Punch was not pleased with the treatment SZA received from the MTV Video Music Awards this year – which is the reason behind her absence from the 2023 show.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporteron Friday (September 15), the TDE label head explained that his artist not being nominated for Artist of the Year when she’s had such a banner year was pure disrespect.
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“Obviously, she had one of the best years, if not the best year, of any artist at this point,” Punch said. “I don’t see why she wouldn’t be nominated for artist of the year. It just really didn’t make any sense to me. It’s disrespectful.”
He continued: “And they ended up saying, ‘Okay, well we could do another call’ because there were people on [the call] about logistics for the show who didn’t have anything to do with [the nominations]. When we tried to set up the second call, they didn’t want to discuss artist of the year, which to me was really a slap in the face.”
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“Why wouldn’t she be nominated for artist of the year? Even with the other artists that were nominated for artist of the year, some of them were even off-cycle. They didn’t have an album out. I mean, no disrespect to them or anybody else; everybody’s great and all of that, but still, you can’t discredit what SOS has done and is currently doing.”
The artists nominated for artist of the year included Beyoncé, Shakira, Nicki Minaj, Karol G, Doja Cat and Taylor Swift – the latter of whom took home the award.
Neither Nicki nor Doja released an album in 2023 or 2022. Meanwhile, SZA’s epic year included 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with SOS. In addition, the project has been certified 3x platinum by the RIAA in under one year, had five Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and even spawned the first No. 1 of her career with “Kill Bill.”
In addition to pulling out of her scheduled performance at the VMAs, SZA didn’t even attend – despite the show happening in her home state of New Jersey. Punch explains that was solely his call, and wants the brunt of criticism to fall on him if there is any.
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“[SZA is] a very sweet person and she’s not for all of the nonsense and the politics and the back and forth and all of that,” he said. “So, our feelings might be a little different. But ultimately, I felt it was disrespectful and I was very stern on that and influencing that. If there’s any issues or backlash and all of that, I’m taking all of that.”
