What You Should Be Listening to, According to SZA

Last week, British pop phenom Flowerovlove released her debut album, Mini Skirt Warrior. The 21-year-old artist has racked up streams on potential breakout hits “I’m Your First,” “In My Victoria’s Secret,” “Shady,” and “American Wedding.” With a proper full-length available, Flowerovlove’s growing audience — which includes fans she picked up during her sets at Coachella and opening slots for Halsey and Olivia Rodrigo — has more to feast on than ever. But while everyone else is just starting to come around, SZA has had her eye on Flowerovlove for more than two years already. 

When it comes to new music, SZA keeps her finger on the pulse, but also on the repost button. “This girl and this song is fire as hell,” SZA wrote on Instagram Stories in May 2024, sharing Flowerovlove’s single “Boys,” released just over a week prior. “Good on her.” The younger artist played it cool while reacting to the nod, sharing on X, “Sza posting about my song is UGHH.” But the acknowledgement runs deeper for her. “When you see the lineup of the pop girlies, most of the time SZA isn’t on it,” Flowerovlove told Elle earlier this year. “That doesn’t make any sense to me, because she is a pop girl.” 

The question of “where are all of the Black girls in pop music?” is a recurring topic on the fan side of social media, especially on X where discourse often outweighs discovery. If it bothers SZA to be left out of the Main Pop Girl conversation, she doesn’t let it show. Instead, she’s flooding her Instagram Stories with music from the exact kind of artists people seem to be searching for.

With streaming fatigue on the rise, it helps to have trusted voices sift through the noise. SZA plays that role for her more than 23 million followers on Instagram. The Grammy Award-winning artist’s recommendations are rarely ever self-serving. They’re born purely from a love for what she’s hearing. Her story soundtracks have spanned rising artists heading for a breakthrough as well as more veteran performers who are only just recently stepping into the spotlight. 

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An early August repost from SZA featured “Play With a Kiss” by Natanya, whose upcoming mixtape, Attitude Era, arrived Sept. 10. It wasn’t the first time SZA has spotlighted the rising artist, whose single “Guitar” also made it onto her story earlier this year. There might have been some light manifestation work on Natanya’s part. The singer-songwriter and producer kicked off her year with a visualizer for her single “On Ur Time,” which afforded the song an online boost. “Solana’s on my speakers and the tears won’t dry,” Natanya sings on the track. When SZA shared a snippet of the verse on her story, Natanya responded, “If only the heartbroken girl from 2023 could see this.” 

SZA locked in early on the bedroom pop artist girlsweetvoiced, too. In April, the singer-songwriter shared a video playing her single “Tonight” on the dulcimer. She noted in the caption that she could use some practice, but its appeal was in the raw, stripped-back elements of the performance. SZA reshared the clip on her Instagram Story and reposted it to her followers. SZA and girlsweetvoiced share a producer in Michael Uzowuru, who helmed her debut album, Lovesweet, released in July. Uzowuru first worked with SZA on SOS, with contributions to “Notice Me” and “Open Arms,” plus five tracks on the deluxe edition, Lana, including “Scorsese Baby Daddy.” 

In June, SZA had “Sweet Talk” by Nomi in her rotation. Unlike her usual reports, SZA put the song on her Instagram Story by setting it as the audio for a video she shared showing off her BET Awards outfit. “The way SZA is always early and just gets it,” Nomi wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of the post. “My GOAT.” On Friday, Nomi will release her first full-length project, This Wolf May Cry. The record will expand Nomi’s growing discography, which also includes “Badman,” a single that caught SZA’s attention back in June. “This is incredibly hard,” SZA commented on Nomi’s post about the song, which had been uploaded weeks prior in March. She didn’t see it coming. “U have no idea how shook i am rn,” Nomi wrote back. “Wow thank you so much.”
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In November, Nomi will take the stage at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival. The lineup also features Natanya and another SZA favorite: Steve Lacy. “Being around Steve, experiencing the deep raw resonance of his voice, his laughter, his Spicy Aries Venus: literally revived me,” SZA shared on Instagram in July following the release of their collaboration, “Is It Cool?” “He played demos from his album and I cried.” Her earnest framing of the songs she’s loving makes it easy to trust her taste. Earlier this year, she reposted Raye’s This Music May Contain Hope single “Click Clack Symphony” a few times, writing, “I really am in awe of her.” 

One of SZA’s most recent recommendations spotlighted the Lagos-born singer and songwriter Solana. The Nigerian artist has her sights set on global reach with songs like “Okunkun” and “Dide.” She performs her music almost entirely in Yoruba over Afropop beats that couches her voice in spirited pop production. “SZA posted me,” Solana, who shares a name with the singer, wrote on Instagram. “Literally mind blowing.” Earlier this year, SZA also spotlighted “Hot Body” from Afropop supernova Ayra Starr, whose third studio album Starrgirl arrived Aug. 14.
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When SZA listens, she listens deeply. In June, Olivia Rodrigo told BBC News about her pivotal run-in with SZA at the Grammy Awards. “She said that she studied my songs for the songwriting, and that was the biggest compliment ever because I think she’s one of the greatest living songwriters,” Rodrigo said. SZA has been open in the past about the anxiety she has faced in the process of creating and releasing new music. Five years passed between her generation-defining debut CTRL and its follow-up, SOS. It was worth the wait, and SZA only became more perceptive as an artist and a person during that time. She has been vocally anti-AI in music and has expressed concern about the fracturing of connection and the dissolution of empathy. 

“We aren’t empowered by a sense of community and solidarity,” SZA told I-D earlier this year. “We don’t have it.” If there’s one place connection may prevail, even under the threat of AI, it’s music. “I’m not up against the pop girls. I’m not up against the R&B girls. I’m up against anti-intellectualism and doing things easy,” she said. “The type of blend of information my human experience provides, AI can’t even be prompted to fuck with.” She finds it easy to uplift and celebrate her peers and the generation coming up next because she recognizes the battle they’re all fighting together. An algorithm might be able to tell you what’s hot, but SZA has a knack for knowing what’s next.