SZA’s Moved On to Bigger, Better Things Since That Grammys Snub (and You Should Too)

janvier 10, 2021

SZA's Moved On to Bigger, Better Things Since That Grammys Snub (and You Should Too)

As if to prove how chill she is, SZA decides that yoga is the thing we'll do together for her cover interview. It's a relief—and not just because it gives me something to talk about that isn't Zoom—but because at some point in the planning process, the word "exercise" had been casually thrown around, and Solána Imani Rowe (the singer, rapper, and songwriter you know as SZA, pronounced "sizza") is a formally trained gymnast and dancer. And me? I'm a seven-months-pregnant informally trained regular human being.

So here is SZA on the other side of my laptop screen, in her bright and spacious Los Angeles home, wearing a long-sleeve orange crop top and neon-green biker shorts. She's picking out a soundtrack for our 20-minute class: Don Toliver, TiaCorine, and NAV. And that's about when I realize that, as it turns out, "chill" is a relative term for SZA—more of a quest than a reality.

"They just stress you out in a 100-degree room and transform your mind, body, and spirit—and also somehow make you ripped," she says, describing the kind of yoga she usually practices.

Standing next to her is body-ripping instructor Shannon Nadj, who's leading us through poses. I can barely hear them over the background beats, hoping they can barely hear the moans and groans coming from my room-temperature NYC apartment.

READ ON