SZA has always played around with various genres in her music, particularly on 2022’s SOS, and she believes she’s often reduced to being only an R&B artist because she’s Black.
In an interview with Dazed, the singer-songwriter opened up about being labeled an “R&B artist” and how she thinks that doesn’t fully express who she is as an artist. “The only reason I’m defined as an R&B artist is because I’m Black. It’s almost a little reductive because it doesn’t allow space to be anything else or try anything else,” she explained. “Justin Bieber is not considered an R&B artist; he is a pop artist who makes R&B, folk music, or whatever his heart desires.”
Her most recent album, SOS, gleefully hops around genres, toying with everything from hip-hop and soul to folk and indie rock. It draws from a little bit of everything that’s influenced SZA.
“I simply just want to be allowed the same opportunity to make whatever I want without a label, [without it being] based on the colour of my skin, or the crew that I run with, or the beats that I choose,” she continued. “I want ‘F2F’ to be seen as what it is. I want ‘Nobody Gets Me’ to be seen as what it is. I want ‘Kill Bill’ to be seen as what it is.”
View news Source: https://www.complex.com/music/a/backwoodsaltar/sza-labeled-rnb-because-shes-black
