SZA Has Potential EP of Rap Songs, TDE President Says

SZA displayed a tremendous amount of versatility on her latest sophomore album, S.O.S.

Containing songs of the pop, R&B, rock, and hip-hop variety, SZA’s 23-song December album was just more of the same, according to TDE president Terrence “Punch” Henderson Jr. Being in charge of the label SZA has always been signed to, Punch insists that she has always presented her multi-faceted sound.

In a recent interview with Elliott Wilson and Brian “B.Dot” Miller of Rap Radar, Punch explained that rock songs like “F2F” on S.O.S. were made possible by the rock-influenced tracks on her 2017 debut, Ctrl.

“She’s always done it, but a lot of it don’t get highlighted like other records would,” he said. “She did ‘Drew Barrymore’ on Ctrl. She also had ‘Prom’ on there.”

Continuing on this tangent around the 5-minute mark of the interview, Punch explained that the hip-hop songs present on S.O.S. are not unfamiliar territory for SZA either.

“Even before that other stuff, she’s always bended the genre, so it wasn’t nothing new, it was just going, pushing it further. Like, she doing full rap records now,” he said.

“Smokin’ on My Ex Pack,” “Blind,” “Low,” “SOS,” and “Forgiveless” all see SZA deliver thrilling rap bars and flows. Truly displaying her comfortability and capacity as a rapper, these tracks off her latest LP are just the tip of the iceberg for SZA as an emcee, Punch suggests.

“That’s all her,” he said. “She got like maybe—she got like a EP’s worth of full rap records, like all the way out, no singing.”

Aside from this quote, though, Punch did not divulge much more information about an impending rap release from SZA. However, SZA currently plans to release a 10-song deluxe version of S.O.S., which she recently revealed in an interview with Billboard.

It remains to be seen if the deluxe will include more hip-hop songs from SZA. But either way, it will surely see her put her expansive arsenal of multi-genre skills to use. Check out Punch’s interview with Rap Radar below.

Photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage