2011–2014: Career beginnings and EPs SZA first met members of
Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) during the
CMJ New Music Report in 2011, when her boyfriend's clothing company sponsored a show in which
Kendrick Lamar was performing. SZA's early music was shared with TDE president
Terrence "Punch" Henderson, who was impressed by the quality of the material. SZA's early music was recorded with friends and neighbors; many of the beats were taken from the Internet. The extended play was met with positive reviews upon release.
The Guardian commended the EP, its lyrical content and production, and compared it to the work of musicians like
Drake and
the Weeknd. SZA self-released her second EP,
S, on April 10, 2013. It was positively received;
Consequence of Sound thought that the "dreamy [and] warped [EP] manage[d] to exude confidence and fragility". SZA promoted the extended play with the release of a music video for the EP's lead single, "Ice.Moon". SZA and Punch stayed in contact, and after the former began garnering attention with the release of her two EPs, TDE signed her on July 14, 2013, making her the label's first female artist. In October 2013, SZA joined Swedish band
Little Dragon for a four-show tour, beginning on October 17 at the
El Rey Theater in Los Angeles and concluding on October 24 at the
Music Hall of Williamsburg in
Brooklyn. That December, she released the song "Teen Spirit", which was later remixed with a guest verse from rapper
50 Cent. The remix was accompanied by a music video directed by APlusFilmz. Throughout 2014, SZA was featured on multiple tracks from her labelmates' projects, including two songs on
Isaiah Rashad's debut EP,
Cilvia Demo, and a collaboration on
Schoolboy Q's debut album,
Oxymoron. She followed up with the release of her third studio EP,
Z, on April 8, led by the single "Babylon" featuring Lamar, which was accompanied by a music video directed by APlusFilmz. To promote the EP, SZA performed at several showcases during the
SXSW Music Festival in
Austin, Texas.
Z marked SZA's chart debut in the UK, reaching number 32 on the R&B chart for the week ending April 19. In the US, the EP debuted at number 39 on the
Billboard 200; it sold 6,980 copies in its first week and peaked at number nine on
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
Z acquired a small
cult following online, gaining popularity within niche communities on
Tumblr which contributed to her slow rise in popularity. By the end of the year, SZA
opened for
Jhené Aiko's Enter the Void Tour and
Coldplay's
Ghost Stories Tour. During 2014, SZA befriended record producer
ThankGod4Cody during a time when he was working on music for Rashad. In 2015, she met another record producer,
Carter Lang, via a chance encounter at a studio; they and ThankGod4Cody began a work relationship the same year, collaborating on an upcoming project by SZA. Work on it started back in 2014. As time passed,
A slowly developed into SZA's debut album
Ctrl.
2015–2018: Ctrl and breakthrough A release date was initially scheduled for late 2015. However, due to disputes with TDE and persistent feelings of anxiety fueled by her perfectionism, SZA had to rework the project multiple times. The label then postponed its release from 2015 to the start of 2016. One of its prospective songs, "
TwoAM", was surprise-released through their SoundCloud account in May; it was eventually scrapped from the tracklist. A mid-2016 release date was planned for the project, only for it to be delayed again to November 8. With frustrations mounting due to TDE's postponements, SZA angrily announced on
Twitter that she wanted to quit music. She later retracted her statement. While working on
A, SZA was co-writing songs for other singers. Scott's "
Ok Alright" in 2015, and
Rihanna's "
Consideration" in 2016. "Consideration" was going to be on
A as a track called "LouAnne Johnson"; SZA deemed it the album's "centerpiece" and even had a music video filmed. Much to her disappointment, TDE had other plans, handing the song to Rihanna for her album
Anti and making SZA a feature instead. Regardless, "Consideration" contributed to SZA's breakthrough, and she grew to appreciate the label's decision. Apart from Rihanna, SZA's other collaborators from 2014 to 2016 included her several labelmates like Lamar, Rashad,
Ab-Soul, and Schoolboy Q. in August 2017 In 2017, SZA announced
Ctrl as the new title for
A; the official release was June 9 of that year. After she signed with
RCA Records in April, the album was finally released as scheduled. In
Ctrl, SZA continued to lean into her established
alternative R&B sound, incorporating hints of
alternative rock as well. To promote the album, SZA released five singles: "
Drew Barrymore", "
Love Galore" featuring Scott, "
The Weekend", "
Broken Clocks", and "
Garden (Say It like Dat)". She also embarked on the international
Ctrl the Tour, which ran from 2017 to 2018.
Ctrl was universally acclaimed upon its release. Several publications included it on their 2017 year-end lists; the album topped
Time ranking and placed at number two on
Billboard,
Pitchfork, and
NPR's. In the US,
Ctrl debuted at number three on the
Billboard 200, sold 60,000 first-week units, Its run has lasted for over eight consecutive years. Furthermore, "The Weekend" and "Love Galore" peaked within the top 40 of the
Billboard Hot 100.
In 2018, SZA received her first five
Grammy nominations due to her work on
Ctrl, including
Best New Artist. Although she was the most-nominated woman for that year, she did not win in any category. After
Ctrl, SZA went on a series of song collaborations, two of which were her first Hot 100 top-tens. The first, "
What Lovers Do" (2017) by
Maroon 5, peaked at number nine; the second, "
All the Stars" (2018) with Lamar, reached number seven. The latter was also her first top-ten
in the UK, where it peaked at number five. "All the Stars" was released as the lead single from the
soundtrack album of
Black Panther. With it, SZA received her first film award nominations, like an
Academy Award for
Best Original Song, a
Critics' Choice Award for
Best Song, and a
Golden Globe Award for
Best Original Song. At the
2018 MTV Video Music Awards, "All the Stars" won
Best Visual Effects. Elsewhere, SZA contributed to the second soundtrack for the television series
Insecure with "Quicksand"; featured on the remix of
Lorde's "
Homemade Dynamite" from
Melodrama (2017); and appeared on
Cardi B's "
I Do" from
Invasion of Privacy (2018).
2019–2023: Collaborations and SOS SZA took five years to release her second album,
SOS (2022). She became increasingly
burned out the longer she worked on it. SZA was frequently unsatisfied and bored with the music she was writing, and she was worried about making sure her creative decisions for the album made sense. She considered quitting music again if critical reception of
SOS were overwhelmingly negative. In a follow-up tweet, she mentioned that all he ever told her about releasing new music was "soon". This revealed that her relationship with her label had been hostile since the delays of her second album, which was last announced back in an interview in 2019. SZA continued her string of collaborations while she was working on
SOS and hinting at its release. It gave SZA her first Grammy Award: one for
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Many of the songs
went viral on the social media application
TikTok, which TDE leveraged for the album's promotional strategy. This series of singles began with the standalone "
Hit Different" in September 2020, followed by the
SOS lead single "
Good Days" in December. "Good Days" peaked at number nine on the Hot 100, her first solo top-10 in the US. The second and third
SOS singles, "
I Hate U" (2021) and "
Shirt" (2022), peaked at numbers 7 and 11. Their official releases happened after SZA shared their demo versions online and they went viral on TikTok. "I Hate U" was originally a SoundCloud-exclusive, uploaded alongside "Nightbird" and "
Joni" at the advice of SZA's
astrologer. Before becoming a single, "Shirt" was teased via snippets since late 2020. In 2022, SZA released a deluxe edition of
Ctrl to celebrate its five-year anniversary. The deluxe version consisted of seven scrapped outtakes, including "TwoAM" (now spelled "2AM"). Later in November, SZA posted the teaser for
SOS on social media. The video, soundtracked to her then-unreleased "
PSA", hinted at the album's title by playing its corresponding
Morse code. The standard version of
SOS was released on December 9 to widespread acclaim. Critics agreed that it surpassed expectations that arose from the years-long wait.
SOS was a multi-genre work; it was a product of SZA's desire to prove her versatility, after the media had consistently called her an R&B artist. With the album, SZA combined R&B with a variety of genres like
rap,
rock, and
pop.
SOS was a huge commercial success. It spent over ten weeks atop the
Billboard 200, was the second most-streamed album of 2023 globally, and set a diverse array of chart records. The album surpassed
Adele's
21 and
Michael Jackson's
Thriller as the longest-running US top-10 by, respectively, a woman and a Black artist. Following its release,
SOS spawned three more singles: "
Nobody Gets Me", "
Kill Bill", and "
Snooze". "Kill Bill" topped the
Billboard Hot 100 and was the third best-selling single of 2023, accruing 1.84 billion units worldwide based on streams and
digital sales. At the
2024 Grammy Awards, where SZA was the most-nominated artist,
SOS and "Snooze" won
Best Progressive R&B Album and
Best R&B Song, respectively. From 2023 to 2024, SZA embarked on the
SOS Tour to promote the album. In September 2023, SZA performed at an invite-only show in
Brooklyn Navy Yard to celebrate the success of
SOS. Included in the set were "PSA" alongside three other unreleased songs: "
Saturn", "
Diamond Boy (DTM)", and "
BMF". That same month, she featured on
Drake's "
Slime You Out", which became her second US
Billboard Hot 100 number-one. In November, she stated to
Variety that
Lana was not a conventional deluxe edition, but virtually a new album with a tracklist that was continuously expanding. Many of the songs were newly recorded pieces of music; others were outtakes from
SOS.
2024–present: Lana and Grand National Tour Variety and
Time magazines listed
Lana as one of the most anticipated albums of 2024. SZA announced in November via a livestream by
Twitch entertainer
Kai Cenat that the album would be out by the end of the year. It was released on December 20, 2024, and rereleased with four more tracks on February 9 of the following year. The standard edition of
Lana was preceded by the lead single "
Saturn", which she debuted at the 2024 Grammy Awards and which won Best R&B Song at
the next ceremony. It peaked at number six on the Hot 100, her tenth top-10 on the chart. The reissue's updated version featured "PSA" and "Joni", the latter of which had
leaked back in 2023. After the rerelease,
SOS returned to the top of the
Billboard 200 for its eleventh and twelfth weeks at number one. Its last week at number one was in early 2023, making
SOS the album with the longest time between weeks atop the chart. In August, the album reached its 100th week in the
Billboard 200 top 10, the first by a woman to do so. In November 2024, Lamar, who had left TDE back in 2022, released his sixth studio album
GNX. SZA appeared on two songs, the third track "
Luther" and the closing track "
Gloria". In support of
GNX and
Lana, the duo embarked on the
Grand National Tour starting in April 2025, breaking the record for the highest-grossing co-headlining tour.
SOS topped the
Billboard 200 a week after the first show, which marked the album's thirteenth week at number one. Prior to the Grand National Tour, SZA appeared alongside Lamar in his performance for the
Super Bowl LIX halftime show, duetting some of their collaborations. Following this, "30 for 30" reached a new peak of number 10 on the Hot 100, despite not being part of the set list. The week after, "Luther" began a consecutive 13-week run atop the Hot 100 and became SZA's longest-running number-one in the US. Outside music, SZA ventured into other creative projects in 2025, beginning work on cosmetic and fashion products. During the Grand National Tour, she launched Not Beauty, a line of lip products available exclusively in pop-up stores at concert venues. She was announced as the first artistic director of shoe company
Vans, and she is set to collaborate with them on exclusive fashion collections. In television and film, SZA appeared as a guest in the 55th season of
Sesame Street and co-starred alongside
Keke Palmer in the
buddy comedy film
One of Them Days (2025). Several critics praised the synergy between SZA and Palmer, and 93% of the 106 reviews from critics from
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a positive review. SZA began teasing new music during the latter half of 2025; some songs would presumably appear on her third album. In August, she posted snippets of unreleased tracks on an alternate Instagram account . One of them was titled named "Let You Know", an R&B track with an airy soundscape. SZA told
GQ the titles of three other songs"Passenger Princess", "Burgers", and "Yearner"in an interview with the magazine during November. "
Take Me Dancing" by Doja Cat, and "
PT Cruiser" by Nigerian-American rapper Moruf. SZA revealed in an interview with
i-D, she and American musician
Steve Lacy made "a little project" together. ==Artistry ==