Simply weeks after the discharge of her Lana challenge, SZA has teased plans for her subsequent musical endeavors, hinting that it might merely be a ploy to fulfill the calls for of her recording contract.
SZA shared these plans in a Tweet on Saturday (Jan. 4), wherein she additional mused that her subsequent two data may additionally be her final. “To meet my final 2 album necessities I believe I simply wanna make peaceable youngsters’s music n get outta right here,” she wrote. “Then [I’ll] go be a farmer n donate the produce to underserved communities.”
Although it’s troublesome to find out whether or not SZA’s feedback had been made in earnest or with a way of enjoyable, recording albums merely to satisfy contractual obligations is way from a brand new enterprise.
Forward of the discharge of 1968’s now-iconic Astral Weeks album, Van Morrison had tried to depart his former label Bang Information by recording 36 tracks that may fulfill his obligations and permit his launch from the label. Regardless of recording songs about sandwiches and ringworm on an out-of-tune guitar, the tracks had been deemed “nonsense” and never formally launched till 2017.
One other well-known instance happened when Marvin Gaye‘s divorce from Anna Gordy Gaye got here to a head in 1977. As a part of the authorized proceedings, a deal was struck by Gaye’s lawyer to provide his ex-wife 50% of the royalties of his subsequent file. Although Gaye had initially deliberate to easily make a “quickie file — nothing heavy, nothing even good”, his perfectionism resulted in an album that, whereas not a industrial success, turned a well-respected a part of his discography.
Presently, SZA’s discography boasts two studio albums – together with 2017’s Ctrl and 2022’s Billboard 200-topping SOS – and deluxe editions of every file. It’s not recognized, nevertheless, what number of albums her contract requires her to ship.
The deluxe version of SOS, dubbed Lana, was launched on Dec. 20 and has since seen the album clock up its twelfth week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart. In consequence, it now holds the honour of boasting probably the most weeks atop the chart for an R&B/hip-hop album by a lady.
Lana featured an extra 15 songs prepended to the unique file, although SZA has since advised followers that the deluxe version can be altered with new mixes. On Dec. 30, she shared that “up to date mixes and new songs” shall be added as soon as her label “comes again from vacation”.
