The saga of SZA’s long-delayed “Lana” album — which began as a deluxe edition of her Grammy-winning sophomore full-length “SOS,” then became its own album and has had a constantly shifting tracklist — took another turn early Wednesday as the singer announced on social media that due to three songs leaking, she’s going to release them and others as a deluxe edition after all, and says she’s going to start “Lana” “from scratch.”
In a since-deleted tweet Tuesday afternoon, SZA wrote, “Y’all leaked three songs from the deluxe. At this point, y’all can keep the throwaways and leaks. I’ll be starting ‘Lana’ from scratch. Do not ask me about it again,” adding a few minutes later, “I’ll round up the leaks y’all already got and u can have those. Seems like a fair deal. ENJOY.” That tweet was deleted shortly afterward.
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In the early hours of Wednesday morning, she wrote a series of tweets stating the same plan in more detail, confirming the deluxe edition of SOS will now feature “the leaks and outtakes” and Lana will be its own album. “Lana deserves more time and music no one’s ever heard before,” she wrote.
She called out a person named Janessa who leaked “unreleased pics and audio” and noted, “Being that this is material from ‘Lana,’ this prompted me to make a decision. I decided w all the leaks and me not knowing what someone has or doesn’t have it’s too complicated so I should jus consolidate the leaks and the outtakes and drop that as to not prolong the process and then focus on my next project as a win win for everybody.”
She continued, “And please be clear anybody defending a thief is weird as fuck. I don’t come in your job and take shit and fuck up your work. Why would that be okay? Where’s the home training? Nobody wants to prosecute a young woman. We’ve all asked very nicely for some time now.”
A rep for the singer had no further information about Janessa’s identity.
SZA has been plagued by leaks of her unfinished music throughout her career, and had fiery words for the perpetrators in an extensive Variety cover story last year.
“When people leak my songs, they ruin them,” she said. “Then it’s not mine anymore; it’s actually yours. It’s something unfinished that you decided was ready to be shared. And it’s like, ‘Fuck you. Now I’m not releasing it.’ Play your leak, but you’re not gonna bully me into dropping music. I’m now embarrassed by this less-than-correct version that you put out. You’ve sent me into a weird space creatively when you could have just waited for me, but you’re selfish.”
The now-deluxe edition of “SOS” has seemed different every time SZA has talked about it. She began mentioning an expanded version of the 23-track, hour-plus-long “SOS” shortly after that album dropped in December of 2022, and spoke about it with Variety.
In August of last year, she said, “It’s outtakes [from ‘SOS’] and new stuff, too — I added a couple of songs. It’s like a whole new project. It’s called ‘Lana’ — my name but, it’s the first tattoo that I ever got, when I was 13. It was 10 bucks a letter and I only had 40, so that that became my nickname for no reason. ‘Lana’ is really just the B-side of SOS.”
Asked if the song “Joni” would be on it — her tribute to Joni Mitchell that has been floating around on the internet for a couple of years — she said, “‘Joni’ is on it. Well, they leaked it, so I wasn’t gonna put it on there. I guess I should still… but they leaked it already. They ruined it. [Fans] already have it.”
A month later, on Sept. 8, she performed a free concert at the Brooklyn Navy Yard where she announced the album — “The deluxe is a whole ’nother album. It’s called ‘Lana.’ It’s seven to 10 songs and it’ll be out this fall.” Along with tracks from “SOS” and her debut full-length “Ctrl,” she performed three unreleased songs at the concert that have been dubbed by fans “Boy From South Detroit,” “Saturn” and “DTM” (also referred to as “Diamond Boy,” and played as a work in progress during her Rolling Stone interview last year), although most of the official titles remain unclear.
Then, during a second interview with Variety in November, she talked expansively, if no more conclusively, about “Lana.”
“I never get these things done until like the day before the deadline,” she laughed. “It became more than I thought. It was gonna be something really soft because I had made all my screaming points [on ‘SOS’], and I just wanted to glide and not think [too much], and just get out of my own head. I was so happy to say some shit that didn’t mean a fucking thing. But now it’s definitely turning it into its own album. I guess I could drop another album randomly, because no one’s actually expecting that from me right now.
The album seemed poised for release early in December, after she posted a series of photos that are apparently cover artwork for the release, each one bearing the familiar “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content” sticker.
Two weeks after she took home three Grammys (out of nine nominations for “SOS”), she released “Saturn” as a single on Feb. 22, which is presumably now the lead single from the deluxe edition — although after all of the above, anything could happen.
A rep for the singer had no further details on an expected release date or tracklist.
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