After what feels like eons, SZA has returned with “Hit Different,” her first taste of new solo music since the release of her cultishly beloved debut album Ctrl back in 2017. A collaboration with Ty Dolla $ign, “Hit Different” was produced by The Neptunes, aka Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, and arrives alongside a gorgeous video directed by SZA herself. Watch “Hit Different” above.
Although Ctrl was released in 2017, SZA has kept busy, collaborating with fellow TDE star Kendrick Lamar on the Black Panther theme song “All The Stars,” DJ Khaled on “Just Us,” Post Malone on “Staring At The Sun,” Cardi B on “I Do,” and Justin Timberlake on “The Other Side,” from Trolls World Tour. It’s been a rocky journey to new solo music from SZA: late last month, she tweeted that Punch, the president of her label Top Dawg Entertainment, was holding the album up. “At this point y’all gotta ask punch,” she wrote, “I’ve done all I can do.” She also described her relationship with Punch as “hostile.” SZA’s working relationship with Punch has been notoriously dicey over the years, with the musician attempting to resign from TDE prior to the release of Ctrl.
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