It is not uncommon for (predominantly male) music critics to invert the ‘great man/great woman’ dictum in order to suggest that behind the success of every powerful female artist there simply must be a moustache-twirling Svengali pulling the strings.
It’s less common for the artist themselves to pose the question. On ‘Lonely’, the penultimate track on her compelling sixth album, London rapper and actor Simbiatu Ajikawo, who performs as Little Simz, interrogates the doubts and insecurities she felt while writing and recording this record. In doing so, she asks: ‘I’m used to making it with [redacted]/ Can I do it without?’
The bleeped-out name is likely that of Dean Cover, aka Inflo, the influential writer, producer and multi instrumentalist whose contribution to Ajikawo’s three previous albums, including the standout Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, winner of the 2022 Mercury Music Prize, is hard to overstate.
It was recently revealed, however, that she is suing her former friend and collaborator over an alleged debt stretching into seven figures. Which explains why Inflo is AWOL on Lotus. Instead, Ajikawo paired up with a new (male) cowriter, musical partner and producer, Miles Clinton James. To which one might reasonably conclude that she has answered her own question: ‘Can I do it without?’ Apparently not.
But this would be to misunderstand not only the essentially collaborative nature of the modern pop game, which is nowadays a tech-savvy team sport, closer to Formula 1 than showbiz, but also the fact that the backroom boys of the current era aren’t puppeteers; rather, they serve at the behest of the headline artist. Lorde, Taylor Swift, Charli XCX et al.
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