"PSA" | |
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Song by SZA | |
from the album SOS (deluxe) | |
Written | 2022 |
Released | January 5, 2023 |
Recorded | 2022 |
Length | 1:38 |
Label | |
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Teaser | |
"PSA" on YouTube |
"PSA" (also called "Potting Season") is a song by American singer-songwriter SZA reported to appear on the deluxe edition of her 2022 second studio album, SOS . The song is backed by vocal harmonies, soft piano, and harps. On it, SZA raps with braggadocio, demanding people call her "number one", telling them to serve her, and angering someone to amuse herself. "PSA" was used for the official teaser for SOS, yet despite this, the song did not appear on the final track list for the standard edition.
The song was released on January 5, 2023, as one of two bonus songs on a limited-edition digital version of SOS, available only on Top Dawg Entertainment's online shop. SZA planned "PSA" for inclusion on the standard track list of SOS but was stopped by her label Top Dawg's president, Punch, because it did not fit with his vision for the album. After its website-exclusive release, the song was performed during the SOS Tour as the concert opener and at a surprise concert
SZA's 2017 studio album, Ctrl , was met with widespread critical acclaim upon its release, and it has been credited with bringing her mainstream fame. Many critics have written that Ctrl was a boundary-pushing album for the contemporary R&B genre, making her a prominent figure in contemporary pop and R&B music. [note 1] SZA began appearing in collaborations and film soundtracks after the album's release, which fueled media speculation on when her next one, SOS , would arrive. [8] [9] Speculation heightened when she released "Hit Different" and the lead single "Good Days", her first work as a solo artist in five years, in 2020. [10]
Within the following years, SZA began releasing the next singles from the album, starting with "I Hate U" in 2021 and "Shirt" in October 2022, which she had been teasing since 2020. [11] Upon releasing "Shirt", she posted on Twitter to reveal that it was finally "album time", [12] and outlets surmised that it would have a December release upon noticing that a car had the date written on the license plate. [13] [14] Later on November 8, during SZA's 33rd birthday, she celebrated the occasion by uploading a video to her YouTube account, which uses a snippet of a song titled "PSA", reposting it on social media with the caption "clock starts now." [15]
One of SZA's visions for the album was to create orchestral music with simple production, but she wanted it to also sound aggressive. [16] Sometime in 2022, when producer Carter Lang met with Will Miller alongside two other producers for joint recording sessions, they decided to create around 20 demos that featured the sound SZA wanted, inspired by what Lang described to Rolling Stone Music Now as "very minimal" and "beautifully haunting" orchestral pieces. Among the demos were "PSA", also called "Potting Season", alongside the standard edition track "Blind". After they arranged the layering on the demos, they sent the songs to SZA for her to write lyrics. [17]
The instruments in "PSA" consist of soft piano [18] and harps, [19] alongside several background vocal harmonies. [20] SZA raps the lyrics with braggadocio: she demands people call her nothing but the "number one" and serve her, admitting to insisting this because she needs to curb feelings of envy [19] [21] and find a way to cope with her problems: "I don't know how to take losses / Even when, even when they are lost causes." [22] Later, she proceeds to anger someone for her own pleasure—"pissing you off just to get off"—then mocks certain "bottom feeders" who "suck dick by the liter", perceiving them as of less value than her. [15] She closes the song with the lines: "You should go cry about it, not trying to fight about it." [20] [18]
The "PSA" teaser for SOS was directed by Bradley J. Calder, [23] with pyrotechnic and luminescent visual effects by Rick Braukis. [24] Nearly two minutes long, [25] it features alternating shots of SZA in two scenes: in one, she wears a brown bikini and crouches in a ring of neon green fire, and in the other, she pours blue, fluorescent liquid over her naked self by a beach. [24] [20] As the teaser ends, she makes her way towards the sea, and the video cuts to black before playing Morse code for the SOS distress signal. [22]
SOS was released on December 9, 2022, and despite being used for the teaser, "PSA" was not one of the 23 songs that made the final cut. [26] SZA said that Punch, president of her label Top Dawg Entertainment, encouraged to excludes unreleased tracks like "PSA" on the standard edition despite her and her fans' wishes because it did not fit with his vision for SOS. [27] [28] According to SZA, he told her that the song sounded "too much like 'Blind'" and "people [would] get bored of hearing" it, saying that only one of them should be on the track list. [16] As a response, she suggested that "PSA" could be a bonus track on the album's deluxe edition. [29] The edition developed into an album reissue she called Lana , which would consist of at least seven songs that were either new music or SOS outtakes. However, after certain songs intended for Lana were leaked, SZA changed her plans and said in 2024 that the deluxe edition would become separate from Lana and include all the leaks and songs she previously teased. [30] [31]
SOS debuted atop the US Billboard 200 chart, SZA's first to do so, keeping Taylor Swift's Midnights (2022) off the top and spending ten weeks at number one. [32] [33] The tracking week ending January 6, 2023, marked SOS's fourth week at number one, and there was a possibility that Midnights might overtake the album for the fifth week. [34] On January 5, when tracking was about to end, SZA and Swift released digital versions of their albums, containing exclusive bonus material, to would boost their respective chart performances. [35] In SZA's case, she made a limited-edition version of SOS available for purchase only on Top Dawg's website. The version consisted of all 23 songs from the standard edition alongside two previously unreleased songs: the solo version of "Open Arms" and "PSA". [19] [36]
The first live performance of "PSA" was during the SOS Tour, debuting it at her concert at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, on February 21, 2023. [37] Her set lists for the European and North American legs started with "PSA", which she performed as she recreated the album cover art on stage, atop a diving board with a screen behind her that projected a video of the ocean. [38] [39] When she was done with the song, she appeared to dive onto the stage floor. [40] SZA also played "PSA" during a RSVP-only album celebration event in Brooklyn, New York, in September 2023 as the third out of seven songs on the set list, which included three other songs intended for the deluxe edition. [41]
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer and songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent references to contemporary pop culture and 1950s–1970s Americana. Her vintage Hollywood glamour aesthetic is showcased in her music videos. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an MTV Video Music Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards, two Brit Awards, two Billboard Women in Music, and a Satellite Award, in addition to nominations for eleven Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Variety honored her at their Hitmakers Awards for being "one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 21st century". Rolling Stone placed Del Rey on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time (2023), and Rolling Stone UK named her The Greatest American Songwriter of the 21st century (2023).
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