HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 01: SZA, winner of the R&B Song of the Year, R&B Album of the Year, and R&B Artist of the Year awards, poses in the press room during the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre on April 01, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Whew! Roommates, SZA didn’t hold back while recently discussing being labeled an “R&B artist.” The singer opened up about being fixed to that description because she’s Black.
Other artists, however, get to swerve in and out of genres–and SZA is hoping for the same opportunity! The ‘Snooze’ singer told DAZED that being called an R&B artist feels “reductive.”
“…it doesn’t allow space to be anything else or try anything else,” SZA shared. Justin Bieber is not considered an R&B artist; he is a pop artist who makes R&B, folk music, or whatever his heart desires. I simply just want to be allowed the same opportunity to make whatever I want without a label, [without it being] based on the colour of my skin, or the crew that I run with, or the beats that I choose.”
Born Solána Imani Rowe, the singer added that she wants her songs to live within the genre they’re giving instead of an umbrella label.
“I want ‘F2F’ to be seen as what it is, I want ‘Nobody Gets Me’ to be seen as what it is. I want ‘Kill Bill’ to be seen as what it is,” she said. “At the same time, it’s nothing to get bent out of shape about, because it’s just how people are processing you. As long as I don’t process myself that way. I don’t necessarily box myself into anything. I’m just trying to make music, trying to vibe out and enjoy the experience.”
After those comments, the DAZED interviewer and singer continued their conversation about SZA’s Blackness, anchoring her to the R&B genre.
The artist shared that there is “still work to do” regarding how the world sees and places Black women.
“I think humanity will be constantly unfolding itself, and we will be showing each other who we are beyond the reductive labels our brains are regurgitating, from whatever we saw on the internet or learned in college or at home through socialisation. We’ll get beyond that, and that’s just part of being human. I’m down to be human,” SZA said.
Her comments slightly echo Beyoncé’s comments after the release of ‘Cowboy Carter. Amid debates about where to place her album, Bey clarified that though it was country-inspired, it was not a country album. It was, in her words, “a Beyoncé album.”
“My hope is that years from now, the mention of an artist’s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant,” Beyoncé shared on Instagram.
Speaking of swerving lanes, SZA is also entering other forms of entertainment. Earlier this week, Deadline reported that the artist will star in a new Issa Rae film. Solána is set to co-star alongside Keke Palmer.
