SZA Believes People Label Her As An R&B Artist Only Because She's Black

BYGabriel Bras Nevares1.5K Views
Link Copied to Clipboard!
66th GRAMMY Awards - Show
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 04: SZA accepts the "Best R&B Song" award for "Snooze" onstage during the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 04, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
SZA makes much more than just R&B.

In a new interview with Dazed published Wednesday (May 1), SZA spoke on only being considered an R&B artist because she's Black. It's a mistake that we and many others have committed in the past, not just as outlets and publications in white-dominant and often exploitative media spaces, but as non-Black audiences comparing Black art to the white-dominant spaces of pop music at large. It's an issue that many Black artists like Tyler, The Creator have addressed to varying degrees.

Most importantly, it's not meant to detach the St. Louis native from R&B, which she's made a lot of, but rather to accurately assess the full range of musical styles that she employs as a pop artist, whose only defining characteristic is... well, being a popular artist that writes with pop song structures, which are not at all exclusive to the typical music genre expectations we associate with "pop." "The only reason I’m defined as an R&B artist is because I’m Black,” SZA remarked. “It’s almost a little reductive because it doesn’t allow space to be anything else or try anything else. 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.

SZA Performing At Dreamville Fest 2024

SZA performs during the 2024 Dreamville Music Festival at Dorothea Dix Park on April 06, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Astrida Valigorsky/WireImage/Getty Images)

"I simply just want to be allowed the same opportunity to make whatever I want without a label. [Without it being] based on the color of my skin, or the crew that I run with, or the beats that I choose," SZA continued. "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.

"At the same time, it’s nothing to get bent out of shape about. Because it’s just how people are processing you," SZA concluded. "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."

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
...