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Artist News
SZA not a big fan of her album
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 1 March 2018
SZA’s ‘Ctrl’ album was among the most acclaimed of last year. Although she’s still confused as to why, not thinking much of it herself.
Interviewed as The Fader’s latest cover star, she says: “I’m thankful that people don’t think it sucks, but I’m gonna have to achieve a ten in my brain. I just made a gang of songs over the course of four years. Heard em all together and I was like, ‘Huh, alright'”.
In fact, she’s a bit miffed that you like it so much: “I didn’t even fuck with my own album, so I was so confused and almost, like, angry that everyone fucked with it so much. It meant everything I felt about myself was wrong. And it was just like, ‘If that’s not the truth, then what is the truth? I think when ‘Love Galore’ went platinum, Donald [Glover] texted me like, ‘Do you still think it sucks?’ And I was like, ‘I dunno'”.
It’s not uncommon for artists to say that they don’t think their early work was up to much. Although they usually do that when talking up later albums, rather than while still promoting their debut.
Last July she explained to The Guardian that the album only came out because her label took the hard drive with all of her recordings on hostage. Top Dawg Entertainment seemingly felt that she’d done enough, while she continued to tinker and record new music.
Nonetheless, she tells GQ in a new interview that she was “mad as hell” when she walked away from this year’s Grammys with no prizes – despite being nominated in five categories. “You feel like you’re really falling short and you fucking failed [your fans],” she says.
However, she goes on, afterwards she started to feel like this changed her perspective on the success she had (perhaps why she’s now back to being a bit down on the record).
“I felt a shift”, she says. “Like, I came a really long-ass way. I didn’t imagine this album doing much anyway. I was so grateful to even have been honored by being nominated and having so many people fuck with my music. I feel like at some point you start to get sucked up into the accolades and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is what this is about, and this is what quantifies my success or me as an artist or a human being’”.
Actually, it’s made her realise that just having people listen to her songs is the most important thing: “We reached a billion streams on Spotify. The United States fucks with my songs. We’re changing little girls’ lives across the world, and we didn’t even know what we were doing when we started. This is something much bigger than me and a fucking trophy. I’m appreciative of the opportunity. But shit happens”.
So, I guess the positive view of all of this is that SZA still wants to push herself to make better music. Depending on how hands-on the label is willing to get, it might be a wait though.
