On Wednesday SZA announced a climate-focused partnership with American Forests and TAZO called Tree Corps. She’s also giving fans a reason to be hopeful about the impending arrival of new music.
During an interview with CBS This Morning in connection with the climate justice initiative, SZA—whose debut studio album CTRL arrived to acclaim back in 2017—noted she’s been in the studio on a frequent basis as of late.
“New music is literally on the way,” she said on Wednesday. “I haven’t slept. I’m coming directly from the studio right now. It’s like, I think, 5 a.m. I left the studio at, like, 3:30. So music is on the way.”
Elsewhere, SZA reflected on not often going back to previous entries in her catalog as a listener herself (“It makes me feel strange”) and addressed the TikTok popularity of a recent snippet fans have dubbed “Shirt.”
Last year, SZA gave fans two singles, the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “Good Days” and the Ty Dolla sign collab “Hit Different.”
As for the TAZO Tree Corps, the initiative furthers the tea brand’s commitment to fighting for climate justice. The Tree Corps, in short, consists of a paid and locally hired workforce that will use tree planting and maintenance to help in the fight against climate change while also creating new jobs.
“Across the country, BIPOC communities are facing the worst effects of climate change because they live in neighborhoods that are disproportionately burdened with more pollutants and fewer trees,” SZA said in a press release detailing the Tree Corps plan. “Planting trees can help improve everything—from air quality to economic opportunity to mental health—and everybody deserves these benefits. I’m proud to partner with TAZO and American Forests to stand up for environmental justice and start making an impact in neighborhoods that need it the most.”
On the same day as the Tree Corps unveiling, SZA also spoke with Billboard about the effort, as well as the impact the ongoing pandemic has had on her creative process. In the same interview, she also reflected on her personal favorite music videos from her catalog: the acoustic rendition of “Hit Different/Good Days,” “Supermodel,” and “Love Galore.” As for the latter, SZA revealed that collaborator Travis Scott ultimately wasn’t a fan of the ending.
“I love the ‘Love Galore’ video, except when Travis [Scott] dies at the end,” she told Carl Lamarre. “He was really mad at me for that. It wasn’t my decision. It was supposed to be [based on] the movie Misery. I don’t know.”
Revisit that below:
