In recent tweets, SZA revealed that a magazine refused to let her book a Black photographer for a photoshoot.
SZA has been on fire lately. From finally dropping new music with her singles “Hit Different” and “Good Days”, and appearing on song of the summer contender “Kiss Me More” by Doja Cat, the R&B singer is seemingly everywhere these days. Clearly in-demand, it appears many magazines are looking to book SZA for their covers as well, but SZA seems to be drawing the line with some understandable requests.
The “Broken Clocks” singer tweeted out this week that she turned down an opportunity to appear in a magazine after the publication refused to link her up with a Black photographer for the shoot.
Read More: Doja Cat and SZA stun in out of this world Billboard Music Awards performance
In the now-viral tweets, SZA details her experience with the still-unnamed publication. She wrote, “I requested a black photographer for a cover n the mag told me no lol its 2021.. and almost Juneteenth . Respectfully I can’t do it,” along with some emojis. While some of her followers called for SZA to out the publication, SZA seemed disinterested in doing so. She responded to a fan that asked her to “expose” them by writing, “Das not my vibe but there’s TOO many elite black creatives rn to not allow it.”
Still, SZA gave an epic shoutout to recent covers she’s done that she feels “got it right” and hired Black photographers for her shoot, including Rolling Stone. She wrote in a tweet, “S/o @RollingStone@Cosmopolitan and @wonderlandmag btw for all using black photogs in our recent covers gotta celebrate when it’s RIGHT too !”
In her Wonderland spread from last summer, SZA opened up about creative control specifically when it comes to magazine covers, and why she chose to work with that publication. She said at the time, “The only reason is because I get creative control over this whole spread and I get to take my own pictures for once in my life. I get to dress how I wanna dress and light myself how I wanna light myself. When you don’t get to decide how people see you, or what is even beauty to you, or anyone else… Through the lens of someone else it can just get real dangerous.”
She also opened up about the runaway success of her debut album Ctrl, saying at the time, “I wasn’t moved by the success of Ctrl, because it felt the same way it felt when I made anything else of mine. I was more just grateful and blown away that people were touched by it.”
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!