The 33-year-old St. Louis, Missouri-born artist, SZA, released her latest LP, S.O.S., earlier this year. Since then, it’s stayed atop the Billboard charts for weeks on end.
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To date, SZA has collaborated with big-name artists like Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Maroon 5, and Beyoncé, among many others. She released her debut LP, Ctrl, in 2017, going three-times platinum. She’s earned Grammy nominations and earned a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.
But what does such a successful person like SZA have to say about the world around her? About life and love, her craft, and her career?
Without further ado, let’s look at the 30 best SZA quotes.
1. “Music, or the type of music that I’m writing, is very personal.”
2. “I’ve been known to wear pajamas onstage for the sole reason of wanting to make sure I’m free enough to execute new things vocally onstage and give my best performance possible.”
3. “My mom is a Pan-Africanist. My dad is still Orthodox Sunni Muslim, but he’s super fun. He worked in television for years. He was a Black Panther.”
4. “Wearing a hijab never made me feel any more conservative—it made me feel safe. Then, after 9/11, I became the butt of a joke on the playground, so I stopped wearing it. Kids can be really cruel when you’re the only black girl in your Girl Scout troop.”
5. “I was quiet in high school and relatively unpopular, so being noticed is not something that I’m used to.”
6. “I always used to be like, ‘I don’t need to meditate.’ And it’s not true.”
7. “I just make music however I feel and pray that it connects, and if it does, I’m super thankful. I think genres are more for other people, not for yourself.”
8. “Sugar makes me feel crazy—like, makes my body hurt kind of a thing. I don’t really eat fruit because it has a lot of sugar. I try not to eat a lot of red meat, but every now and again, I feel like I need iron or something—something that I’m missing.”
9. “I feel like when you say ‘activist,’ you have to have so much clarity, and I don’t always necessarily have so much clarity on how I want to help others, I just have this weird, deep urge to help other people. I’m trying to let God guide my body and use it as whatever kind of vehicle or vessel it needs to be.”
10. “We’re changing little girls’ lives across the world, and we didn’t even know what we were doing when we started.”
11. “I was born in St. Louis, but I’m from Maplewood, New Jersey. Maplewood is completely different than the rest of New Jersey. It’s very small. It’s quietly affluent but more low-key. Lauryn Hill is from my town, though.”
12. “When your parents regulate everything you hear and everything you intake, it forces you to get creative in other ways. It sparked the writing bug and the very overactive imagination. Because I’ve had a lot of time by myself and a lot of time isolated from regular culture, I created my own.”
13. “I went through this phase of Spandex, high heels, and fur coats when I was in my late teens and early twenties; before then, I lived in overalls and baggy T-shirts.”
14. “I’m very into details, so I watch movies just for the details.”
15. “I don’t have any control over what actually happens except that I have full control over my will for myself, my intention, and why I’m there. That’s all that matters.”
16. “I make bad decisions frequently. They’re fun.”
17. “Control is not real, and I’m really understanding that every day. It’s about the acceptance of relinquishing control that makes it powerful for you.”
18. “It starts with trusting yourself, even if people are telling you you’re too young to trust yourself.”
19. “I want to excel at something, to follow through, to not be afraid.”
20. “I worry so much. Like, ‘Damn, how can I be excellent?’ But it’s a journey.”
21. “I try to think of myself as a chic fishing grandpa aesthetically.”
22. “I love empowering women. I think it’s crazy: if you ever try to belittle women, you’re playing yourself—I ride with whoever rides with me.”
23. “I definitely want to get into environmental science and environmental politics, learning a lot more and preserving what’s left of the world. That’s such a sacred circle to be in. I’d love to contribute to that.”
24. “I was unpopular my whole life.”
25. “I’m a Scorpio with a Pisces moon. I am very critical of myself. I’m actually way less critical of others than I am of myself. I’m in my own head a lot. It’s hard and really discouraging.”
26. “On Halloween, because we don’t celebrate it, my dad would drive me somewhere, anywhere different. Like Little Italy in New York to walk around and teach me all about the food and culture.”
27. “I do a lot of strange things.”
28. “How many thick black women are there singing whatever I’m singing, surrounded by rappers, but also from the suburbs? I can’t really judge someone else for judging me!”
29. “I used to be offended when people would compare me to Erykah Badu. Because I’m black, thick, and have large lips? There’s nothing similar about us whatsoever, and I felt very disrespected by the fact that people needed to pigeonhole me. I wasn’t even raised on Erykah Badu!”
30. “People grapple with labeling me as hip-hop, R&B, or pop, and it’s interesting to me. I’m just making music.”
Photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage
