The R&B singer may be considering retirement, but her latest album features one of her most searing and successful songs
Published : 20 Apr 2023, 07:30 PM
Anyone on the internet should already know ‘Kill Bill’ by SZA. Like Taylor Swift’s ‘Anti-Hero’ and Miley Cyrus’s ‘Flowers’, the song took TikTok by storm, giving SZA her first Top 5 song as a solo artist and making her the 11th most streamed artist on Spotify for a time. It is, by quite a way, her biggest solo hit and the signature song on her sophomore album SOS.
A wailing mellotron flute gives away to a groovy, slow-tempo R&B feel with a plucking bass and pleasing drums. Despite the laid-back instrumentation, the lyrics are like an open wound.
Taking its title from the Tarantino movie where Uma Thurman hunts down her ex-boyfriend, 'Kill Bill' delves into SZA’s violent jealousy at her ex and his new partner. She’s tortured by love, fear, jealousy, and obsession, saying that she despises seeing her ex happy if she isn’t the one giving him that happiness.
In the chorus she even fantasises about killing him and his new girlfriend, saying: “I might kill my ex, I still love him though; Rather be in jail than alone.”
The song exemplifies the dark, tortured thoughts that can follow a bad breakup. SZA says that SOS is likely to be her last album. It would be a shame to lose her, especially as she's coming into her own as an artist, but at least she is going out on a high note.
This article is part of Stripe, bdnews24.com's special publication focusing on culture and society from a youth perspective.