SZA Explains CTRL Was Almost Never Released, Reveals Timeline for Next Record

According to an interview with The Guardian, SZA (pronounced sih-zah) says her next record will be out in about six months. This is news is unexpected, considering the new-wave R&B singer-songwriter took three years between her EP, Z, and her debut album, CTRL. Though she has earned a cult following during her time on the scene, CTRL’s June release grabbed the attention of just about everyone. As it turns out, the 26-year-old, who boasts Beyoncé and Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA as fans, never intended to release the album at all—or at least not yet.

“They just took my hard drive from me. That was all. I just kept fucking everything up. I just kept moving shit around,” she explains of the process of deciding what would make it onto the final product. “I was choosing from 150, 200 songs, so I’m just like, who knows what’s good any more?”

SZA also revealed that the CTRL we have today would not have been the CTRL she would have released. She clarifies that this is not because she doesn’t like the finished product, but because her ideas for the record were ever-changing: “Give me another month and it would have been something completely different.”

As for the follow-up to CTRL, the six-month estimate seems to be genuine: “I have less anxiety about the things that hindered me putting this album out, so I’ll probably be done in the next six months.” We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but considering the 2018 Grammys will be held in January (six months from now), it’s totally possible that SZA could be releasing her second LP at the same time as she’s contending for Best Album.