“Don’t Nobody Need to Free Me:” SZA Responds to #FreeSZA Hashtag Started By Her Fans

SZA admitted that her relationship with the label is “hostile.” She then walked back some of those comments.

It’s been over three years since SZA released her Grammy-nominated album Ctrl, and her fans are awaiting new music. On Thursday, fans launched an online campaign after the Top Dawg Entertainment signee shed some light on her hiatus.

In response to a tweet asking about new music, she revealed that the sabbatical isn’t of her own doing. “At this point y’all gotta ask (TDE’s president Terrence Henderson) Punch,” she wrote in the now-deleted tweet. “I’ve done all I can do.”

User @deavnteb posed the question, “would you say this is an adverse or hostile relationship orrr just out of your hands = you don’t know,” SZA replied “BEEN hostile.” In turn, fans went to Punch’s profile. “I am a person,” he tweeted. “And you guys are hurting my feelings.” When asked directly about new music, he simply replied “soon.” “This is all he says to me as well,” SZA replied to that tweet, “welcome to my fucking life.”

After her tweets went viral, and the hashtag #FreeSZA started to trend, the singer returned to social media to clarify some things.

Back in 2016, the singer sparked retirement rumors when she tweeted then deleted a post simply saying “I actually quit.” In a 2018 interview with Flaunt, she said her next album could be her last.

“My world got so much smaller so fast,” she said. “I have so much to write about. I feel like I’m in a cage. I’m making the best album of my life for this next album and I know that…because it’s going to be my last album.”

This story was updated on August 21st, 2020