SZA May Have Just Retired From Music

Add SZA to the list of disgruntled young singers who face so many industry hurdles on the way to a debut album that they’re forced to throw their hands up. Despite dropping a string of critically acclaimed mixtapes over the last couple years, and recently landing features on the latest albums from Kendrick Lamar and Rihanna, SZA’s been in release purgatory pretty much since signing with rap-heavy label TDE.

And now it has hit “Sky Ferreira‘s first album” proportions. Her debut album A (following her prior releases S and Z) was on the TDE schedule earlier this year. But summer came and went with no SZA project. Things came to a head on Monday (October 3), when the first lady of TDE tweeted to label president Terrence “Punch” Henderson about the long timeline. “I actually quit . @iamstillpunch can release my album if he ever feels like it . Y’all be blessed .” She deleted the post, but here’s a screengrab:

TDE has a stellar roster but it isn’t exactly known for its business practices (remember the botched TPAB release?), and Punch’s apparent response doesn’t provide much of an indication for SZA that it’ll get any better on her end.

Lol. pic.twitter.com/EgQa4647NY

— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) October 3, 2016

Hopefully SZA isn’t actually hanging up the mic for good — just remember that if a musician says it on Twitter, it’s probably not true.