Control is not real, and I’m really understanding that every day. It’s about the acceptance of relinquishing control that makes it powerful for you.
SZA
I don’t want to speak negativity into existence.
SZA
I love empowering women. I think it’s crazy: if you ever try to belittle women, you’re playing yourself – I ride with whoever rides with me.
SZA
I learned everything the hard way – like, literally, everything. I know that God does that to people that he has lessons for. I just wish that I had learned less extreme lessons.
SZA
I want to excel at something, to follow through, to not be afraid.
SZA
I worry so much. Like, ‘Damn, how can I be excellent?’ But it’s a journey.
SZA
Music is my form of cleansing and introspection, so I have to grow in order to accomplish it.
SZA
I went through this phase of Spandex, high heels, and fur coats when I was my late teens and early twenties; before then, I lived in overalls and baggy T-shirts.
SZA
My parents wanted me to go to school.
SZA
I’ve fried my hair off. I’ve shaved my hair off. I’ve done it all.
SZA
I don’t feel ashamed to be loud, which is an argument I’ve had with lots of men, who thought I was too sassy and unladylike.
SZA
I definitely get inspiration from the ‘gram. I mean, Instagram is Google, essentially. I love looking at pictures of beautiful women.
SZA
We’re changing little girls’ lives across the world, and we didn’t even know what we were doing when we started.
SZA
I just make music however I feel and pray that it connects, and if it does, I’m super thankful. I think genres are more for other people, not for yourself.
SZA
I try to think of myself as a chic fishing grandpa aesthetically.
SZA
I make bad decisions frequently. They’re fun.
SZA
I used to be very figurative and also just kind of scared to talk about the way I felt in a literal way.
SZA
I think we all do: I think we wonder if we’re supposed to be here, if we’re doing the right thing, if we even want to be here. At least, I do all the time.
SZA
I feel like when you say ‘activist,’ you have to have so much clarity, and I don’t always necessarily have so much clarity on how I want to help others, I just have this weird, deep urge to help other people. I’m trying to let God guide my body and use it as whatever kind of vehicle or vessel it needs to be.
SZA
I don’t have any control over what actually happens except for that I have full control over my will for myself, my intention, and why I’m there. That’s all that matters.
SZA
Every day I grapple between ‘I’m going to get married’ and ‘I’m going to spend the rest of my life alone with a poodle.’
SZA
I was born in St. Louis, but I’m from Maplewood, New Jersey. Maplewood is completely different than the rest of New Jersey. It’s very small. It’s quietly affluent but more low-key. Lauryn Hill is from my town, though.
SZA
I love cuffing season. It’s a very inspiring season for those who want to be inspired.
SZA
In the real world, I kind of, like, thrived a little bit. The things that were awkward about me at school, like being hyper passionate… I realized, ‘Oh I’m my own person, and I have my own idiosyncrasies and nuances that I don’t mind.’
SZA
I got a lot of crap for being named SZA but not being affiliated with Wu-Tang, and being a girl.
SZA
I used to be offended when people would compare me to Erykah Badu. Because I’m black, thick, and have large lips? There’s nothing similar about us whatsoever, and I felt very disrespected by the fact that people needed to pigeonhole me. I wasn’t even raised on Erykah Badu!
SZA
When your parents regulate everything you hear and everything you intake, it forces you to get creative in other ways. It sparked the writing bug and the very overactive imagination. Because I’ve had a lot of time by myself and a lot of time isolated from regular culture, I created my own.
SZA
I drink a lot of water.
SZA
It starts with trusting yourself, even if people are telling you you’re too young to trust yourself.
SZA
On Halloween, because we don’t celebrate it, my dad would drive me somewhere, anywhere different. Like Little Italy in New York to walk around and teach me all about the food and culture.
SZA
You can take care of your body, and it will low-key show you respect in turn.
SZA
Wearing a hijab never made me feel any more conservative – it made me feel safe. Then, after 9/11, I became the butt of a joke on the playground, so I stopped wearing it. Kids can be really cruel when you’re the only black girl in your Girl Scout troop.
SZA
I’ve been known to wear pajamas onstage for the sole reason of wanting to make sure I’m free enough to execute new things vocally onstage and give my best performance possible.
SZA
I listen to Stevie Nicks.
SZA
I love classical jazz.
SZA
I love folk. I love rap.
SZA
I love Modest Mouse.
SZA
My anxiety stems from my lack of control no matter what.
SZA
I’m a Scorpio with a Pisces moon. I am very critical of myself. I’m actually way less critical of others than I am of myself. I’m in my own head a lot. It’s hard and really discouraging.
SZA
I don’t have a background in music… and I have a short attention span. If you put me in the studio every day, I’m gonna get lost.
SZA
People grapple with labeling me as hip-hop, R&B, or pop, and it’s interesting to me. I’m just making music.
SZA
I was unpopular my whole life.
SZA
I think music is honest and will make you do honest things.
SZA
So many people meet and become friends at my shows that didn’t know each other before.
SZA
In one way, I want to heal people.
SZA
When you’re, like, 190 pounds, dark-skinned, and a new artist that no one really cares about, people don’t really take the time to make you look beautiful.
SZA
How many thick black women are there singing whatever I’m singing, surrounded by rappers, but also from the suburbs? I can’t really judge someone else for judging me!
SZA
Especially when I’m nervous, my mind is running a mile a minute. My ADHD speaks for me before I can speak for me.
SZA
There’s something different about growing up black and Muslim, especially in New Jersey. It’s like when I left the mosque and I left my dad, I felt unprotected, but I also felt a weird sense of pride, like I was involved in this other way of living that was cool to me.
SZA
My music is touching people in whatever spaces they need to be touched in.
SZA
I don’t have a primary doctor, a primary hairstylist, a primary anything. I don’t even have a primary address! Everything is just whenever I can find one.
SZA
It’s interesting to all of a sudden be considered valuable.
SZA