SZA isn’t one to release a ton of material: Fans are still waiting for the follow-up to her 2017 debut album Ctrl. She’s been generous over the past 24 hours, though: She dropped “Hit Different” at midnight and shared a snippet of more new music shortly after. It appears this could be start of a new wave of releases from SZA, as she explains it.
She spoke about “Hit Different” with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and said she’s eager to release more material from her new “body of work,” which she described as diverse:
“I just really want to put out more music and more — this body of work that I’ve been working on… everything sounds different. But it all sounds like me. But I realized… as long as the essence of me is in it I’m not really stressed about continuity or making sense to anybody. I’ve been making a sh*t ton of music. If you really leave it up to me, ain’t no telling when sh*t’s gonna come out because I have anxiety… I’ve never felt so loose in the world before.”
She also talked about why she decided that “Hit Different” was chosen as her first new song in a while, saying:
“I was swimming in my brain about what I wanted to say first, what I wanted to bring energy wise first and I just really — I just stopped trying to overthink and I just wanted to give people something just to vibe because I have so much stuff that I’m just done holding onto. So it’s like I don’t even know how any of its gonna take shape or any of that but I’m just done holding on to it and this is the beginning of me just rolling out all my thoughts. I can’t hold onto things because I’m scared everyday forever. That’s how I am. Even today I was crying with mom because I haven’t dropped anything in so long and I just feel like the anxiety and like the crushing… I can’t explain how it feels to me. Sometimes I’m strong enough to just drop something and then two weeks passes and then I’m not strong anymore.”
Listen to the full interview here.