written by<\/strong> BRITTANY SPANOS<\/p>\nSZA is in her kitchen, holding a shot glass. \u201cIt\u2019s my niece\u2019s birthday,\u201d she exclaims into her phone, panning to the birthday girl, Savannah, with a wide smile. \u201cShe\u2019s a grown-up today!\u201d<\/p>\n
Lately, it feels like SZA has endless milestones to celebrate. Since dropping her sophomore album in 2022, her career has skyrocketed. SOS<\/em> spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200\u2014she\u2019s the first Black woman to achieve that. She went on her first headlining arena tour in 2023, then reissued SOS<\/em> as LANA<\/em>, a sonic balm to the wounds she addressed on the original album.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
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Dress GUCCI, Jewellery SZA\u2019s own, Right middle bracelet TIFFANY & CO.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\nNot even SZA could have imagined that, after all that, 2025 would be even bigger. She kicked off the year with her first film role, starring in the Issa Rae-produced buddy comedy One of Them Days<\/em> alongside Keke Palmer. In February, she performed at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show with old friend and fellow Top Dawg Entertainment artist Kendrick Lamar. Their collaboration track \u201cLuther,\u201d off Lamar\u2019s GNX<\/em>, topped charts for 13 weeks\u2014SZA\u2019s longest-running No. 1 single on the Billboard hot 100. By April, the pair were co-headlining the Grand National stadium tour.<\/p>\nBut SZA seems unfazed. \u201cIf anything, I feel like I don\u2019t know what just happened,\u201d she says, propping up her phone in her bedroom, searching for a lighter for her blunt. \u201cBut I got to follow [2025] up strong, and that\u2019s where my brain is.\u201d<\/p>\n
She accurately remarks that nothing in her career has been incremental. SZA\u2019s early EPs were buzzy enough to earn her opening slots on tours with Coldplay and Jhen\u00e9 Aiko. She had co-writing credits on Beyonc\u00e9 and Nicki Minaj\u2019s \u201cFeeling Myself,\u201d Travis Scott\u2019s \u201cOk Alright,\u201d and Rihanna\u2019s \u201cConsideration,\u201d all before she released her debut album. And that debut album\u20142017\u2019s Ctrl<\/em>\u2014was so instantly beloved and acclaimed that it hit No. 3 in the first of over 400 weeks it spent on the Billboard 200. She\u2019s spent a lot of time figuring out how to handle her breakneck ascension on the fly. But now she\u2019s locking in: \u201cI don\u2019t want to wing it no more. The truth is readiness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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dress and jewellery saint laurent by anthony vaccarello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe journey to getting whole began in 2024, when SZA embarked on a transformative trip to Bali. She was encouraged to start meditating. \u201cThis lady was like, \u2018If you don\u2019t learn to control your emotions, you\u2019re gonna go to jail and you\u2019re gonna lose everything,\u2019\u201d she recalls. this wasn\u2019t the first time she\u2019d heard something like that, but it was the first time it was spoken to her so directly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI could tell this bitch was not lying.\u201d SZA had been spending a lot of time with Sadhguru, the spiritual leader and founder of the Isha Foundation, who deepened her knowledge of yoga and meditation practices. It was life-changing. \u201cI used to really make fun of girls that were into the woo-woo and the crystals\u2014and here I am,\u201d she laughs. \u201cGod is very funny. But I\u2019m a super sceptic.\u201d<\/p>\n
While practising Shambhavi Mahamudra, a breath-work-forward type of yoga, SZA noticed just how much she could release. She could be \u201cpissed as fuck\u201d before, and free from negative feelings after. In the 10 days between the premiere of One of Them Days<\/em> and the start of Super Bowl rehearsals, she went to India to take a vow of silence. After the halftime show, she headed straight back to the ashram.<\/p>\n\u201cIt made me realise I\u2019ve really got to get in control of myself, and be the fully-realised version of myself. I can\u2019t hide forever off stupid insecurities,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy, because I find myself thinking that I\u2019m free in different junctures, but it\u2019ll be some new shit that shows you you\u2019re actually [still] very affected. I can tell it\u2019s my task to get free.\u201d<\/p>\n
SZA was reminded of that cycle when she herniated her C5 and C6 spinal segments. As a lifelong \u201chappily clumsy\u201d person, it was a jarring experience to lose mobility in her neck, unable to sit or stand comfortably, let alone turn her head. The injury happened right before her 36th birthday. Instead of celebrating, she was bedridden. So she went back to the ashram for a 30-day yoga treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Dress GUCCI, Jewellery SZA\u2019s own, Right middle bracelet TIFFANY & CO.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\u201cIt was somehow the best birthday,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause it was like, \u2018Let\u2019s get real and do something that can stop the running and the constant disappointment.\u2019\u201d As someone who loves control and certainty, she\u2019s been learning to let go, feeling the effects of yoga and meditation in the small moments. She spent last New Year\u2019s Eve alone in New York City, walking around the East Village, passing by the places she would frequent when she \u201cwas drunk and 23.\u201d She saw a young girl discover Ray\u2019s Pizza & Bagel Caf\u00e9 on St. Mark\u2019s: \u201cShe was drunk, stumbling with excitement. I just couldn\u2019t imagine how great [it felt]. I was so happy for her.\u201d The light flurry made it even more magical. \u201cRay\u2019s Pizza at 1 a.m., New Year\u2019s evening. That must\u2019ve been a hit.\u201d In the past, she wouldn\u2019t have been able to appreciate something so mundane, busy waiting for people to call or figuring out where to go next\u2014hoping to fill the next phase of her life with the biggest dreams possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier, before our call, SZA was thinking about mitochondrial DNA. She\u2019s been practising yoga and meditation with her family, and it\u2019s led her to reflections on childlessness. Her mom, Audrey, waited to have her until she was ready and comfortable, giving birth to Sol\u00e1na imani Rowe when she was 43. \u201cShe can rest knowing that the mitochondrial DNA of every woman that came before her lives through me,\u201d SZA reflects. She wonders if she\u2019ll carry that lineage forward: \u201cI\u2019m bossed up, I\u2019m taking my time. It\u2019s spooky out here\u2014maybe I won\u2019t have kids. Maybe I will. Do I really want the magic and the love to end with me, or is it the end of A KARMIC cycle?\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, preservation of what she has is the priority. She\u2019s been spending a lot of time with her family and shows me a recent haul from Barnes & Noble\u2014brain games and puzzles for her and her parents, along with a stack of books: The Let Them Theory<\/em> by Mel Robbins, Killing Rage: Ending Racism<\/em> by bell hooks, Anthem<\/em> by Ayn Rand.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\u201cDo I really want the magic and the love to end with me, or is it the end of a karmic cycle?\u201d<\/p>\n
SZA<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n\u201cI feel aggressively Black right now,\u201d SZA says. She spent a whole night reading about the Heritage Foundation, learning that the people behind Project 2025 are well-versed in the right-wing think tank. \u201cIt\u2019s so scary to realise that we\u2019re so deeply unprepared and fractured and fragmented as a society,\u201d she says. \u201cThe veil is down and anything is happening. We aren\u2019t empowered by a sense of community and solidarity. We don\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
SZA wants to know more about her family\u2019s experience of history. she\u2019s asked her mom about living through MLK\u2019s and JFK\u2019s assassinations, and her dad about doing work for the Black Panthers. Recently, the White House used her song \u201cBig Boy\u201d\u2014produced for a Saturday Night Live <\/em>sketch\u2014in a video celebrating ICE agents. \u201cI don\u2019t know why the White House is tweeting me,\u201d she says, reluctant to give them further press. \u201cI want to be educated. I don\u2019t want to be swayed by an algorithm. I don\u2019t want to be swayed by AI. I don\u2019t want to be convinced that it\u2019s not my problem, because I did my part and I voted. It is unfair for it to be anybody<\/em> Black\u2019s problem right now. But by the same token, I will not go quietly into the dying of the light. I just won\u2019t. I just can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\nFor as much as she\u2019s been practising presence, SZA isn\u2019t lying when she says she\u2019s ready to follow up last year strong. She\u2019s been back in the studio on and off since Grand National wrapped, working towards her third album. She\u2019s realised she always needs a good \u201cwhy.\u201d \u201cWith Ctrl<\/em>, I wanted to set myself apart,\u201d she explains. \u201cI wanted people to know that I can write. Ctrl<\/em> was about \u2018fuck you,\u2019 but a different brand of \u2018fuck you.\u2019 Like, \u2018I actually can do that if I want to. I just didn\u2019t want to before.\u2019\u201d (She compares the album to her college experience: She didn\u2019t finish, but stayed long enough to make Dean\u2019s List. \u201cI just wanted n*** to know I\u2019m not stupid. I just didn\u2019t want to be here.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n
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All clothing CHLO\u00c9, Necklaces SZA\u2019s own<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\nSOS<\/em>\u2019 \u201cwhy\u201d was to affirm that\u2014though the record took a while to complete\u2014she wasn\u2019t finished. \u201cI could bang in a mainstream space if I wanted to,\u201d she continues. \u201cI made \u2018Nobody Gets Me\u2019 because I never made a ballad before. I could do my little angry rap [\u2018SOS\u2019], and I didn\u2019t have to keep it just for me. I could let other people hear it. Now, it\u2019s the intro to the album.\u201d<\/p>\nAt the end of the day, SZA is a Scorpio. She needs that driving factor. These days, it\u2019s preserving music\u2019s humanity in the face of rising technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m at war because of AI,\u201d she states, sternly and defiantly. She sings about it on \u201cGhost in the Machine:\u201d \u201cLet\u2019s talk about AI, robot got more heart than I \/ Robot got future, I don\u2019t \/ Robot get sleep but I don\u2019t power down.\u201d In the years since she wrote those lyrics, artificial intelligence has overtaken our daily lives\u2014so much so that AI-generated songs and artists are raking in real streaming numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s happening disproportionately with Black music,\u201d she continues. \u201cWhy am I hearing AI covers of Olivia Dean, when Olivia Dean just came the fuck out? She can\u2019t even collect the streams. I\u2019m also really offended by the type of Black music that\u2019s coming out of AI. Weird, stereotypical struggle music.\u201d<\/p>\n
This summer, on Instagram, she spoke out against AI\u2019s spurning of environmental racism\u2014pollution and resource depletion in disproportionately Black and Brown communities. She has a new adversary in AI\u2019s mining of creative and intellectual property, preexisting and stolen by way of future generations\u2019 opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not up against the pop girls. I\u2019m not up against the R&B girls. I\u2019m up against anti-intellectualism and doing things easy. The type of blend of information my human experience provides, AI can\u2019t even be prompted to fuck with. I want to just let this angst drive me into bizzare directions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While on tour, SZA\u2019s longtime producer, Carter Lang, recorded sounds in every country they passed through\u2014usually while they were hiking. She sees so much potential in the cross-pollination of sound and culture, an endeavour that takes work, experience, study, and, most importantly, curiosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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SZA can\u2019t reveal too much about the humanity she\u2019s feeding into her new music, but she has previewed some of it on @notmusicatalliswear\u2014her IG \u201cspam page\u201d where she drops bodega selfies, memes, and long captions. In August, she teased a lush, string-laden track with the lyrics, \u201cCan\u2019t take what\u2019s meant for me \/ It lives inside \/ Can\u2019t miss what\u2019s meant for you \/ Enjoy the ride \/ Cycles \/ Enjoy the cycles.\u201d It ends with a pair of samples: Nikki Giovanni reading her poem \u201cMy House,\u201d and dialogue from the 2001 film Baby Boy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve been dabbling a little bit in everything,\u201d she says. The music she\u2019s posted is more about \u201chealing frequencies,\u201d and sharing something soothing with her community. She\u2019s been in the studio with a live band, letting them work out beats from scratch. She freestyles into the mic, making things that \u201cfeel good and don\u2019t say too much.\u201d Steve Lacy joined her for a few sessions, too; they \u201cmade a random little project together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to just open my brain and open my heart, channelling awesome humanity shit right now,\u201d she says. \u201cHumanity is my \u2018why\u2019\u2014preservation of what\u2019s left, extreme expression of what is, and a desperate plea.\u201d She\u2019s letting her emotions and her music be unfiltered, raw, and flawed. \u201cI feel insufferably human right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of our conversation in January, our social feeds were both full of people looking back on 2016. It was the year SZA was on the precipice of something great: her voice opening Rihanna\u2019s Anti<\/em>, then making Ctrl<\/em> with her own money in Lang\u2019s grandmother\u2019s house, before she got signed to RCA records. \u201cIt was one of the scariest, most exciting times of my life,\u201d she says. SZA smiles. \u201cIt was more like, \u2018Wow, I\u2019m really hungry. I\u2019m really hungry, and I really don\u2019t live anywhere for real, and I need to finagle that bagel.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nI ask if 2016 SZA would believe everything 2026 SZA has accomplished. \u201cYes and no,\u201d she replies. \u201cPart of me was like, \u2018Why not?\u2019 I didn\u2019t have a ceiling for myself. I definitely didn\u2019t see this<\/em> at all, but I thought that what I was doing was special. Because it made me feel smart and special when I made it.\u201d<\/p>\nShe had enough people telling her what the ceiling was\u2014hitting No. 1 on any<\/em> chart was impossible, let alone doing it multiple times. \u201cMy label told me that it was likely that I wouldn\u2019t beat Taylor Swift, and I should prepare for that,\u201d she says, referring to a 2023 chart battle between SOS<\/em> and Midnights<\/em>. \u201cI was laughing by week three. It was just like, \u2018What is this? I never even imagined I could be on the radio.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nBut it all did<\/em> happen. And SZA hopes that, in the future, she will live each moment as fully and presently as possible\u2014since she spent so many years with her eyes on her next move.<\/p>\n\u201cI feel like anything is possible,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m adulting kind of hard right now, and I might be eating. I feel like I might be alright when it\u2019s all said and done.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Top DIOR Rings, left middle bracelet, right bottom bracelet TIFFANY & CO., Briefs stylist\u2019s own, Wings JASON HAMER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\nin the lead image<\/strong> Dress and earrings SCHIAPARELLI, Jewellery SZA\u2019s own, Top necklaces TIFFANY & CO.<\/p>\nhair<\/strong> DEVANTE TURNBULL using<\/em> K18makeup<\/strong> DEANNA PALEY & KENYA ALEXIS using<\/em> NOT BEAUTYset design <\/strong>WESLEY GOODRICH at<\/em> ARTISTRYmovement director <\/strong>CAMI \u00c1RBOLESsfx application<\/strong> MALINA STEARNS & MIRANDA JORYphotograph assistants <\/strong>GUSTAVO SORIANO, CARLOS QUINTEROS & BRETT WILLIAMSdigital technician<\/strong> BENOIST LECHEVALLIERstyling assistants <\/strong>ALEXANDRA HARRIS & ROBBIEproduction<\/strong> THE MORRISON GROUPproduction manager<\/strong> CECILIA ALVAREZ BLACKWELLproduction assistants <\/strong>ERNIE TORRES & TYREEK VOLTAIRE & RON DAVIDSONphoto producer<\/strong> MORGANE TAYEAU at<\/em> DIVISIONpost production<\/strong> INKdigital artworks<\/strong> HUNTER HORNOFlocation<\/strong> SV STUDIOS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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