The Grammy winner has since made peace with it: “If anything, I gained a bunch from it.”

SZA opened up about coming to terms with losing her song “Consideration” to Rihanna.

The Grammy winner said she was initially “frustrated” that her label gave the song that she co-wrote and recorded for her debut album Ctrl to Rihanna for Anti, but added that in hindsight, she’s glad it happened.

“I cared so much,” SZA told Variety. “I was so frustrated. I felt like, ‘I’ll never make anything this cool again,’ and that was so crazy and so wrong, because it was the centerpiece to my album at the time, and for her it was just like, part of her album. I was like, ‘Please, no.'”

“I had just shot a video for it and I was about to drop it in a couple days,” the “Kill Bill” singer added, but the transfer “was already done” without her initial consultation, she said. “Whatever the conversation, label-wise, was already done. It was just a matter of accepting [it].”

EW has reached out to Ctrl’s RCA Records and Top Dawg Entertainment, as well as reps for Rihanna, for comment.

SZA added that she has since made peace with it. “I’m so glad that that happened and that it didn’t cost me anything,” she said. “If anything, I gained a bunch from it. And I thank God that I made cool music outside of that. I don’t know why I just really thought my creativity would just stop, and this was the pinnacle of what I could make.”
SZA, Rihanna
“Consideration” is the opening track on Anti, Rihanna’s eighth studio album, and bills SZA as a featured artist. The acclaimed Ctrl marked a breakout album for the artist, nabbing five Grammy nominations at the 2018 ceremony. SZA currently leads the 2024 Grammys, set to air Feb. 4, with nine nominations across major categories, including Album of the Year for SOS, her follow-up to Ctrl, and Song of the Year for “Kill Bill.”

Watch the rest of her segment with Variety above.