Do we like Little Simz?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful on the record and a decent run as a person, but her public stance on social causes is thin in what we could verify.
Simbiatu Ajikawo grew up in Islington, north London, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, raised mostly by her mother, a foster carer. She found music at Mary's Youth Club, which she has called a second home, and that's where she met a kid named Dean Cover. The “Little” in the name is because she's the youngest of four.
She started as an actor, with a role in the BBC kids' fantasy series Spirit Warriors at 16 and later Netflix's Top Boy reboot. Her debut album came out in 2015 on her own label, Age 101 Records, with no major label behind her. She won the Brit for Best New Artist in 2022, which puzzled fans since she'd already made four albums.
The messy bit is the Inflo saga. Cover, the producer known as Inflo, was her closest collaborator for years. In a claim filed in January 2025, Simz alleged he never repaid about £1.7 million in loans, including £1 million for Sault's only live show. She also said she couldn't pay her full tax bill on time because of it.
It's a stoush with two sides. Law360 reported in October 2025 that Inflo had filed a £2.8 million counterclaim for unpaid management fees and other losses, and denied her claim. No court ruling or settlement turned up in our searches. Simz has said four albums she started after No Thank You were scrapped, saying “it's more the situation of who I made them with.”
On the harm test, honestly, there's nothing to report. We found no comments against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, no conspiracy-brain slide, and no dodgy co-stars. Her 2021 single Woman with Cleo Sol was a love letter to women, and she has made her records with the likes of Sampha, Obongjayar and Michael Kiwanuka. We couldn't find her own statements on trans rights or climate, so the record is clean but thin.
The good stuff is mostly the story. She came up through a youth club and has said youth workers helped her. She's stayed independent, kept making records, and has said “You can definitely be too loyal.” We found no named charity work, so we won't invent any.