SZA said our souls need saving whilst out-rapping your faves

After a long awaited comeback my good sis and grammy award winning Solana, aka SZA, released her second studio album, ‘SOS’.

True to the SZA narrative the themes of heartbreak, trifling men, self-doubt and learning when to let go were riddled throughout the addictive hooks and melodies.

“This ain’t no warning shot. ‘Case all you hoes forgot.”

Opening with SZA rapping on a classic hip-hop beat, produced by my fave Jay Versace, I really love this song and hearing SZA rap.

It has a real freestyle, “let me talk my shit” type vibe which is so refreshing and unapologetic. The R&B girlies have really been in an unapologetic type of mood in the past few years and I honestly love that for them. They are going through so much trying to keep the genre alive and be recognised within the music industry and not be mis-categorised as pop.

“Ain’t no writers, that’s just me.”

If it’s one thing SZA made sure that she would be eligible for awards in multiple categories as she did not hold back from giving us a little bit of everything, branching out to Rock and Country. Now that we’re here I might as well speak on it, ‘F2F’ was giving Hannah Montana realness okay and I’m fully not mad at it. Unfortunately, I saw a few tweets and tiktoks before I heard it so it kind of clouded my initial judgement and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a little chuckle during that chorus. But by the final chorus the knees were bent and I was strumming that air guitar whilst frantically trying to move my side bang out of my eyes.

I love that the album gave us the full versions of the snippets from the singles that were dropped earlier last year like, ‘Blind’, ‘Used’, ‘Shirt’, ‘I Hate U’ and ‘Good Days’. I liked where they were placed in the album too it felt like bumping into an old friend and now that I’m more acquainted with the songs in between it just flows beautifully.

I was also a big fan of the movie title tracks, ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Gone Girl’ like if I had to pick two films which fit SZA’s sound and aesthetic it would one hundred percent be these two. It’s safe to say that SZA is/ always has been in her anti-heroine era. Whilst she may lack the conventional heroic qualities such as courage or idealism you still can’t help but root for her. This is evident in ‘Notice Me’ which comes just before ‘Gone Girl’. Another song which highlights this is ‘Special’ it’s genuinely so sad and real like you could not pay me to admit and share with the world how inferior a man made me feel!

SZA’s music often falls into the “sad girl music” genre but I think for me calling it “sad” takes away and cheapens the actual life lessons that you could be taking from every song in SZA’s catalogue. When I hear her music it kind of stops me in my tracks from making the same decisions that she speaks of in her songs. Take ‘Kill Bill’ for example, no I haven’t killed an ex but who hasn’t had that feeling before? Her music is relatable because it’s a direct commentary of the mess that is the dating world at the moment.

These songs are knee-jerk reactions to romantic situations that she’s experienced whilst she thought she was in love. It speaks true to impulse thoughts, does she want to kill her ex? Probably not but when you think about someone that’s done you dirty you let out that little “ooh I could kill him.” But what’s left out of that is the after thought of no I don’t want to go to prison, I actually would never kill somebody. I say all this to say listen to the album feel the feels but also remember that we’re learning from our past mistakes not dwelling in them.

“All the phony shit aside. I just want what’s mine.”

SOS speaks to those who have been through the fire but are already looking ahead to what the future has in store. Unlike CTRL this album is giving us the option for a way out. SZA portrays this sonically by taking us on a musical journey through multiple genres. Before taking us back to her TDE roots with ‘Forgiveless’ featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard, produced by the legendary Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jenkins. Looping us back to that raw freestyle hip-hop feel that we were introduced to at the beginning of the album. This makes the playback of the album feel effortless despite there being 23 tracks.

It also makes me wonder whether SZA is saving us or if this album is a cry for help? To be free from genre’s and categories and just create, even challenging the publics perception of her and her craft.

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My personal faves/ top five from the album would have to be:

• Open Arms
• Snooze
• Kill Bill
• Smoking on my Ex Pack
• Seek & Destroy

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