SZA
- williamconway167
- Mar 2, 2025
- 2 min read
One of my blogs (long, long ago) featured a pretty good rapper who had taken musical tracks, or (better known as) beats from YouTube. His album (or mixtape) was good - and I had asked, “how do you produce your beats?” He, of course, answered , “I take them from Youtube.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, and proceeded to ask, “what DAW do you use?” (DAW meaning digital audio workstation). He said, “Audacity” - a free DAW you can download from the internet.
I realized he had purchased an audio interface for vocals - or was it a USB mic? I forgot, but I caught SZA on an Apple podcast explaining she started off creating music or demos by taking beats from YouTube - and, now, she’s here, in 2025, backing up Kendrick Lamar during a Halftime show AT THE SUPER BOWL!
After recording See SZA Run (2012) and S (2013), SZA became the first female to sign with Top Dawg Entertainment.
These years were formative - and while we’re enjoying Ctrl (2017) - which became the second longest charting R&B album by a female artist on the US Billboard 200 - which earned four Grammy nominations; and SOS (2022) which spent twelve weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 - her early worked impressed me more than you could ever imagine.
“Time Travel Undone” was so unique in audio and, especially, visually. I thought I’d just dropped acid after watching the video.
“Teen Spirit” was, also, special in that I expected Kurt Cobain to crash in with a guitar solo. Nawww - but her lyrics “Don’t come close . . . don’t come close. . . you don’t even know me” really rocked for an R&B (maybe Neo-Soul) single - it was really popp’n.
“Babylon” kept me wondering why a Caucasian guy discovered her “where - abouts” after drowning in a small body of water. Again, this was an R&B single, but her video was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
“Julia" was good - maybe she was a wealthy art dealer who, toward the end of the video, stripped naked “again” (i.e. Babylon) and headed for a body of water. Why? Not sure why she kept stripping naked, but back during SZA’s formative years, she was (and still is) the bomb.
You have got to see these videos - so, I’ll provide you with “Time Travel Undone”, “Teen Spirit”, “Babylon”, and last but not least, “Julia”. Let me know what you think!
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