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SZA
SZA performing in Brooklyn in 2015
SZA performing in Brooklyn in 2015
Background information
Birth nameSolána Imani Rowe
Born (1990-11-08) November 8, 1990 (age 34)
St. Louis, Missouri, US[1]
OriginMaplewood, New Jersey, US[1]
GenresPBR&B, neo soul
OccupationSinger-songwriter
InstrumentVocals
Years active2011–present
LabelsTop Dawg Entertainment
Websitewww.iamsza.com

Solána Rowe (born November 8, 1990), better known by her stage name SZA (/ˈsɪzə/ SIZ-ə), is an American singer-songwriter. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, later relocating to Maplewood, New Jersey.[1] In October 2012, Rowe self-released an extended play (EP) titled See.SZA.Run, which she then followed up with her second EP, titled "S," in October 2013. In July 2013, it was revealed that she had signed to the hip hop record label Top Dawg Entertainment, through which she released "Z," her third EP and first retail release, in April 2014.[2]

SZA is a Neo Soul singer whose music is described as Alternative R&B, with elements of soul, hip hop, minimalist R&B, cloud rap, ethereal R&B, witch house and chillwave. Rowe's lyrics are described as "unravelling", that revolve around themes of sexuality, nostalgia, and abandonment. Rowe cites a variety of artists as influences including Billie Holiday, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Björk, Jamiroquai, and Wu-Tang Clan. SZA also takes influence from non-musical artists including gymnasts, ice-skaters, painters and movie directors, including Spike Lee.

Early life

Solána Rowe was born in November 8, 1990, in St. Louis, Missouri, United States before later relocating to Maplewood, New Jersey.[1] Her father was an executive producer at CNN, while her mother was an executive at AT&T. Rowe was born to a Christian mother and a Muslim father. She was raised as an Orthodox Muslim and has an older half-sister.[1] She attended a "Muslim prep school" and secondary school everyday after her "regular school." After the September 11 attacks, Rowe was subject to bullying, leading her to stop wearing her hijab. After secondary school, Rowe attended three separate colleges. In her freshman year she "got high and failed out."[1]

Rowe went to college to study marine biology, with the intention to go to graduate school to be a scientist and travel. The plan never materialized, and she then took random jobs in order to make money.[3] Rowe formed her stage name from the Supreme Alphabet, taking influence from rapper RZA, the last two letters in her name stand for Zig-zag and Allah, while the first letter Rowe developed herself switching it from savior to "sovereign.”[1]

Career

2011–14: See.SZA.Run, S and Z

SZA first met members of Top Dawg Entertainment during the CMJ 2011, when her boyfriend's clothing company sponsored a show in which Kendrick Lamar was performing. A friend attending the show with her foisted early SZA songs onto TDE president Terrence "Punch" Henderson, who liked the material and stayed in touch.[2] SZA first began recording music by accident; after recording one song, she continued the process until she decided she should "make something out of it." SZA recorded the songs with her friend and neighbor in which they "stole a bunch of beats off the Internet."[3] On October 29, 2012, SZA released her debut self-released EP entitled See.SZA.Run, which featured production from brandUn DeShay, APSuperProducer, amongst others.[4]

SZA performing in 2013

On April 10, 2013 SZA released her second EP S, which was met with positive reviews from music critics.[5][6] SZA promoted the extended play with the release of music video for the song "Ice Moon", the accompanying video was directed by Lemar & Dauley.[7] On July 14, 2013 it was announced that Top Dawg had signed an upcoming female singer named SZA.[8] In October 2013, SZA went on a four show tour with Swedish band Little Dragon; starting on October 17 at the El Rey Theater Los Angeles and ending on October 24 at the Music Hall of Williamsbug, Brooklyn NY.[9] In December 2013, SZA released the song "Teen Spirit" which was followed by the release of a remix featuring American rapper 50 Cent, along with a music video directed by APLUSFILMZ.[10] In 2014 SZA featured on a variety of songs from her label-mates albums including two songs for Isaiah Rashad's debut EP Cilvia Demo as well as featuring on Schoolboy Q debut studio album Oxymoron.[11][12]

On March 26, 2014, R&B artist SZA released the single "Child's Play" featuring Chance the Rapper and produced by Dae One & XXYYXX.[13] SZA announced the title and release date of her next EP, and released a new video.[14] The EP, titled "Z," was released on April 8, 2014 and was preceded by the release of the lead single, "Babylon," which was accompanied with a music video directed by APLUSFILMZ.[14] To promote the "Z" EP, SZA performed at several performance showcases at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.[14] SZA made her chart debut in the UK, where Z charted at thirty two, on the R&B Charts, the week ending April 19, 2014.[15] Z debuted on the US Billboard 200 at number thirty nine, selling 6,980 copies in its opening week, the album also peaked at number nine on the US Hip-Hop/R&B chart.[16]

In May 2014, SZA announced she was planning to embark on an international tour and has begun recording her fourth EP entitled A.[17] In July 2014 SZA featured on Kitty Cash's single "Moodring",[18] the same month SZA released a collaboration with Jill Scott called "Divinity" the song was produced by Om’Mas Keith and lasts for seven-and-a-half-minutes.[19] On 11 July 2014, SZA released a video for "Julia" from her EP Z, during the songs accompanying video featured a snippet of a new song entitled “Tender”.[20] In early October Jhene Aiko tweeted SZA, which led to speculation that the two would be working together; however on October 23, 2014, Aiko announced that she would be headlining a tour entitled "Enter The Void tour" which would be supported by SZA and The Internet. The tour begins on December 12 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California and more dates will be announced at a later time.[21] On November 18, 2014 SZA released the song “Sobriety,” the song was produced by Thundercat and lyrically talks about candid confessions and love over a "moody" beat.[22]

2014–present: A

In September 2014, SZA revealed that "A" would be released as her debut album, continuing to say that "A" would be similar to "S" and would include trap influences with more aggressive lyrics, she also announced that she has begun working with James Fauntleroy, Hit-Boy and long time collaborator Felix Snow again.[23] Along with Rihanna and Tyran Donaldson, SZA co-wrote a song entitled "Consideration" which featured on Rihanna's album Anti (2016); besides writing, SZA also featured on the track. SZA later performed "Consideration" with Rihanna live for the first time at the 2016 Brit Awards on February 24, 2016.[24]

Artistry

Musical style

SZA performing in 2015 with label mate Ab-Soul.

SZA described her vocals as having a "rasp" which she initially tried to "tenderise"; SZA also listens to Ella Fitzgerald for vocal influence.[25] SZA vocal style has been described as taking on the "lilt" of a jazz singer.[26] According to Marissa G. Muller of Rolling Stone magazine, Rowe's vocals alternate between a "vapory husk and a sky-high falsetto."[27] Jordan Sargent of Pitchfork magazine labelled Rowe's vocals as being "chillwave" and "ethereal."[28]

SZA musical style is described as "alt R&B".[29] SZA songs are built over "layers of sliced, delayed, and reversed vocals" and contains "twists and mutates".[4][30] Reggie Ugwu from Billboard finds her musical style to feature an "agnostic utopia dripping with mood", that straddles the "line between minimalist R&B, '80s synth pop and soul".[2] Rowe's music is predominately PBR&B and neo-soul, but has been noted for taking influences from a broad variety of genres including soul, hip hop, minimalist R&B, cloud rap, ethereal R&B, witch house and chillwave elements.[29] Michael Madden described SZA's musical genre as being "agnosticism corresponds", noting that her work is not just one style of music and is versatile, noting the musical style is not just "R&B, pop, soul, or one thing at all."[31]

SZA began writing songs due to being "passionate" about writing and enjoyed poetry, when writing lyrics SZA "freestyles" them in order to express whatever comes to her "mind", noting that it does not always make sense to herself.[3] Thematically, SZA work contains "unravelling lyrics", that touch upon themes of sexuality, nostalgia, and abandonment.[30] According to Michael Madden from Consequence of Sound, SZA lyrical is sometimes "purposefully general" and sometimes "an ambitious but quick reference", which Madden compared to the rapper Angel Haze and her debut album Dirty Gold.[31]

Influences

SZA cites a range of musical artists as influences, as a child she grew up listening to jazz music,[3] growing up SZA "couldn't do anything other than what" her dad did. So she listened to a lot of his music collection which included Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. Later musical influences happened by "accident" according to SZA.[1] During one of her classmates bar mitzvah SZA was given a mixtape which introduced her to artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, LFO and Macy Gray, she "loved" the CD and "played it until it was finished".[1] Via her sister she continued to broaden her influences when she was first introduced to rapper Lil Jon, her sister continued to introduce SZA to rappers including Wu-Tang Clan and members of Cash Money.[1]

SZA later began listening to rapper Common, Björk, and "a lot of Wu, Nas, Mos Def, Hov", she described the artists music she discovered as sticking "hard".[1] SZA cites Björk as being a major musical influences, speaking on Björk, SZA said her "personal influences came from dancing with American Ballet Theatre and doing pieces to Björk. That's the only time I had really any outside influence to music. So, the people that I fell in love with on a musical level were always much older. Jamiroquai is just, like, the shit for me," whom she also grew up listening too.[32]

During an interview, SZA said she was never really inspired by musicians or to become a musician, but was interested in creating a form of art; she looked up to people who were not "typical artists" including her "favorite gymnast, ice-skater, saxophonist, painter, or movie director" continuing to say she was inspired by film director Spike Lee.[32] SZA commented that singer Lauryn Hill was one of her personal and style influences saying she looked up to Hill.[33] During an interview, SZA spoke again on her style influences, saying a large amount of her style inspiration comes from movies, expanding on this SZA commended Wes Anderson films and his use of "Pantone color palette" continuing to say the "wardrobe in all of his films and I would love to dress like a character from Moonrise Kingdom. Or perhaps Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic."[34]

Public image

SZA defined her style as being "Girl next door chic."[34] Solana's hair became a point of interest during the early stages of her career and she discussed it in interviews with Vogue magazine and Harper's Bazaar.[33] During performance SZA tends to wear "free-flowing" clothes that are easy to move and has been known to wear pajamas onstage in order to execute her vocals and enhance her performance.[35]

SZA is known as TDE's first female signee and first singer, which drew attention during the early stages of her career, which Rowe described as uncomfortable and did not like the attention, Rowe also stated she felt uncomfortable with being seen as a "public figure" and did not like the idea of people forming opinions on her.[36] During her career Rowe, her music and her image were compared to neo-soul artists Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill which Rowe has disagreed with and states that she has no "desire to be that" and just wants to be able to make her own style of music.[36]

Discography

Studio albums

  • Z (2014)
  • A (2016)

EPs

Promotional singles

List of singles by main artist
Title Year Album
"Time Travel Undone" 2012 See.SZA.Run
"Country"
"Teen Spirit" 2013 Non-album single
"Ice Moon" S
"Babylon"
(featuring Kendrick Lamar) 		2014 Z
"Child's Play"
(featuring Chance the Rapper)

Guest appearances

List of non-single guest appearances, with other performing artists, showing year released and album name
Title Year Other performer(s) Album
"Tomorrow"[37] 2013 Kris Kasanova 24K
"Ronnie Drake"[11] 2014 Isaiah Rashad Cilvia Demo
"West Savannah"[11]
"His & Her Fiend"[12] ScHoolboy Q Oxymoron
"God's Reign" Ab-Soul These Days...
"Real Thing"[12] A$AP Ferg Ferg Forever
"The Need to Know" 2015 Wale The Album About Nothing
"Easy Bake" Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar 90059
"Consideration" 2016 Rihanna Anti
"Untitled 04 | 08.14.2014" Kendrick Lamar untitled unmastered.
"Neva CHange" ScHoolboy Q Blank Face LP
"Stuck in the Mud" Isaiah Rashad The Sun's Tirade

Videography

Title Other performer(s) Director(s) Album Year Ref.
"Country" — — See.SZA.Run 2012 [38]
"Ice Moon" — Lemar & Dauley S 2013 [7]
"Teen Spirit" — APLUSFILMZ & SZA — [10]
"Tomorrow" Kris Kasanova Anthony Sylvester — [39]
"Babylon" — APLUSFILMZ & SZA Z 2014 [40]
"Warm Winds" Isaiah Rashad [41]
"Julia (Tender)" — Rodney Passé [20][42]

Writing credits

Year Artist Appearance Title Writer(s) Ref
2012 SZA See.SZA.Run All tracks SZA
2014 SZA Z All tracks SZA
2014 Nicki Minaj (featuring Beyoncé) The Pinkprint "Feeling Myself" Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, SZA, Chauncey Hollis [43]
2015 Travis Scott (featuring Schoolboy Q) Rodeo "Ok / Alright" Webster Brown, Wayne Uwaezuoke, Dean Quincey, Hanley Hill, SZA
2016 Rihanna (featuring SZA) Anti "Consideration" Solana Rowe, Robyn Fenty, Tyran Donaldson [44]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Complex Music" Insanul Ahmed, 'Who is SZA?', Complex Music, September 8, 2013.
  2. ^ a b c "Billboard" Reggie Ugwu, 'SZA Talks 'Z' Album & Being the Only Girl In Top Dawg Entertainment', Billboard Magazine, April 7, 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d "Billboard May 2013 interview" Reggie Ugwu, 'SZA Talks Quitting Her Day Job, Working With Holy Other & Emile Haynie', Billboard.com, May 23, 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Complex debut-EP Newsitem" Zach Frydenlund, 'EP Premiere: SZA See SZA Run', Complex Music, October 29, 2012.
  5. ^ "CoS review" Adam Kivel, 'Album review: SZA - S EP', Consequence of Sound, April 22, 2013.
  6. ^ "Pigeon & Planes announcement" Katie K, 'Download SZA’S new EP', Pigeons and Planes, April 10, 2013.
  7. ^ a b "Ice Moon video" Dharmic X, 'SZA Releases Mystical Video For "Ice Moon', Complex Media, November 13, 2013.
  8. ^ "Source newsitem" Khari Nixon, 'Presenting TDE New Songstress', The Source, August 14, 2013.
  9. ^ "Brooklyn vegan review" Ryan Muir, 'Little Dragon playing two NYC shows w/ SZA', Brooklyn Vegan, August 28, 2013.
  10. ^ a b "50ct remix" Dharmic X, '50 Cent Remixes SZA's "Teen Spirit"', Complex Media, December 6, 2013.
  11. ^ a b c Jeffries, David. "Cilvia Demo – Isaiah Rashad > Overview". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved April 3, 2014. {{cite web}}: templatestyles stripmarker in |work= at position 1 (help)
  12. ^ a b c Jeffries, David. "Oxymoron – Schoolboy Q > Overview". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved April 3, 2014. {{cite web}}: templatestyles stripmarker in |work= at position 1 (help)
  13. ^ "IndieShuffle Newsitem" Tobias Handke, 'SZA - Child's Play (Ft. Chance The Rapper)', Indieshuffle.com, March 26, 2014.
  14. ^ a b c "Boombox newsitem" Trent Fitzgerald, 'SZA Reveals ‘Z’ EP Release Date, Drops ‘Babylon’ Video, Boombox.com, March 9, 2014
  15. ^ "UK R&B chart" Archived entry for the UK R&B chart for April 19, 2014. Accessed May 10, 2014.
  16. ^ "Hip-Hop chart April 2014" Andres Tardio, 'Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 04/13/2014' HipHop DX April 16, 2014.
  17. ^ "Billboard News 2014 Erika Ramirez, 'The Juice Podcast: SZA & MoRuf Talk TDE, New Albums, Usher & 2 Chainz', Billboard Magazine, May 9, 2014.
  18. ^ "New Music: Kitty Cash & SZA – 'Moodring'". Rap-Up.
  19. ^ "New Music: SZA & Jill Scott – 'Divinity'". Rap-Up.
  20. ^ a b "Video: SZA – 'Julia / (Tender)'". Rap-Up.
  21. ^ http://www.musictimes.com/articles/13149/20141022/jhené-aiko-announces-enter-void-tour-sza-internet-following-missed.htm
  22. ^ "New Music: SZA – 'Sobriety'". Rap-Up.
  23. ^ "Kendrick Lamar's Storytelling On New Album Is "On A Grander Scale," SZA Says". HipHopDX. 11 September 2014.
  24. ^ "Brit Awards 2016: Drake to join Rihanna for first live performance of Work at London's O2 Arena?". International Business Times.
  25. ^ "Redbull April 2014 interview" Aimee Cliff, 'Five things you should know about SZA', Redbull.com, 7 April 2014.
  26. ^ "SZA 'Z' review" Kevin Ritchie, 'Sza "Z" review, Toronto Now (vol 33), April 17–24, 2014
  27. ^ "Meet SZA, Kendrick Lamar's Newest Labelmate". Rolling Stone.
  28. ^ "SZA". Pitchfork.
  29. ^ a b "The Guardian NBOD 2013" Paul Lester, 'New Band Of The Day: SZA' The Guardian, March 8, 2013.
  30. ^ a b "Z Album Review" Ben Benjamin, 'SZA: 'Z' Album Review', Neon Tommy, April 10, 2014.
  31. ^ a b Madden, Michael (2014-04-08). "SZA – Z | Album Reviews". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
  32. ^ a b "Refinery" Nathan Reese, 'SZA's Unlikely Path To Pop Stardom' Refinery29, October 9, 2013.
  33. ^ a b "Vogue" Chioma Nnadi, 'Why SZA's Huge Natural Hair is Our New Obsession', Vogue, March 27, 2014.
  34. ^ a b "W Magazine" Sarah Leon, 'She’s Just SZA', W Magazine, April 9, 2014.
  35. ^ "SZA's Pitchfork Festival Style". The New York Times. 21 July 2014.
  36. ^ a b "You Probably Don't Know Rising R&B Star SZA Yet, But You Will". The Huffington Post.
  37. ^ "Mixtapes " DJs " NoDJ " Kris Kasanova - 24K Download & Stream". LiveMixtapes. March 12, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  38. ^ Meara, Paul (October 9, 2012). "Video: SZA "Country"". Complex. Complex Media. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  39. ^ "Watch Kris Kasanova's Video For the SZA-Assisted "Tomorrow"". Complex. Complex Media. December 11, 2013. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  40. ^ Ortiz, Edwin (March 7, 2014). "SZA Travels to "Babylon" In New Music Video". Complex. Complex Media. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  41. ^ "Video: SZA f/ Isaiah Rashad – 'Warm Winds'". Rap-Up.
  42. ^ SZA - Julia / (Tender). YouTube. 11 July 2014.
  43. ^ "The Pinkprint — Nicki Minaj: Credits". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  44. ^ "Anti (Deluxe Edition)". Rihannanow.com. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
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