Last month, singer SZA shared via Twitter that she was quitting music. Though the tweet has since been deleted, Vibe captured a screenshot of the surprising message before it was gone for good. In the same tweet, she said Terrence “Punch” Henderson, co-president of Top Dawg Entertainment (Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q), could release her album “if he ever feels like it.”
Recently, Complex caught up with SZA to discuss what exactly she meant and offer some clarification about what her future may look like. “I’ll probably just do something different, something visual, probably film,” she said. “I’m really frustrated, and I’m kind of over it. I have a lot of anxiety and there’s a lot going on in my life.”
She also commented on rumors regarding a shaky relationship with TDE and said she and Punch never really get along but that it isn’t cause for concern. “We’re all different, and that was hard to understand [at first] because they’re tough-love people and hard to read, but I dig it now.” She added that she has no issues with her label, as TDE has been nothing but supportive.
The interview then changed focus and rather looked to SZA’s future instead of what’s in the past. As for her upcoming album, SZA said she learned a lot from Frank Ocean — “[He] f—ed my head up” — and also drew inspiration from the world around her. “My life has just been falling the f— apart,” she said, recalling the recent loss of her grandma and three ex-boyfriends.
“When you get older, you realize that the world is really happening around you,” she said. “But I feel alive and clear on what I want. I don’t have the energy to create a filter anymore.” Regardless of what she may have tweeted out weeks ago, what she wants now is to finish and release her album: “Completing this [album] and these last couple of moments on the clock before this project is done are definitely the most pivotal moments of my life,” she said. And as for what comes next, SZA is keeping an open mind.
Read the full interview here.