2021’s ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ has grown to become one of the most celebrated and critically-applauded rap albums of the decade, and it’s the record that solidified Little Simz as a force to be reckoned with: the artist has been riding high ever since, though that’s more thanks to 2022’s ‘NO THANK YOU’ and 2025’s ‘Lotus’ than it is her 2024 EP ‘Drop 7.’ ‘Sugar Girl’ continues the trend of bite-sized experiments from Simbi, thrusting her into a more stylised modern sound than anything we’ve heard previously— why she felt the need to try her hand at such a thing, we just don’t know.

Compared to the vibrant instrumentation that defined a project like ‘Lotus,’ ‘Sugar Girl’ firmly steps in a very different direction. This is a trap EP, and a modern one at that: opener ‘That’s a No No’ dives headfirst into rumbling 808s and tried-and-true drum loops from the off, and even if each of these four tracks does manage to distinguish itself from the others, the emphasis on sequenced beats and glossy vocal effects remains a constant presence throughout the twelve-minute project. Even at a conceptual level, it’s easy to question what Simbi hopes to gain from such a creative pivot— the elegant string samples that made up the backbone of hits like ‘Venom’ and ‘Gorilla’ are a distant memory here on an EP that feels entirely detached from its listener base— and truthfully, repeat listens haven’t offered up any answers. Little Simz has always taken pleasure in bold experimental moves: here, though, these songs are only interesting for the name attached.

Perhaps the greatest sin ‘Sugar Girl’ commits is its insistence on burying Simbi herself: the production choices on ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ and ‘GREY Area’ were solid, sure, but it was always for her passion rapping and lyricism that fans flocked to these releases. On this EP, we’re instead getting the lifeless refrains of ‘Open Arms’ and the painfully thin vocal processing on ‘Telephone,’ neither of which feel at all connected to the rest of the Little Simz catalogue. More than anything, ‘Sugar Girl’ is a bewildering release, memorable only for the final verse on ‘That’s a No No’ and the JT feature on ‘Game On’— if you think either one is substantive enough to justify the entire EP, we’d have to disagree. Across these four tracks, Simbi strips herself of the musical and lyrical tenants that have always underpinned her success, putting together trap cuts that feel like they’re over before they even begin. Nothing here is outright unlistenable: then again, we’re not likely to return to any of it.

It seems unlikely that Little Simz will go on to refine or develop the ideas she’s toying with on ‘Sugar Girl,’ which are completely at odds with her as an artist— what, then, are fans supposed to grab onto here? This EP may be brief, but it still feels like a waste of time when its production choices and songwriting feel so lacklustre and drab. We can only hope this is some bizarre offshoot from one of modern rap’s most exciting voices: ‘Lotus’ runs circles around these songs.