sza
-
Listen: The Lead Single From the Kendrick Lamar-Produced Black Panther Soundtrack Is Here
The lead single on the highly anticipated Kendrick Lamar-produced Black Panther movie soundtrack is less “DNA” or “King Kunta” and more like a poppier “Poetic Justice.” “All the Stars” gives us another collaboration between Lamar and SZA, labelmates at Top Dawg Entertainment. It’s a pretty good song—the vibe is easy and laid-back. It’s the kind…
-
5 Videos That Really Should Be Better, Like SZA’s ‘The Weekend’
Last week, SZA dropped a video for “The Weekend” (see below at your own risk of boredom), one of the standout tracks from her standout album, CTRL. This video is basura. It’s four straight minutes of bad art. I call it bad art because the Solange Knowles-helmed video was clearly created to be artsy and…
-
Black Twitter Has Questions About SZA’s ‘The Weekend’ Video
It’s sometimes disappointing when you have a favorite song off an album and construct the visuals in your head for the music video, but when the video premieres, you’re left disappointed and wondering “WTF?” And those are the exact sentiments many people on social media are sharing after watching the Solange-directed video for SZA’s new…
-
5 Albums Everyone Loved in 2017 Except Me
Despite releases from Coldplay, Imagine Dragons and the unmerciful tyranny of Bieber’s “Despacito,” I have to say I think 2017 was still a generally good year for music. We saw some solid debuts and some great sophomore follow-ups. To be honest, there aren’t many projects released this year that I can say I viscerally hated,…
-
I Tried It: Bacon Is the SZA of Meats
In my quest to become a whole, functioning human being, I have been going through a yearslong process of undoing and unpacking the subconscious biases and fears that created the person who could never be described any funnier or more succinctly than by my line brother, who once said: “Michael Harriot, you’re one weird-ass strain…
-
Black Beauty Is a Real Crowd-Pleaser: Best Pics From Afropunk 2017
Melanin. Color. Texture. Funk. Freedom. Afropunk, the annual music and arts festival going since 2005, is not free anymore, but with all this gorgeousness and headliners like Raphael Saadiq and Solange, SZA and Soul II Soul, Anderson Paak and ThunderCat, any money paid is worth way more than two assholes in a ring. Back in…
-
Did Afropunk Lose Its Punk Roots?
This weekend, a sea of unapologetic blackness will descend upon Fort Greene’s Commodore Barry Park for Brooklyn, N.Y.’s 12th Annual Afropunk Fest. Instagram feeds and Twitter hashtags everywhere will be peppered with twist-outs and bold prints; your favorite vibe curator will inevitably make a thread of the best of the best of the audience’s fabulous…