It’s probably not unprecedented but certainly rare for an artist to have two hits songs in one year as drastically opposite as SZA’s in 2023: one about killing an ex-lover, another about being so in love she’d kill for them. But such is the duality of SZA: “Kill Bill” and “Snooze,” No. 2 and No. 10 on the Hitmakers Top 25 of 2023, are from the same album and the same person, and represent the different places her intuitive songwriting can land. (Head here for much more on SZA’s big 2023 and here for her musical influences.)
The instrumental track was written by Rob Bisel and Carter Lang before weeks before their session with SZA. “One day, Rob came over and played me a chord progression he recorded on his synth at home — it was blissfully hypnotic and I was instantly inspired,” Lang recalls. “He left me with it, and I initially went with a 16th note hi-hat feel, bouncey kicks and tight 808 snares, but it needed a fresher approach. I started importing some of my favorite sounds from vintage drum machines — the new pattern had a slightly more swing feel, and I started shifting the entire rhythm. I cued up the drum kit and put down a complimenting rhythm, then came an electric bass, then guitar tones. Then I found a section to pitch the music down an octave, and made the drums twice as slow. The original beat was comprised of those two sections and called ‘Igloo.’”
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“Weeks later, we were in the studio at the end of the night and played her several ideas, including the ‘Igloo’ beat.” That night, according to a voice note SZA found on her phone, in July of 2022.
Bisel picks up the story. “She asked me to pull that beat back up, and she was just sitting there quietly on her phone in the back of the studio. I didn’t really know if she was writing or just scrolling through Instagram. But after 10 minutes of silence, she was like, ‘OK, I got this idea for this song. It might be a little too crazy, but let me know what you think.’
“And then she sang, ‘I just killed my ex’ and the whole hook from that point on. Her lyric and melody was written from top to bottom in no more than an hour, right there on the spot. And the finished record is pretty much the vocals from the one or two takes we did that night. It just kind of fell out of the sky, and I remember driving home that night thinking, ‘Wow, this is without a doubt the best song I’ve ever been a part of,’ and I was listening to it on repeat the whole next day.”
Surprisingly, SZA wasn’t that impressed. “I hated it,” she says, but then clarifies, “Well, I didn’t hate it. But I was like, ‘Can I say this? Is it silly?’ Rob was like, ‘You have to say it!’ So I sent it to my homegirl, and she was like, ‘I don’t know. I think you should maybe say something to clarify.’ I was really scared that people would harm each other, ’cause some people are fucking strange. But it was a joke.”
Clearly, it’s a joke that resounded with millions of people — it became her first No. 1 single and her biggest hit to date.
RCA’s Carolyn Williams says, “As with most hits, it’s really a team effort. The fans let us know that this was a hit record by the sheer volume of streaming we saw on the song upon the album’s release. We took the ball from there and followed up with an incredible music video and multiple versions of the song, including a remix featuring Doja Cat, and SZA kept on delivering with her killer performances while on tour.”
While a completely different kind of song, “Snooze” has a similar origin story. Co-writer and co-producer BLK says, “I made the initial idea for ‘Snooze’ in a strange, limbo time in my life. I was 17 years old, staying at my aunt’s house temporarily through the Scottish winter, with a minimal setup in a makeshift studio. I had been working very closely with [co-writer/producer] Leon Thomas, and the opportunity came about to come up with some ideas for SZA, who was going to be working with Babyface on some music. I knew the dreamy and smooth aspects of her sound were the route I wanted to go down — a more traditional R&B route that incorporated the aspects of her sound. The whole record felt like an embodiment of this period in my life — cold winter nights, a small temporary studio, a new environment and having something to prove at such a young age. Once I’d finished the original idea, I sent it over to Leon.”
From there, Thomas, Babyface and Khris Riddick-Tynes finished the song quickly, in a way similar to “Kill Bill.” Riddick-Tynes recalls, “I was in Atlanta when I got the call from Babyface to co-produce his “Girls Night Out” album, telling me that the first session with SZA was the following day. Rushing back to L.A., I did the drums on the flight, and the next day, with the collaborative efforts of Leon, BLK, and Babyface, we brought the track over the finish line — the song flowed out of her in 20 minutes. It was pure magic.”
For his part, Babyface says, “I don’t think she has any idea how incredible she is,” he told Rap Radar. “She’s one of the best that I’ve seen.”
Williams says, “We could see that this song was clearly a fan favorite from the time the album was released, and saw the amount of streaming activity that was happening organically,” which presented a dilemma. “My job was helping to pace ourselves because we were seeing such huge success with ‘Kill Bill.’
“It’s not easy to hold back on a hit,” she concludes “But it was important that we be strategic with when and how this record could be the next big story coming off the ‘SOS’ album and become the runaway hit it was destined to be.”
Kill Bill
Written by SZA, Rob Bisel, Carter Lang
Produced by Rob Bisel, Carter Lang
Hitmakers:
Rob Bisel (co-writer/producer)
Theola Borden (SVP brand and communications management, RCA Records)
Carter Lang (co-writer/producer)
Carolyn Williams (EVP, RCA Records)
Camille Yorrick (EVP visual content production, RCA Records)
Snooze
Written by SZA, Khris Riddick-Tynes, Blair Ferguson, Babyface, Leon Thomas, BLK
Produced by Babyface, Khris Riddick-Tynes, Leon Thomas, BLK
Hitmakers:
Babyface (co-writer/producer)
BLK (co-writer/producer)
Carlos Cuadros (VP digital marketing, RCA Records)
Khris Riddick-Tynes (co-writer/producer)
Leon Thomas (co-writer/producer)
Kill Bill publishers:
Solána Rowe Publishing Designee (BMI) Administered by TDE Publishing LLC/Songs Of Universal, Inc. / Bisel Creative Sound (BMI) Administered by Sony Songs / Carter Lang Publishing Designee (BMI) Administered by Zuma Tuna LLC/Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
Snooze publishers:
Solána Rowe Publishing Designee (BMI) Administered by TDE Publishing LLC/Songs Of Universal, Inc. / Dylan’s Way Music (BMI) Administered by Songs Of Kobalt Music Publishing / Sam Edmonds Songs (BMI) Administered by Reservoir 416 / Up10m’s Publishing (BMI) Administered by Concord Copyrights / Blair Ferguson Publishing Designee (PRS)