SZA | ||
| Allmusic Biography : American singer/songwriter SZA performs genre-blurring R&B; influenced by avant-garde jazz, alternative rock, and hardcore rap. Her major-label debut, 2017s Ctrl, helped SZA score the most nominations of any female at the 2018 Grammy awards. In addition, she was the key component on a handful of Top Ten pop hits from the likes of Maroon 5 ("What Lovers Do") and Kendrick Lamar ("All the Stars"). Born Solana Imani Rowe in St. Louis, Missouri in 1990, she was raised in New Jersey, where she excelled in high school gymnastics and cheerleading. After leaving college, Rowe shuffled around different jobs, recording on the side, until a fortuitous meeting in 2011 led to an introduction with Top Dawg Entertainment, home to Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q. The budding relationship would later bear fruit and help propel SZA into the mainstream. Inspired by the likes of Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Björk, and Wu-Tang Clan (whose RZA inspired her performing name), Rowe self-released her debut EP See.SZA.Run in late 2012, quickly followed by S in early 2013. The pair of EPs formed a dreamy, alluring, and occasionally unorthodox introduction to her alternative R&B; and neo-soul style. After maintaining contact over the years, Rowe eventually signed with Top Dawg and entered the studio to record her debut LP, all the while staying in the public eye with strategic features, touring, and EP releases. A fantasy-like video for the S EPs "Ice Moon" was released in November 2013, and additional exposure came shortly thereafter through "His & Her Friend," off labelmate ScHoolboy Qs Oxymoron. The digital-only Z, a trippy ten-track set with assists from Lamar, Chance the Rapper, and Isaiah Rashad, arrived in April 2014 and entered the Billboard 200 at number 39. Appearances on a string of well over a dozen tracks -- Travis Scotts "OK Alright," Rihannas "Consideration," and Lamars "Untitled 04 | 08.14.2014" among them -- followed in 2015 and 2016. Signed to major-label RCA, Rowe issued the critically acclaimed Ctrl in June 2017. Featuring collaborations with Pharrell Williams, Frank Dukes, and Top Dawg regular Tyran Donaldson (aka the Antydote and Scum), the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and topped the R&B;/hip-hop chart. Platinum-certified, Ctrl garnered five nominations at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Urban Contemporary Album. She followed the albums success with "What Lovers Do," a Top Ten hit collaboration with Maroon 5, as well as a spot with Khalid and Post Malone on a remix of Lordes "Homemade Dynamite." In early 2018, Rowe appeared with Lamar on the shimmering "All the Stars," the lead single from the chart-topping soundtrack to the film Black Panther. That year, she also joined Cardi B on the rappers "I Do." In 2019 she collaborated with Travis Scott and the Weeknd on the track "Power Is Power" from For the Throne, a compilation of music inspired by HBOs Game of Thrones series. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 5 Title: See.SZA.Run Released: 2012-10-29 Tracks: 7 Duration: 24:08 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Bed (04:19) 2 Euphraxia (03:20) 3 Advil (03:02) 4 Time Travel Undone (03:06) 5 Crack Dreams (03:01) 6 Country (04:29) 7 Once Upon a High (02:51) |
 | Album: 2 of 5 Title: S Released: 2013-04-10 Tracks: 8 Duration: 28:09 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Castles (03:02) 2 TERROR.DOME (04:26) 3 AFTERMATH (03:38) 4 THE ODYSSEY (03:22) 5 PRAY (03:18) 6 ICE.MOON (03:10) 7 WINGS (04:26) 8 KISMET (outro) (02:47) |
 | Album: 3 of 5 Title: Z Released: 2014-04-08 Tracks: 10 Duration: 40:41 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Ur (03:55) 2 Childs Play (03:36) 3 Julia (03:39) 4 Warm Winds (05:50) 5 HiiiJack (03:42) 6 Green Mile (03:34) 7 Babylon (03:54) 8 Sweet November (04:03) 9 Shattered Ring (04:05) 10 Omega (04:23) |
| Z : Allmusic album Review : The release of Z, Solana Rowes Top Dawg debut, trailed that of labelmate ScHoolboy Qs Oxymoron, on which she contributed to "His & Her Friend" with her typically dreamy-drowsy melodies. Previously, Rowe made quiet waves with the self-released, low bit-rate digital download S, as well as fantasy-like video for the track "Ice Moon," an alternately booming and fluttering track. For Z, she sticks to elusiveness with a soft focus over largely amorphous productions granted by the likes of Toro y Moi and Mac Miller, as well as Emile Haynie (Lana Del Rey, Bruno Mars), the last of whom handles three of the tracks within the second half. On "Sweet November," she uses Marvin Gayes "Mandota." Its woozy drift snaps right into place with the rest of the material, as Rowe thinks up space cadet thoughts to match, opening with "Jesus called me collect last night." When Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, and Isaiah Rashad are added to the mix, Rowe seems even more like an instrument rather than a lead voice, but its all comforting, if not revealing, made more for background or late-night listening than complete emotional immersion. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 5 Title: Ctrl Released: 2017-06-09 Tracks: 14 Duration: 49:05 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Supermodel (03:01) 2 Love Galore (04:35) 3 Doves in the Wind (04:26) 4 Drew Barrymore (03:51) 5 Prom (03:16) 6 The Weekend (04:32) 7 Go Gina (02:42) 8 Garden (Say It Like Dat) (03:28) 9 Broken Clocks (03:51) 10 Anything (02:29) 11 Wavy (interlude) (01:16) 12 Normal Girl (04:14) 13 Pretty Little Birds (04:06) 14 20 Something (03:18) |
| Ctrl : Allmusic album Review : Solana Rowes proper debut album, due to its title, invites comparisons to Janet Jacksons 1986 personal and commercial breakout. Its an individual statement, however, one distinct from even the contemporary likes of Kehlanis SweetSexySavage. Placed beside only Z, its three-year-old prelude, Ctrl is the work of a considerably less-inhibited songwriter. Rowe likewise truly fronts these frank songs that wield power as they lament lonesomeness, insecurity, and inertia. She neither projects slight wisps nor obscures herself inside swirling synthesizers, yet she oversells not a single thought. On screen, a slight shrug from her would probably devastate an expectant admirer. In the slow-motion hip-hop soul of "Doves in the Wind," featuring a hectoring verse from fellow TDE artist Kendrick Lamar, Rowe schools inapt and inept male behavior, offering intimate counsel and acerbic derision in a uniquely offhanded style. As assured as she is in this mode, shes not too proud to test a partner ("Call me on my bullshit, lie to me and say my booty gettin bigger even if it aint"), express personal dissatisfaction ("All alone still, not a thing in my name"), or plainly grieve ("Do you even know Im alive?"). The production crew here is almost completely different from the one involved on Z, with TDE regular Tyran Donaldson (aka Antydote and Scum) the lone holdover, present on seven tracks. For every overdone trap trick, theres a couple of sly wrinkles, like the thick, chiming groove in "Go Gina," where Rowe brilliantly illustrates a specific kind of fatigue ("Picking up a penny with a press-on is easier than holding you down") and the woozy, decayed synthesizer line in the Travis Scott-assisted single "Love Galore," ideal for a song about rekindling a dead-end affair. This is a marked improvement and an indication of more great work to come. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 5 Title: Consideration (Dance Remixes) Released: 2017-12-08 Tracks: 6 Duration: 20:42 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Consideration (MK remix) (03:55) 2 Consideration (Dirty South remix) (03:37) 3 Consideration (Mangal Suvarnan remix) (03:26) 4 Consideration (James Carter remix) (02:37) 5 Consideration (Will Clarke remix) (03:44) 6 Consideration (Stafford Brothers remix) (03:23) |