SZA has revealed that she once had to allow her song ‘Consideration’ to be used on Rihanna’s 2016 album ‘ANTI’, and she was not happy about it.
READ MORE: How SZA inspired a generation of R&B storytellers: “She’s a radical light”
The song had been recorded, ready to be included on SZA’s 2017 debut album ‘Ctrl’, but days before the music video was released, she heard that Rihanna’s team had entered negotiations for the song to be included on ‘ANTI’ instead.
“It was like the centrepiece to my album at the time,” SZA said this week in an interview with Variety. “And for her, it was just, like, part of her album. And I was like, ‘Please, no’.”
“I cared so much. I was so, just, frustrated. And I felt like, ‘I’ll never make anything this cool again’, and that was so crazy and so wrong.”
In the end, ‘Consideration’ was the opening song on ‘ANTI’, with SZA listed as the feature.
However, SZA now reflects that the sequence of events worked out to her benefit. “Now I’m so glad that that happened, and that it didn’t cost me anything,” she said.
“If anything, I gained a bunch from it. And I thank God that I made cool music outside of that. I don’t know why I just really thought my creativity would just stop, and this was the pinnacle of what I could make.”
This week, it was revealed that SZA’s track ‘Kill Bill’ was the second highest-earning song on Spotify in 2023, racking in approximately £5.1 million and 1.4 billion plays. Top of the list was Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’.
SZA also recently expressed her love for Creed and Nickelback in a new interview. “Wait, you know what’s crazy? Do white people hate Creed and Nickelback? Why? Black people love them! They rock! That shit is bomb!” she said.
2023 has been a big year for the singer, after the surprise release of her second full-length ‘SOS’ in late 2022. This month, she was nominated for ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Best Progressive R&B Album’ at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
In September, she announced a deluxe version of ‘SOS’. Entitled ‘Lana’, the singer said in a live show that the release will contain “7 to 10 songs” and will be “out this fall”. A release date for the album has yet to be announced.
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