SZA shares new video for long-teased single 'Shirt'

SZA has released her long-awaited single 'Shirt' after teasing it in 2020 with the release of her music video for 'Good Days'. The song arrived with an action-packed music video directed by Dave Meyers that features SZA along with co-star LaKeith Stanfield, whom also features in the visualiser for 'I Hate U' released at the beginning of this year.

The video features Stanfield and SZA as partners in crime, machine guns in hand as they switch between Quentin Tarantino-esque scenes of a room full of pregnant nuns practicing yoga, a clown bleeding pink blood, a shot-dead SZA coming back to Earth to haunt the Clyde to her Bonnie, and more.

As the credits roll in the last minute of the video, SZA teases yet another single that she dubbed 'Blind'. In the short clip, SZA sings nonchalantly in the kitchen of the restaurant she ate at in the beginning of the video as the chef sharpens his knives that he earlier used to torture Stanfield's character. The clip is just long enough to give fans a solid but short taste of the song, hinting another release in the future.

The release follows the years of excitement from fans after a snippet of the song grew popular on TikTok. Users started calling the song 'Shirt' as a dance challenge surfaced from the single that even SZA herself came to the platform to participate in. The R&B singer tweeted that she was "fine" with the name users decided to label the song, and that she was "finalising" it in 2021.

Jus to keep y’all up to date w me my only priorities rn are Finalizing GOOD DAYS mv and shirt

— SZA (@sza) January 27, 2021

Originally, fans were under the impression that 'Shirt' was going to be released last Friday. On October 22 at midnight, Spotify dropped the song before almost immediately removing it from the platform before anyone could listen to it. After receiving intense criticism online for teasing fans and lying about the release date, SZA responded that "Spotify got confused" and that "mistakes happen". As promised, the song dropped on the platform permanently a week later.

Lol Spotify got it confused . Wasn’t us . All love on all sides . Mistakes happen . https://t.co/d6YXBggzsp

— SZA (@sza) October 22, 2022

In a recent cover story interview with Complex on her upcoming sophomore album, SZA spoke about working on 'Shirt' with producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins. Speaking of her lyricism, Jerkins remarked her "pen game is one of the best pen games in the game right now. It's almost like she's a rapper tied up in a vocalist," the American rapper and and record producer said. "There's no fear in her writing. She's gonna say whatever she wants to say, and that's what it is. And to me, that's the X factor."

SZA's 2017 debut album Ctrl was recently re-released with seven unreleased tracks as Ctrl (Deluxe) to celebrate its five year anniversary earlier this year.

Watch the music video for 'Shirt' here: