you can never cough up is quite demotivating. Working class artists slog for a decade before being recognised at the level that the backing of a label could achieve in a year, there is no hiding from this. (Also, CMAT only half-jokingly said this but she is right: rich kid music also just lacks bite. There’s an urgency and potency to working class music that genuinely holds up a mirror to society that an artist who doesn’t have to face every aspect of the world sometimes simply cannot put into words in the same way. It is absolutely crucial that we do not lose working class voices in art.)

CMAT live. Sean McMahon

So really, we need to focus less on tearing down working class artists with unfounded accusations of being ‘industry plants’, something that also seems to disproportionately be levelled at women, musicians of colour, queer artists and other marginalised communities by men who cannot understand their success, and focus more on preserving the funding and pathway programmes that have historically tried to place working class artists on the same footing as richer artists.

The problem with the music industry isn’t so-called industry plants— it’s that funding in music stays at the top while grassroots artists suffer. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is reportedly worth 7.5 billion USD, while Canada has lost 15% of its small music venues since the beginning of 2020. The UK, where the Music Venue Trust keeps clearer track of the state of grassroots music venues, reports that the UK loses a grassroots venue every two weeks currently. When burgeoning young talent don’t have the venues to hone their talent, make their mistakes and develop their sound and stage presence, future stars are lost forever, working class or otherwise.

So good on Sam Fender. Himself a working class kid, he’s done something good for working class musicians everywhere even just by starting this important conversation with a platform as large as he has built for himself.

[soupexpertt]

Apparently there's a lot of hate for hip hop on this website. And while I'm not telling anyone what they should be listening to it's just weird to brush off a giant portion of music with many subgenres based on some kind of prejudice.

"but it glorifies abuse and drugs and violence" listen to political or conscious hip hop, listen to conceptual albums that delve deep into these topics and how they affect the community

"but rappers are misogynists/homophobes/etc" listen to female rappers, listen to lgbt rappers

"but it's scary and violent" listen to jazz rap, listen to cloud rap

"but it's not melodic (enough)" listen to instrumental hip hop, listen to jazz rap

"but it's not creative/ boring" (an actual take that I've seen here) listen to experimental hip hop

[its-me-caroyn]

Christina's World // Andrew Wyeth

The Crane Wife // CJ Hauser

Skip to Loafer // Ch. 56

I Love You, I Hate You // Little Simz

Lockwood and Co. // Ep. 1

First Love / Late Spring // Mistki

All of Us Strangers (2023)

Kare Kano // Ep. 3

Faulty // Leila Chatt

Skip to Loafer // Ch. 42

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

[undergroundrockpress]

Little Simz by Lola Paprocka (2021).

[drrav3nb]

ASHLEY WALTERS as Dushane LITTLE SIMZ as Shelley TOP BOY | S3: E8 - Bad Eye

Last night...this...it's a bit of a surprise, innit? It's a good surprise though, right? Well you seem happier.

[orquideasim]

[strathshepard]

Little Simz by Jamie Hawkesworth for The Gentlewoman

[freshthoughts2020]

[wildspringday]

little simz via instagram