Pitchfork: As a listener, one of things I like most about your record is I feel like you’re the nerd that made it.
SZA: Oh, my God, Rihanna calls me her ghetto nerd. It’s so funny. I’m like, “What are you talking about?”
Pitchfork: It’s like you had the nerd experience and you’re now speaking from the other side. Do you think black women who are nerds don’t get a lot of representation?
That relatability is obviously a key theme of the convo, and SZA expands on what precisely she wants to communicate to her audience:SZA: Yes. I feel like people simplify black women to just an attitude, like we don’t take no shit. But there are so many emotions, so much fear and pressure, so much pride. We need to tap into that shit. I feel like it’s important to give women who aren’t black insight to know that we fight fears, insecurities. That we exist in all bounds. So many people meet and become friends at my shows that didn’t know each other before. I think they’re surprised when they come together and see each other.
Other talking points include the influence of Issa Rae and Insecure ("The way that she gives pep talks to herself; I would always do baby raps on the way to dealing with shit") as well as SZA's past relationships ("I was minding my business in Brooklyn, while he was in Vegas having an orgy. It’s been a strange time") punctuated with humourous asides ("I’m sorry, I burped. I’ve been burping all day.") You can read the whole interview here.Follow Noisey on Twitter.In one way, I want to heal people. In other ways, I don’t want to confuse people and have them feel like, “What does this mean?” When it gets too personal, even if it’s dark or crazy, it’s just scary. I don’t write about shit that didn’t happen to me, so it can be too much, but I have courage. I was thinking about putting all the shit that I was scared to put on my album onto the deluxe version and then disappearing. “The Weekend”—I got about four of them shits. I had no clue that people liked shit like that.