Get On SZA’s Rescue Boat

SZA’s “Kill Bill”, the popular track inspired by getting vengeance on your ex, was among the top 3 most streamed songs this Valentine’s Day. Shakira even lip synced the song while name checking her ex. And then this past week in LA, everyone from Adele to Jennifer Lopez, and Frank Ocean, came out to see the last stop on SZA’s SOS tour. During “Nobody Gets Me”, a song about starting your life over, Kim and Kylie Kardashian sang along while recording themselves. It’s clear that SZA has arrived, and that not just her music but her message is resonating across pop culture. Though SZA’s album came out in December, given the momentum around the culmination of her tour, we wanted to share 4 creative insights around why SZA is resonating, and what that may mean about the moment we’re living in:

1. “Revenge” as a timely flavor of rebellion

Every generational chapter tends to reinvent “rebellion”. In the 90s we saw culture rebel against “the system”, while the 2000s surfaced the idea of rebelling against pessimism (ie: Obama's "Yes We Can"), and clearly SZA’s use of revenge via Kill Bill (and coincidentally Taylor Swift's lyric “dressing for revenge") is resonating at a time when culture refuses to be the victim in many ways. That is a whole new take on youth rebellion.

2. A pop star that is a product of multiple genres, anchored in Hip Hop

It’s been widely reported that fans no longer identify entirely by a single music genre. SZA is blurring lines in what it looks like to be a product of a multi-genre landscape: anchored in the leading genre of Hip Hop but drawing inspiration across genres. As Alternative Press called out recently, “SZA has always been Alternative - you just weren’t listening.”

3. Creativity inspired by Y2K

We wrote in September about how Y2K is having a moment. While Crocs may have peaked (again), the early 2000s are all over SZA’s music. “FNF”, for example, has been described as a mix of Avril Lavigne, Everclear, and Ashlee Simpson.

4. Emotional accessibility in pop culture

SZA told the LA Times, “Working in a fancy studio is bad for me…When you’re in Shangri-La, (Rick Rubin’s iconic studio) you’re supposed to be a star. I’m a person.” Through this lens, SZA is a departure not just in how a star is born, but also what culture perhaps now needs from its idols. SZA makes the case that now to be iconic, is to be aspirational intellectually and emotionally, not just in performance or lifestyle.

So yes, that is indeed her high above the audience floating on a rescue boat in rough waters during the tour. Get the metaphor?