On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received a weighted mean score of 86 based on 13 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Little Simz – No Thank You (2023, Red/Yellow Split, Vinyl Little Simz – No Thank You (2023, Red/Yellow Split, Vinyl

I already worn out my copy of Grey Area, playing out in bars and clubs, and I can't wait to do the same with this. While space is sometimes given to bask in the stellar music that accompanies her, it is also true that she reels off verse after verse of pointed, honest and wounded rhymes with barely a word or breath wasted.It ends on an optimistic note, with Control: a straightforward and rather sweet love song, backed only by piano. Meanwhile, the music business gets an extended kicking, particularly when it comes to its dealings with artists of colour: “Undervalued, underappreciated in the workplace, why give you my ideas in the first place? Often, NO THANK YOU sounds like a SAULT record fronted by Simz—see the gospel swells on “Broken,” or the slick, cool-as-fuck, plucked-bass bop of “Gorilla”—not only because of the palette of satin strings and funky drums, but because of the charming confidence and faith in collaboration that seep through, as they do on all of SAULT’s transformative records.

Little Simz: NO THANK YOU Album Review | Pitchfork Little Simz: NO THANK YOU Album Review | Pitchfork

Track four, "No Merci", has "whirring synths" and was described as "a brash and inventive track with vintage samples fluttering behind a beat designed to make you move". Sleek, succinct and utterly propulsive, it’s Simz’ defiantly punk rock, two fingered salute to conformity and fame, and all the expectations and restrictions that come with.

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Recorded with her regular collaborator Inflo, this is Simz at her most free, daring and spontaneous. Larisha Paul from Rolling Stone felt that "Throughout the film, Simz settles into a lead role surrounded by other Black performers to not only reject praise provided by external validation, but also reject the harmful myth of the strong Black women that more often than not erases the sympathy of human struggle by discrediting emotions that don't line up with the preconceived narrative prescribed to them.

Little Simz - NO THANK YOU – The Vinyl Whistle Little Simz - NO THANK YOU – The Vinyl Whistle

On X, he conjures up a wall of percussion that variously evokes a marching band, west African drumming and rolling breakbeats.The albums of the year 2022: our critic's choice from Kendrick Lamar and Little Simz to Weyes Blood and Gwenno".

No Thank You (album) - Wikipedia No Thank You (album) - Wikipedia

Emma Wilkes from NME noted how these songs are "combined with visuals that present the rapper as a giant presiding over a flock and delivering her lines before a crowd of wealthy observers. On 15 December 2022, Simz shared a teaser of a No Thank You film on her Instagram account, announcing its release for the follow day.If you’re going to compare the matter of being signed to a major record label to the lot of a slave, you might as well do it with a lyric as sharp as “I refuse to be on a slave ship, give me all my masters and lower your wages”.