SZA has revealed after a record-breaking year, with her sophomore album SOS, the lows of achieving ultra-stardom.
During a recent sit down with Zane Lowe, ahead of her Apple Music Live performance at Brookyln’s Barclays Center, the “Kill Bill” singer explained how outside pressures combined with the power of perception have impacted her interactions with fans and the likes.
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“I realized as of recent a lot of this shit is not normal,” she began, speaking on her success. “I didn’t know how to process that experience and I was having a lot of lashing out and a lot of frustration — a lot of opinions, a lot of entitlement to your space, a lot of entitlement to your time, a lot of expectation and no one is understanding, in the realm of being like ‘Why?’
“It actually makes me on edge and not a kind person because of the anxiety of wondering like how people — there’s so much perceiving going on. But, there people don’t know you. They say you’re in a vacuum in your most high-pressure moment. But, it’s like, it’s scary. So, it’s like, oh my God, I’m not the person I want to be right now. Because I’m not kind, calm, and like relaxed, and patient.”
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SZA went on to share that despite finding fame she is “still the shy person she was in high school.”
“I hate being perceived. I hate coming outside. I don’t want to party. I don’t want anybody to really look at me, honestly. I don’t want to take pictures. I hate being on video. It’s the bane of my existence. It makes me really, really uncomfortable — I cry,” she added, admitting she had consumed several calming gummies before the interview.
Check out the interview in full below:
The TDE singer took to X (formerly Twitter) to get a few things off her chest, writing: “No one teaches you how to enjoy ur life .. they teach you how to work for it . Desire it . Protect it .fight tooth n nail for it . Pray for it . imagine it .manifest it .. how do u process all the things you’ve prayed for.”
She then admitted to wrestling with anxiety and FOMO (the fear of missing out) when it comes to posting regularly on social media.
“I get anxious posting ab my life then get fomo watching other ppl post then experience way more life so there’s so much more to post and get anxious ab the volume of material then fomo again watching awesome posts then back to experiencing more magical life material I can’t post,” she added.
The SOS hitmaker concluded her confession by posting a sexy photo of herself with the caption: “Alright y’all be safe now love you bye ps this will make sense soon,” which some interpreted as a teaser for her next musical offering.
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Last week, SZA followed up the teaser by taking to socials where she posted six potential album covers for the forthcoming release, which was initially announced in February and serves as the deluxe edition of SOS.
The singer can be seen wearing a No. 15 football jersey is several covers, which are all captioned “LANA,” with some taking it as a hint that the batch of bonus material could arrive this Friday (December 15).
