It’s been five years since SZA dropped her debut LP studio LP Ctrl, which contained 14 songs and additional features from Pharrell Williams, Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, James Fauntleroy, and Isaiah Rashad. The project was a universal success, peaking within the top five of the Billboard 200 and crossed the platinum certification mark three times over. Since then, the Top Dawg Entertainment talent has continued her momentum with singles like “Quicksand,” “Power Is Power” with The Weeknd and Travis Scott, “The Other Side” with Justin Timberlake, “Hit Different” with Ty Dolla $ign, “Good Days,” and “I Hate U.” She also liberated a deluxe edition of Ctrl in celebration of its five-year anniversary, adding on seven additional cuts for fans to enjoy.
Today (Oct. 28), she returns with a new track titled “Shirt,” a Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins-produced offering that, as she explained in a recent interview with Complex, was a bucket list item:
“That was always my dream to work with [Jerkins] based on his work with Brandy and Amerie. We did like seven records in one day.”
Initially a viral hit thanks to TikTok, “Shirt” is full of lyrics about infatuation, drama, and more:
“Kiss me, dangerous, been so lost without you all around me, getting anxious, leave me, don’t look back, it’s all about you, in the dark right now, feeling lost, but I like it, comforting my sins and all about me, only got right now, feeling tears of resentment, simmer in my skin, it’s all about … blood stain on my shirt, new b**ch on my nerves, old n**ga got curved, going back on my word, damn, b**ch, you like thirty…”
Press play on the visual for “Shirt” below, which comes courtesy of Dave Meyers and co-stars actor LaKeith Stanfield, known for his show-stealing roles in “Atlanta,” Get Out, and Judas and the Black Messiah.