SZA Says ‘SOS’ Album Would’ve Had More Features If She Wasn’t Ghosted

It’s been a long five years, but SZA’s highly-anticipated album, SOS, is days away. Admittedly, its arrival has the Top Dawg Entertainment songbird cautious. “Part of me doesn’t even want this to come out,” the 33-year-old shared with Hot 97.

The 23-track LP has features from Phoebe Bridgers, Don Toliver, Travis Scott, and even a posthumous verse from ODB. She expected even more features, but that didn’t work out due to a classic case of ghosting.

More from VIBE.com

• SZA Is Somberly Solo In "Nobody Gets Me" Music Video

• Hangout Festival Taps SZA, Lil Nas X, GloRilla, FERG And More For 2023 Lineup

• Keke Palmer Says Her Parents Shielded Her From Exploitation As A Child

“For a lot of these people, I didn’t turn in my verse—so I can’t be too mad,” SZA explained. “But also, in the same token, it’s like, ‘Damn this sucks, I really needed you. I wish you showed up for me.’ But I’m sure they felt the same way for me.”

As for Scott, who also appeared on her debut album CTRL, the New Jersey native expressed, “I really appreciate that he’s just a consistent friend in my life and really believes in me as an artist. I’m grateful Phoebe showed up for me, I didn’t think she would come to the studio in person. She did, which is crazy. We laughed, it’s just hilarious.”

For OBD’s appearance on the LP’s final track, we have Rodney Jerkins to thank. “It was definitely like, ‘I doubt that this is going to be allowed to be on the album,’ but it surprisingly was,” SZA detailed. “I talked to his estate. It really just came from a piece of documentary footage from Rodney Jerkins, and he was sweet enough to let me use that. [Ol’ Dirty Bastard] was freestyling in the back of the footage, so I took the audio.”

One notable absence from SOS was Doja Cat on “Shirt,” which was first announced back in July. However, the “Kiss Me More” star didn’t record her verse for health reasons. “She had surgery, she had to have that emergency, like, vocal cord surgery and she wasn’t ready in the time that we needed to get the song done,” SZA revealed.

The singer remains hopeful that the “Shirt” remix will still happen. “There was a crossfire between, I think, her management and my management and they had told us it was done, but it wasn’t actually done. It was just a lot of confusion, but don’t know. I hope for the best, and I’m still, like, a major fan of her and her artistry. And I think she’s so incredible and I would love to get her on the deluxe [version].”

Watch the video for the original track above. SOS will be available on all streaming platforms this Friday (Dec.9).

Click here to read the full article.