SZA is two albums deep into her career, and while saying that she has reached the apex may be too soon, she does not feel there is anything left to prove. This year has been a massive success for the artist, who leads the list of 2024 Grammy nominees, having received nine nominations, and is headlining her sold-out arena tour for her album, SOS, which topped the charts after its release in December of last year.

“I’m in a space now where [I’m like] f**k it with everything on the creative side. The business side is scary, but on the creative side, it’s kinda just like, nah, I don’t have any more goals, so I might as well just try [new things] at this point,” she told Zane Lowe in a new Apple Music interview. “I don’t have any more goals, and that sounds terrible, but career-wise, it’s just like, I keep saying that [but] nobody believes me.”

The TDE star artist further explained, “I’ve gone platinum. I didn’t think I’d ever go platinum. I sold a bunch of records. I got to meet Stevie Wonder. I got to meet Beyoncé and work with her. I got to meet Frank Ocean. My mom and dad came to all these cool countries to see me perform. I’ve had sold out shows…what else do I want? I’m nominated for Grammys. I won a Grammy. I’m done for me, personally. So this, anything past this [point] is so much more than I, like, wanted, thought of, dreamed of.”

The singer-songwriter rose to success following the 2017 release of Ctrl. SZA admittedly told Lowe that despite the acclaim of her freshman offering, she has not dropped music hoping to live up to fans or her own bar of expectations. At this point, she’s creating from a space of freedom of expression and reaping respect.

“I never did it for the bar, I did it for respect,” she said. “Like the accolades are cool but I was really just doing it for respect to show that I’m smart… letting people know I’m an intelligent person… or that I can write my own lyrics, or that I can make a certain style of song because that’s the goal I wanted to achieve to show I can work my brain that way.” She concludes, doubling down that, “The respect was more important to me than the accolades. That is a success to be respected amongst my peers… for who I am.”

Click below to watch the full interview.