Growing up in London and citing her early influences as Missy Elliot and Lauryn Hill, Little Simz was supported through the International Showcase Fund in 2014 to go to Canadian Music Week, progressing to the Momentum Music Fund to release her debut album, “A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons”, in 2015.
The funding allowed her to release through her own label, AGE: 101, and the album entered the UK R&B Albums Chart at Number 20 and the UK Independent Albums Chart at Number 43. With four star reviews from The Line of Best Fit and The 405, it then went on to win Independent Album of the Year at the AIM Awards 2016.
Simz also won Breakthrough Act of the Year at the Worldwide Awards and was nominated for a BET Award and two MOBO Awards. International Showcase Fund support enabled her to take first steps into the North American market and she has since returned to Canada and the USA for multiple collaborative sessions, recording sessions and tours.
Asked how Momentum has helped her retain independence, Little Simz explained: “As an independent artist and label owner the Momentum Music Fund is a major helping hand for myself and my team. As we are working to inspire and to show a new generation of artists from the UK that they can make an impact on a global scale without having to sign to a major record label, funding like this is a huge part of making the journey to the end goal possible.”
Since she released “A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons” she has toured with Lauryn Hill and can call Anderson .Paak, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar fans. Her sophomore album, “Stillness in Wonderland”, was released in late 2016 to huge critical acclaim, gaining four-star reviews in The Guardian and The FT, with GRM Daily calling it “a pioneering body of British rap music”.
