SZA Teases Plans for ‘Peaceful Children’s Music’ to Fulfill Record Contract

Just weeks after the release of her Lana project, SZA has teased plans for her next musical endeavors, hinting that it may simply be a ploy to satisfy the demands of her recording contract.

SZA shared these plans in a Tweet on Saturday (Jan. 4), in which she further mused that her next two records may also be her last. “To fulfill my last 2 album requirements I think I just wanna make peaceful children’s music n get outta here,” she wrote. “Then [I’ll] go be a farmer n donate the produce to underserved communities.”

Though it’s difficult to determine whether SZA’s comments were made in earnest or with a sense of fun, recording albums simply to meet contractual obligations is far from a new undertaking.

Ahead of the release of 1968’s now-iconic Astral Weeks album, Van Morrison had attempted to leave his former label Bang Records by recording 36 tracks that would fulfill his obligations and allow his release from the label. Despite recording songs about sandwiches and ringworm on an out-of-tune guitar, the tracks were deemed “nonsense” and not officially released until 2017.

Another famous example came about when Marvin Gaye‘s divorce from Anna Gordy Gaye came to a head in 1977. As part of the legal proceedings, a deal was struck by Gaye’s lawyer to give his ex-wife 50% of the royalties of his next record. Though Gaye had initially planned to simply make a “quickie record — nothing heavy, nothing even good”, his perfectionism resulted in an album that, while not a commercial success, became a well-respected part of his discography.

Currently, SZA’s discography boasts two studio albums – including 2017’s Ctrl and 2022’s Billboard 200-topping SOS – and deluxe editions of each record. It’s not known, however, how many albums her contract requires her to deliver.

The deluxe edition of SOS, dubbed Lana, was released on Dec. 20 and has since seen the album clock up its 12th week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart. As a result, it now holds the honor of boasting the most weeks atop the chart for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman.

Lana featured an additional 15 songs prepended to the original record, though SZA has since told fans that the deluxe edition would be altered with new mixes. On Dec. 30, she shared that “updated mixes and new songs” will be added once her label “comes back from holiday”.