S.O.S. [SZA Album]

SZA Used Songs From ‘SOS’ To Push Back On Claims That She ‘Only Makes Sad Girl Music’

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SZA just unveiled SOS, her first No. 1 album and long-awaited follow-up to Ctrl. The record has a lot of people emotional, even Lizzo posted her teary-eyed reaction to it. From blends of her signature, R&B ballads to the songwriter’s venture into rock, on the track “Ghost In The Machine” featuring Phoebe Bridgers, many fans find the album to be extra poignant. However, SZA is tired of her material being immediately classified as “sad girl music.”

In a new tweet, the singer wrote, “Ignoring songs like ‘SOS,’ ‘PSA,’ ‘Conceited,’ ‘Low,’ ‘Forgiveless,’ ‘Seek N Destroy,’ ‘Notice Me,’ or ‘Ex Pack,’ to pretend I only make sad girl music is dumb,” later adding, “Forgot ‘Good Days’,” in the replies.

Despite its downtrodden lyrics, even the pop-punk anthem “F2F,” has a catchy, upbeat sonic texture that doesn’t feel sad at all.

SZA was very nervous upon the release of this LP. On a recent podcast appearance, she said she “100 percent did not think” she would become so famous. She also didn’t think her fans would enjoy S.O.S.: “I never thought in a million years that people would like it,” she said. “My dad’s visiting right now with my mom. Everybody came down to make sure I didn’t lose my mind if the album went bad once it came out. And now we’re just hanging out ’cause it didn’t go badly!”

SZA Has Landed Her First No. 1 Album As ‘SOS’ Debuts On Top Of The ‘Billboard’ 200 Chart

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SZA wrapped up 2022 with one of the year’s highlight albums, the long-anticipated SOS. In a recent interview, SZA revealed she wasn’t sure how the album would be received, saying, “I never thought in a million years that people would like it. My dad’s visiting right now, with my mom. Everybody came down to make sure I didn’t lose my mind if the album went bad once it came out. And now we’re just hanging out, ’cause it didn’t go badly!”

Indeed, people have enjoyed the LP and now the charts are reflecting that: On the new Billboard 200 chart dated December 24, SOS is No. 1, making it SZA’s first chart-topping album of her career. To claim the spot, it overtook Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains, which debuted at No. 1 last week. Previously, 2017’s Ctrl topped out at No. 3 while SZA’s 2014 Z EP peaked at No. 39.

Star power played at least some part in the album’s success: People were really excited about Phoebe Bridgers featuring on “Ghost In The Machine” and the album also features appearances from Travis Scott, Don Toliver, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. It was almost busier than that, as SZA wanted to get Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Drake, Finneas, Frank Ocean, Halsey, Harry Styles, Kacey Musgraves, Kendrick Lamar, Olivia Rodrigo, Rosalía, Tyler The Creator, and others on the album, too.

Phoebe Bridgers Was Surprised By How Quickly Her Collaboration With SZA (Who’s A ‘Great Hang’) Came Together

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Now that the wait is over and SZA’s SOS was finally released last week, all the sad hotties out there can rejoice. Across the album’s 23 tracks, SZA featured guest appearances from Travis Scott, Don Toliver, and the ghost of Ol’ Dirty Bastard. But it’s her duet with Phoebe Bridgers on “Ghost In The Machine” that came out of left field in the most delightful way possible. Now Bridgers has opened up about how she came to appear on SOS to begin with and how it just happened in a flash.

In an interview with NME that was mainly about her joining Danny Elfman on stage for A Nightmare Before Christmas in concert, the savvy interviewer dropped in a question about working with SZA on “Ghost In The Machine.” “How did that come about?,” NME’s Ali Shutler asked. She replied:

“That record is insane. She just hit me up… she just sent me a DM and it all happened so fast. I wasn’t really really used to that, in the pop world. Because vinyl isn’t so much of a consideration until way later. It’s like, ‘Do you want to be on this record? OK, it’s out next week.’ So it was so recent where I wrote that. Which I really like, I like that turnaround time. Personally, I sit on stuff for so long, it takes me years to make albums, so I like being involved and seeing someone else’s world from [a different] angle.”

Bridgers then punctuated her answer with a lofty statement about her adulation for SZA. “She’s definitely my favorite rapper. She’s so effective and cool. A great hang.” She also called SZA her “favorite rapper.”

SZA Announces Her ‘S.O.S. Tour’ Will Kick Off This Coming February With Special Guest Omar Apollo

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Attention all sad, introverted people across North America, it is time to charge your social battery and stock up on a hefty supply of Vitamin D supplements. Why? The Queen of Moody bops, SZA, is hitting the road this winter.

Fresh out of the release of her sophomore album, S.O.S., which brought Lizzo to tears, the “PSA” singer is preparing to share the album’s raw vulnerability with fans across the United States and Canada beginning in February 2023. The songwriter took to Instagram to announce the tour with the caption, “Time to take this sh*t on the road.”

Based on online chatter, we can guess that tracks “Nobody Gets Me,” “Creep,” and “Ghost In The Machine” are sure to be crowd favorites.

Joining her on the road is none other than Grammy-award nominee Omar Apollo. The “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All)” singer shared his excitement to hit the road with SZA while uploading the tour date poster.

After being moved by Lizzo’s tour this year, we wonder if SZA will pull any inspiration from that into her show.

View the full tour schedule below.

02/21/2023 — Columbus, OH @ The Jerome Schottenstein Center
02/22/2023 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
02/24/2023 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
02/25/2023 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
02/27/2023 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
02/28/2023 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
03/02/2023 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
03/04/2023 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
03/07/2023 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
03/09/2023 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
03/10/2023 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
03/13/2023 — San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena
03/14/2023 — Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
03/16/2023 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
03/18/2023 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
03/19/2023 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
03/22/2023 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Kia Forum

Public tickets for the tour will go on sale this Friday, December 16. To purchase tickets to any of the dates listed above, click here.

SZA Loves ‘Making Black Music’ But Could Do Without The R&B Classification

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SZA went off across the 23 tracks on S.O.S., her sophomore LP five years in the making that finally arrived on Friday, December 9. The St. Louis-bred artist’s lyricism cuts deep, but her sonic palate is vast. From the pop-punk “F2F,” to the Phoebe Bridgers-assisted “Ghost In The Machine” and tear-jerking ballad “Nobody Gets Me,” the project can’t be pigeonholed. And that’s exactly how SZA wants it.

“I’m so tired of being pegged as [an] R&B artist,” SZA told writer Jewel Wicker for a newly published Consequence cover story. “I feel like that’s super disrespectful, because people are just like, ‘Oh, ’cause you’re Black, this is what you have to be’ — like, put in a box. And I hate that. With songs on this album, it’s supposed to help round out the picture and the story.”

She added, “It’s very lazy to just throw me in the box of R&B. I love making Black music, period. Something that is just full of energy. Black music doesn’t have to just be R&B. We started rock ‘n’ roll. Why can’t we just be expansive and not reductive?”

Lizzo, SZA’s longtime friend, recently expressed a similar sentiment.

“Genre’s racist inherently,” she told Entertainment Weekly, in part. “I think if people did any research they would see that there was race music and then there was pop music. And race music was their way of segregating Black artists from being mainstream, because they didn’t want their kids listening to music created by Black and brown people because they said it was demonic and yada, yada, yada. So then there were these genres created almost like code words: R&B, and then of course eventually hip-hop and rap was born from that. I think when you think about pop, you think about MTV in the ’80s talking about ‘We can’t play rap music’ or ‘We can’t put this person on our platform because we’re thinking about what people in the middle of America think’ — and we all know what that’s code for.”

With Consequence, SZA also discussed her heightened anxiety attached to the demands of her album and the music industry in general, her wish to “disappear … for as long as I can,” and more.

Lizzo is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

SZA’s ‘S.O.S.’ Album Has Us All Crying, Including Lizzo

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SZA’s latest project seems to have us all in our feelings, including big stars like Lizzo. Fans and celebrities alike have been sharing their thoughts about the TDE’s artist highly anticipated second studio album, S.O.S.

A clip from Lizzo’s Instagram Live has been circulating where the “About Damn Time” singer can be seen giving a teary-eyed reaction to one of the album’s tracks, “Nobody Gets Me,” complete with a nice glass of wine.

Maybe celebrities aren’t so different from us after all.

Fans seem to agree with Lizzo’s sentiments. SZA definitely has a knack for making us all reflect on past relationships and the pitfalls of love.

“Same, girl,” one fan tweeted.

Another person pointed out how relatable Lizzo’s reaction was and admitted we all get a little emotional sometimes.

“She just like me,” they wrote.

Over the weekend, the 33-year-old singer dropped a video to the new song, tapping into her emo side. Shot in greyscale, the video gives off a relatable moody vibe. SZA can be seen atop a roof overlooking the city, adorned with her trademark baggy clothes, as she sings, “How am I supposed to let you go? / Only like myself when I’m with you.”

Watch SZA’s “Nobody Gets Me” video below.

Lizzo is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

SZA’s ‘S.O.S.’ Had Fans Thanking The Heavens Over Her Long-Awaited Return

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“Yeah… SZA put her whole p*ssy in this album.”

That’s just one of the exuberant tweets proliferating on Twitter in the wake of S.O.S., the long-awaited sophomore album from TDE singer SZA. SZA finally released her second album following a five-year hiatus after her debut album CTRL. For a while, it felt a lot like Detox or Chinese Democracy, one of those albums that might never actually come out and fade into urban legend status. But with its release today, it gave fans plenty of reasons to break out some of their most outlandish reactions.

Those reactions ranged from relief at “surviving the album drought” to being overwhelmed with emotion at the album’s raw, vulnerable content.

Some fans were dismayed to find out that SZA plans for S.O.S. to be her swan song. The singer has often expressed her discontent with the recording industry and the trappings of fame, threatening to walk away permanently.

One thing is for certain: The wait appears to have been worth it, giving SZA’s longsuffering fans a wide-ranging body of work with relatable themes, thrilling collaborations, and nostalgic, pop-punk content. Whether it really does turn out to be her final album or not, S.O.S. is living up to the hype early on.

S.O.S. is out now via TDE and RCA.

SZA Voices A Relatable Complaint In Her Moody ‘Nobody Gets Me’ Video

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SZA’s long-awaited sophomore album, S.O.S., is (finally) out now via RCA and Top Dawg Entertainment, and fans have been celebrating all day. They’ve marveled at her reimagining of Radiohead’s signature hit “Creep” on “Special,” fallen in love with the lush songwriting on her Phoebe Bridgers collaboration, “Ghost In The Machine,” and relived their emo glory days thanks to the pop-punk vibes of “F2F.” But, as it turns out, Ms. SZA wasn’t finished yet.

12 hours after the album’s release, SZA has shared the music video for her latest single, “Nobody Gets Me.” It’s a soul-searching breakup anthem on which she relatably questions the wisdom of walking away from the only person she feels truly understands her, and the video reflects that vibe. Shot in moody grayscale, the video sees SZA standing on a rooftop overlooking the city in one of her trademark, baggy, sports paraphernalia looks as she sings, “How am I supposed to let you go? / Only like myself when I’m with you.”

“Nobody Gets Me” builds on the momentum of her previously released singles, “Shirt” and “I Hate U,” but fans are already picking their favorite songs from the album, which already looks like like a worthy successor to her debut CTRL and a smash hit in its own right.

Watch SZA’s “Nobody Gets Me” video above.

SZA And Phoebe Bridgers Fans Are In Love With ‘Ghost In The Machine,’ Their New ‘S.O.S.’ Collaboration

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Music releases tend to thin out as the end of the year approaches, but today (December 9), SZA made this a December to remember with S.O.S., her long-awaited new album. Today is also big for Phoebe Bridgers stans, as she features on “Ghost In The Machine.” When that news was revealed a few days ago, SZA couldn’t help but laugh at how positive the reactions were, sharing an audio clip of somebody screaming about it and writing, “Response to having phoebe on the albums been pretty positive lol.”

Bridgers hasn’t publicly said much about the song, although she did post about the track on Instagram this morning, writing simply, “Thank you.” She also shared an edited version of the album cover that added Bridgers to the image.

Elsewhere, a SZA fan listening to S.O.S. tweeted, “you aight white girl @phoebe_bridgers.” Bridgers responded, “no.” Somebody else replied, “beb I don’t think it was a question it was a statement [crying emoji].” Bridgers again answered, “no.”

SZA and Bridgers don’t really have a public history with each other before this collab, although this summer, some fans attending the Outside Lands festival were upset they had to choose between seeing Bridgers and SZA, since their set times overlapped.

Listen to “Ghost In The Machine” above and check out some reactions to the track below.

S.O.S. is out now via Top Dawg Entertainment. Get it here.

SZA Seems To Address Long-Running BBL And Plastic Surgery Rumors Multiple Times On Her New Album, ‘S.O.S.’

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There are those who think that SZA looks substantially different now than she did at the start of her career. Naturally, then, the singer has dealt with rumors about her getting A Brazilian butt lift (BBL) and other sorts of plastic surgery for years. Now, it appears she’s addressed all the talk on her just-released new album, S.O.S..

On the project’s title track, SZA says, “So classic, that ass so fat, it look natural, it’s not.” Later, at the start of “Conceited,” she sings, “I just got my body done, ain’t got no guilt about it / I just heard your opinion, I could’ve did without it.”

One thing SZA has talked about previously is her relationship with weight loss, like in 2017 when she defended Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” lyrics about stretch marks. She said, “How is that misogyny if he’s supporting positive body image? I think that’s so weird, and it’s reaching. If you want to support women, you should support all shapes of women. I used to be 200 pounds, and I have stretch marks all over my body. I find more comfort and solace with Kendrick reinforcing that I’m beautiful. I don’t really feel anything misogynistic from that.”

Listen to “S.O.S.” and “Conceited” below.

S.O.S. is out now via Top Dawg Entertainment. Get it here.