You have to wonder if the candy on this EP’s cover is what gives Little Simz her energy. Less than a year after the release of her sixth album Lotus, the North London rapper unveiled Sugar Girl, her 12th EP in as many years. While Simbiatu Ajikawo’s records have been powered by skyscraping ambition and meticulous craft since 2021’s Mercury Prize-winning Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, her EPs have acted more as creative playgrounds to explore. Sugar Girl is no different: The songs here feel immediate and experimental—and as surprising as they are thrilling. Whatever you thought Simz was planning post-Lotus, it probably wasn’t this. Made with Jakwob—the producer Simz partnered with on 2024’s clubby EP Drop 7—the distinctly after-hours Sugar Girl presents a bold, sometimes brash electronic palette powered by hard basslines, skittering drums, and strobing synths. It feels like a celebration of feminine power, too, bolstered by a handpicked lineup of female rap talents: JT on the brooding “Game On”; Lagos-born, London-raised rapper DEELA on “Open Arms” and 070 Shake on the hazy “Telephone,” an outro that almost feels like a comedown after the rest of this EP’s sugar rush. Amid the snarling and played-with vocals on opener “That’s a No No,” you’ll hear Simz’s trademark flow—but, curiously, it’s barely present beyond that. Instead, the rapper embraces distorted and Auto-Tuned voices until you wonder if it’s even Simz you’re listening to, while she often steps aside to let her chosen guests be at the forefront. That might just be an artist experimenting with what else her voice can do after more than 15 years in the game, but it’s quite the flex for a rapper of Simz’s standing to release an EP which features little of her actual rapping. Perhaps this is a star who’s been telling us she’s “JAY-Z on a bad day, Shakespeare on my worst days” since 2018 finally feeling like she’s proven that point—and confidently delivering something different. Lotus exposed a rapper who had been creatively wounded, even stunted, after the breakdown of her professional and personal relationship with her longtime collaborator Inflo. Less than a year on, Sugar Girl reveals a Simz who’s in no doubt of her abilities. “Lost count of all the bitches I influenced,” she declares on “That’s a No No.” And then, in a rare moment her voice is left unaltered on the EP: “Put out your best thing and I see that flopped/You cannot level with anything that I’m delivering.”