Photo Credit: Joseph Okpako/WireImage
Months after SZA hinted towards her sophomore album, she got into a Twitter shade-off with TDE President Terrence "Punch" Henderson Jr.
It looks like there won't be a "SZA summer" anytime soon. One month after honoring the five-year anniversary of her debut album Ctrl with a deluxe edition, on Wednesday (July 20), the singer went to Instagram to answer a fan who's anticipating her next album.
“Congrats on the collab but Summer is almost over and there’s still no album,” the fan said. “Please don’t tell me you lied again.”
The Grammy-winning vocalist, whose real name is Solana Rowe, responding by putting the weight on Top Dawg Entertainment president Terrence "Punch" Henderson Jr. and RCA Records.
“it’s 100% punch and rca on this one,” she wrote. “I wanted the summer. They wanted more time. Atp I’m just tryna have a good time stress free lol.”
Punch apparently caught wind of the interaction, retweeting it on Twitter with the comment, "Starting to get tired of this. Getting tired of the whole business.”
The tweet went viral, with fans of the "Good Days" singer demanding an explanation about the delay. Shortly after Punch's tweet, SZA clapped back, saying, "We all tired."
Punch has since questioned fans, asking, "what do you feel you are owed besides music when it's presented?"
In a separate tweet that has since been deleted (see below,) the label exec offered "a bit of context." According to Punch, the singer and TDE's top brass originally agreed on a summer release for the Ctrl follow-up. However, once RCA got involved, the album's release was pushed back to "set everything up, giving it its proper space and lead time."
Source: Twitter
Five years before Kendrick Lamar announced that his latest album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers would be his final release on TDE, in October 2016, Rowe said in a since-deleted tweet that she was quitting TDE citing issues with her debut album.
“I actually quit,” she tweeted at the time. “@iamstillpunch can release my album if he ever feels like it. Y’all be blessed.”
Instead of responding to the singer directly, Punch responded with a picture of the Joker and captioned "Lol."
In August 2020, SZA tweeted that her relationship with TDE was "hostile" and that went asked about the release of her Ctrl follow-up, Punch answered "soon."
“At this point y’all gotta ask punch,” she said. “I’ve done all I can do.”
When fans questioned Punch, he responded, “I am a person and you guys are hurting my feelings. I’m gonna remember you n***as once the meet and greets pop off again.”
