SZA
SZA: Her Next Act (Complex Cover Story)
(Courtesy of Complex)
As SZA gears up for the release of her highly anticipated sophomore album, she's putting herself first—whether you like it or not.
Words By Aria Hughes
SZA doesn’t want to speak about her new album.
You know, the project that everyone wants to talk about.
Since the singer-songwriter, born Solána Imani Rowe, released her generation-defining opus Ctrl back in 2017, fans, journalists, and red carpet hosts have hounded her about its follow-up. People have tracked the 32-year-old’s every move online and connected seemingly innocuous acts, like her deleting all of her IG posts in late 2018, to a new album that didn’t even exist. But after almost five years of where is the new album? talk, the discourse hit a fever pitch this spring when, during a backstage Grammys interview, a journalist innocently asked: “Album? Coming soon, hopefully?”
“Very much soon,” said SZA in response to her least favorite question. “I just recently finished it up in Hawaii.”That was in April, to be exact.In May, at the Met Gala, she told red carpet host La La Anthony, “My album is, like, ready to go—more than I’ve ever felt before. So this summer,” she continued, “it will be a SZA summer.”Summer happened, and SZA gave us Crocs, a spirited festival performance, and a couple features, but still no album. When a fan asked her about the missing project in July, via an IG comment, she placed blame on Terrence “Punch” Henderson, the president of Top Dawg Entertainment, the imprint where she’s signed, and RCA, her parent label. Henderson told Vulture a month later that her album is coming ”very, very soon.” It’s October, the leaves are turning, and there’s still no official date, but she did agree to participate in this cover shoot and story, so maybe that’s evidence that new music is coming. Fingers crossed. Prayers up. Still, she’s not interested in speaking about the album. It gives her anxiety.Many elements of fame don’t align with SZA’s mental well-being. In the past artists would grin and bear it—or, often, self-medicate—but SZA is all feelings, and she’s transparent about them. “I hate being outside more than I can explain,” she said after the Billboard Awards. “I really have debilitating anxiety and I’m only posting these cause Y’all woulda found em anyway. Thank you to my team n my mama. Least I’m alive🙂.” And speaking her truth about entertainment industry norms didn’t stop there. “Not doing any videos, interviews, or photos for the rest of my life lol don’t ask,” she tweeted in 2020 after her Rolling Stone cover with Megan Thee Stallion and Normani dropped.
But here she is, standing center stage for a photo shoot inside The Million Dollar Theater, a venue in downtown Los Angeles that feels like a grand relic with its rich ruby red and gold color palette, dramatic curved balcony, and vaulted ceiling that features a chandelier with red light bulbs. SZA arrives with her two French bulldogs. She’s wearing tactile pieces that evoke cozy: a sleeveless white cotton sleep gown, a brown furry hat, and slippers that look like two stuffed cows. But she’s currently dressed in a long black Jacquemus gown that perfectly accentuates her curves and she’s posing for the camera as if she’s in a Sandro Botticelli painting, raising her arms, extending her neck, and playing to the camera as a smoke machine creates misty lighting behind her. She appears light-years away from the modest young woman surrounded by dead computer parts on Ctrl’s cover, and even farther from the tomboy who created her first trio of EPs—See.SZA.Run, S, and Z—a decade ago.
The shot of her on stage, standing between a slightly open curtain, captures SZA as a rarefied performer, and she most certainly is one. When you hear her melodic voice, you feel something—even if you don’t immediately understand her deeply personal lyrics—and that’s because she imbues every note with her whole self, not a version of what she wants to be, or what we want her to be. And that type of personal excavation for the sake of art takes time, which might frustrate her fans or a label that’s waiting on her record, but SZA isn’t creating for anyone but herself. And during a time when pandering for likes on IG is the norm and artists abdicate individuality in favor of fitting in, SZA becomes even more rarefied. While many artists and their teams chase virality, SZA gets it without even trying, randomly releasing songs on SoundCloud that fans turn into actual Billboard hits that also dominate TikTok, a platform SZA tried out but quit, calling it too chaotic for her. Of course, ironically, the more SZA leans into exactly who she is, the more ravenous fans she attracts…who want to hear all about her new album, or better yet, listen to it. But SZA believes the only thing she owes her fans, or anyone for that matter, is to try her best.
“I appreciate [my fans] patience, but constantly trying to people-please and fulfill expectations instead of just thinking about what you need can deter you from your true path. And the next thing you know you're somebody that you never signed up to be,” she says. “Even with this album, I just wanna be better than my last project to myself. I wanna be a better writer. I wanna be a better artist, musician… a better thinker. I just wanna do things that make myself proud and interested.”
SZA has always been determined to be better. Born in St. Louis, she moved to Maplewood, New Jersey, a suburb about 45 minutes outside of New York City, at 10 years old. She described Maplewood as a predominantly Jewish and white community that was “quietly affluent but more lowkey.” Therefore, more often than not she was the token Black girl, which conditioned her to be competitive, but mostly with herself. She grew up in a strict, conservative household practicing Islam and wearing modest clothes. Her father was a CNN producer who was Muslim and her mother was an executive at AT&T who was Catholic. She dedicated most of her energy to sports, spending 13 years as a gymnast, becoming the captain of her team, and ranking as the fifth best gymnast in the U.S. when she was a sophomore in high school. But after realizing she wouldn’t make it to the Olympics she stopped. “If I can't win, then I don't play,” she told Nylon in 2017. Post high school (fun fact: SZA attended the same high school as Lauryn Hill 15 years after Hill graduated) she hopped from college to college pursuing majors like broadcast journalism and marine biology before dropping out all together and working odd jobs that included bartending at a strip club and selling makeup at Sephora.
Her music diet growing up was jazz her father favored, but thanks to her older sister, a mixtape she received at a bar mitzvah, and an iPod she found at a gymnastics camp, she was introduced to a wide swath of sounds ranging from Björk to Wu-Tang to LFO to Lil Jon. She started singing on records when her brother, a rapper named Manhattan, asked her to get on a few of his songs. After that, making music became a hobby. But it was her part-time job for streetwear brand 10.Deep that brought her closer to the career she didn’t even know she wanted. 10.Deep was sponsoring Kendrick Lamar’s 2011 CMJ show, and SZA delivered clothes to Lamar and other TDE members. She brought along a friend, who was listening to SZA’s music on her headphones. Her friend was so engaged in the music that Punch asked to listen. Over the next two years SZA would send Punch music until she officially signed to TDE in 2013 as its first female artist.
“I think we should probably allow things to branch out and not declare things aren’t R&B just because they don’t sound like something that’s older."
SZA’s three EPs that preceded Ctrl showcased a singer experimenting with elusive sounds and abstract concepts, but Ctrl was more concrete. Serving as the ultimate coming-of-age project, the album pulled from many genres, but it was SZA’s vulnerable, fluid, and adept songwriting that stole the show. The album was certified platinum a year after its release and garnered her five Grammy nominations, and a remarkable performance at the award show. And in Ctrl’s wake artists like Summer Walker, Doja Cat, and now her new TDE labelmate Doechii, all thrived, thanks, in part, to SZA’s reimagination of what R&B could sound like.
“I definitely feel like yes,” says SZA when asked if Ctrl influenced artists to create outside the traditional confines of R&B, a genre some claim is dead. “I think we should probably allow things to branch out and not declare things aren’t R&B just because they don't sound like something that's older,” she continues. “I think it's OK for us to go from wherever we were to where we are now and allow that to be just a multifaceted experience. Not anything that truncates a genre or like, causes an erasure of a genre. It's just literally an expansion. It's just allowing for more forms of Black music. And I hate that we cut ourselves off, not even all of us, but that some people cut it off at like, ‘This is R&B.’”
It’s a few days after the shoot and she’s very thoughtful in conversation. She’s pleasant and open and speaks in a breathy tone that vacillates between assured and just figuring it out. Although she’s threatened to quit music before—when Complex profiled SZA in 2017, she claimed Ctrl might be her last album—right now she’s fully in it, wanting to learn more and, per usual, push herself as far as she can go. She recently worked with choreographer Fullout Cortland on live stage choreography at the Wireless Festival in London, which was a first for her. “I wanted to prove to myself that I can do this and it’s not even like a big deal, I just need to commit to it,” says SZA. “I thought maybe I’m not a choreography artist and I should just focus on vibes or something, but it’s like no. I can be whatever kind of artist I want and I really don’t even have a box, so I should just do it all if I can.”
Learning is SZA’s driving force. It guides her decision-making and helps her feel full in an industry that constantly drains. She might get anxious about walking a red carpet, but she has no problem saying yes to new challenges, like acting for instance. She’s previously said she would never do it, but she’s trying it out in Tuna Melt, Eddie Huang’s new film that will co-star Euphoria’s Chloe Cherry and Huang, who will play a hitman who falls in love with SZA’s character. “It's definitely still something that's terrifying, but I just really like Eddie Huang,” says SZA. “I loved Fresh Off the Boat. I thought it was fucking hilarious. I loved Baohaus, his restaurant. I loved his book. I just like his brain, so I was just like, ‘OK.’”
She also has no qualms about cold calling people who intrigue her, like Euphoria’s creator Sam Levinson, to talk and exchange ideas. “He’s probably heard stuff from the new album before anybody else heard it just because I think he’s neat as a person and a cool thinker.”
The admiration is mutual. In an email describing what the new music sounds like, Levinson speaks about it in the verbose way you’d expect from the creator of Euphoria. “I’ve heard tracks from her that are so rich, so gorgeous it takes your breath away. I think she understands music on a higher level, in a Brian Wilson kinda way,” he explains. “Everyone talks about her as a storyteller which I get cause she’s astonishingly visual and intimate but the sheer complexity of her melodies coupled with how unpredictable she is as a vocalist is what makes her so special. She’s got verses where every other line could be its own hit single. But the fact that she breezes right past them and into some melancholic banger of a chorus is how you know she’ll go down as one of the greats. She’s restless and imaginative.”
Over the pandemic, SZA has been able to tap in with a lot of people she admires, including Justin Timberlake—she joined him on “The Other Side” (From Trolls World Tour) song—and the Neptunes, who produced her “Hit Different” single featuring Ty Dolla Sign. She’s also been on a lot of features, demonstrating her greatest gift as an artist, which she says is her “chameleon ability.” You hear it on Kali Uchis’ “fue mejor” when SZA delivers her verse in Spanish, and Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” when she dips into her bouncy, pop bag.
“I can only work with people who write their own music. Because I really like to converge brains with someone else,” says SZA. She describes working with Doja Cat as an opportunity to learn and fall into her world. “Doja is so smart to me. I love the way she executes everything. The ‘Kiss Me More’ reference was from her brain. And it made me feel like, ‘Oh wow, I'm so excited to do something from my brain and join her in this world versus creating some pre-prescribed picture.”
She also got to work with Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, who produced “Shirt,” her forthcoming single and the only new music she’s cool with chatting about.
“That was always my dream to work with him based on his work with Brandy and Amerie,” says SZA. “We did like seven records in one day.”
Over the pandemic, SZA has been able to tap in with a lot of people she admires, including Justin Timberlake—she joined him on “The Other Side” (From Trolls World Tour) song—and the Neptunes, who produced her “Hit Different” single featuring Ty Dolla Sign. She’s also been on a lot of features, demonstrating her greatest gift as an artist, which she says is her “chameleon ability.” You hear it on Kali Uchis’ “fue mejor” when SZA delivers her verse in Spanish, and Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” when she dips into her bouncy, pop bag.
“I can only work with people who write their own music. Because I really like to converge brains with someone else,” says SZA. She describes working with Doja Cat as an opportunity to learn and fall into her world. “Doja is so smart to me. I love the way she executes everything. The ‘Kiss Me More’ reference was from her brain. And it made me feel like, ‘Oh wow, I'm so excited to do something from my brain and join her in this world versus creating some pre-prescribed picture.”
She also got to work with Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, who produced “Shirt,” her forthcoming single and the only new music she’s cool with chatting about.
“That was always my dream to work with him based on his work with Brandy and Amerie,” says SZA. “We did like seven records in one day.”
R&B artist SZA poses on the stairs in Los Angeles' Million Dollar Theater
The admiration is mutual. In an email describing what the new music sounds like, Levinson speaks about it in the verbose way you’d expect from the creator of Euphoria. “I’ve heard tracks from her that are so rich, so gorgeous it takes your breath away. I think she understands music on a higher level, in a Brian Wilson kinda way,” he explains. “Everyone talks about her as a storyteller which I get cause she’s astonishingly visual and intimate but the sheer complexity of her melodies coupled with how unpredictable she is as a vocalist is what makes her so special. She’s got verses where every other line could be its own hit single. But the fact that she breezes right past them and into some melancholic banger of a chorus is how you know she’ll go down as one of the greats. She’s restless and imaginative.”
Over the pandemic, SZA has been able to tap in with a lot of people she admires, including Justin Timberlake—she joined him on “The Other Side” (From Trolls World Tour) song—and the Neptunes, who produced her “Hit Different” single featuring Ty Dolla Sign. She’s also been on a lot of features, demonstrating her greatest gift as an artist, which she says is her “chameleon ability.” You hear it on Kali Uchis’ “fue mejor” when SZA delivers her verse in Spanish, and Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” when she dips into her bouncy, pop bag.
“I can only work with people who write their own music. Because I really like to converge brains with someone else,” says SZA. She describes working with Doja Cat as an opportunity to learn and fall into her world. “Doja is so smart to me. I love the way she executes everything. The ‘Kiss Me More’ reference was from her brain. And it made me feel like, ‘Oh wow, I'm so excited to do something from my brain and join her in this world versus creating some pre-prescribed picture.”
She also got to work with Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, who produced “Shirt,” her forthcoming single and the only new music she’s cool with chatting about.
“That was always my dream to work with him based on his work with Brandy and Amerie,” says SZA. “We did like seven records in one day.”
Jerkins says they started making music together right before the world shut down in 2020. He built “Shirt,” a sparse, airy beat with minimal drums, specifically for her. But the original song, which had the working title “Narnia dirt bike,” sounded entirely different. “It was like something from the year 3000,” Jerkins says. But he reworked it and SZA liked the new version so much that she played a clip of it on her IG Stories in October 2020. By early 2021, without much effort or promotion, the song made its way to TikTok where a user who goes by @bgottfanns created a dance challenge, and thousands of others, including SZA, followed suit. Fans, who gave the song its official name, have been begging for a release date ever since, although it feels like the song is already out. SZA performed it at the Wireless Festival in London to a crowd that recited back each word and she announced Doja Cat would be featured on the single. “The hint is we already have a song together. Her name starts with a ‘D’ and it rhymes with Soulja,” SZA told the crowd who erupted after quickly connecting the dots.
Punch plays the full version of the song from TDE’s new studios in the Valley, and there aren’t any Doja vocals. He says due to timing, Doja will probably be on a remix and not the initial release. The song is classic SZA. Bars, melodies, feelings, and storytelling: “Bloodstain on my shirt/New bitch on my nerves/Old nigga got curved/Going back on my word/Damn, bitch, you like 30,” she sings.
“Her pen game is arguably one of the best pen games in the game right now. It’s almost like she’s a rapper tied up in a vocalist,” Jerkins says about SZA, who kicked him out of the studio so she could lay down her vocals with just her engineer—another boundary making move from SZA, which Jerkins says he’s never experienced. He’s one of the few people who’s heard tracks from her highly anticipated album, and when asked how it sounds he responds: “All I’m going to say is she’s a genius,” says Jerkins “There's no fear in her writing. She's gonna say whatever she wants to say, and that's what it is. And to me, that’s the X factor.”
Many of the key players on Ctrl like producers Cody Jordan Fayne, better known as ThankGod4Cody, and Carter Lang, have reconvened for the new album, which they started to work on in 2019. With Ctrl, they hunkered down in a Michigan lake house together, but for this body of work they’ve been constructing songs in different cities, sometimes months apart. “It's been this craziest sort of ebb and flow and she has to create at her own pace and all of the homies really support that,” says Lang.
Fayne, who produced some of SZA’s most popular songs including “Love Galore,” “The Weekend,” and “Broken Clocks,” says everyone involved in the new album felt pressure when they started making songs. But he likened SZA to a competitive athlete who would never let herself succumb to the pressure.
“It’s few people who have an epic moment like that and can match that same energy a second time around without getting ate up by the pressure,” says Fayne. “But she’s more like a Kobe, Michael, or a LeBron type character. There’s pressure, but she’s going to work through it.”
“To understand SZA is to know that she’ll say what she feels with no filter right in the moment. And then the next moment, everything is fine.”
— Terrence “Punch” Henderson, president of Top Dawg Entertainment
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