SZA has said the reason a few of her fan-favorite deep cuts didn’t make the final cut for SOS is that her team wouldn’t let her add them to the album.
In an interview clip that surfaced on Twitter, the Top Dawg Entertainment singer can be heard saying that songs like “PSA,” “Joni” and “Boy from South Detroit” were squashed by TDE president Terrence “Punch” Henderson and even her own producer/engineer, even though her fans had begged for their inclusion on the project.
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“A song called ‘Boy from South Detroit’ that Twitter wanted really bad, Rob nor Punch really cared about that song,” she said. “They weren’t excited about it and Rob was just like, ‘I don’t really think this is the song.’ And then Punch was indifferent about the song, but I was like, ‘No, I really believe in this!'”
SZA confirmed that “Boy From South Detroit will appear on the upcoming deluxe edition of SOS, although she didn’t indicate when that will be released.
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“Or ‘Joni’ being a song that I really wanted on the album, but Punch was like, ‘This song has been out for years! And no one wants to hear songs that were out for years. Everyone wants to hear new songs from you,'” she continued. “I’m like, ‘Okay.’ Of course that’s a song they’re asking for on the internet.
“Or whether it’s ‘PSA’ or ‘Potting Season,’ and he’s like, ‘Oh, that sounds too much like ‘Blind’ so you can’t have both of those on the album because they sound too much alike and people will get bored of hearing that.’ People are asking, ‘Where the fuck is ‘PSA’ on the album?'”
This isn’t the first time SZA has aired her frustrations with Punch. In July, the R&B singer tweeted that she aimed to drop her sophomore album this past summer, but the TDE boss wouldn’t allow it. Punch ultimately responded to these accusations in an interview with Math Hoffa and said her tweet was misconstrued.
“You gotta understand the context, and you have to know the person,” Punch said. “You have to know how something was said. If it was lighthearted. If it was serious, like what it was. If she’s responding to somebody and saying, ‘You gotta ask Punch.’ You can take that a gang of different ways based on your disposition.”
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He continued: “And you only get so many characters when you’re tweeting, and people get a whole story and run with it. What I always like to ask is: What do I gain from not putting the album out?”
Regardless, SZA’s SOS was finally unleashed on the masses on December 9, complete with guest appearances from Travis Scott, Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 318,000 first-week units, marking the singer’s first chart-topper and the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album.
The project also logged 20 of its 23 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including two in the top 10: “Kill Bill” (No. 3) and “Nobody Gets Me” (No. 10).
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“A number one album and two songs in the top ten is NOT what I expected,” SZA wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post in response to the warm reception. “I’m bad at celebrating myself but I wanna thank everybody that rallied around me and positively reinforced me these last few years.”
She added: “Thank you to every person that poured into this album. I love my team. Thank y’all for loving and arguing about the album Lmaoo. Imma take another swing at it for the deluxe then shut up for a while. God is excellent.”
