SZA Recalls Her Frustration Over Losing “Centerpiece” Of “CTRL” Album To Rihanna 

SZA revealed she once believed she lost the best single she would ever write to another artist when her song “Consideration,” wound up on Rihanna‘s 2016 album, Anti.   

The “Kill Bill” hitmaker was a rising teen artist at the start of her career when she wrote a single she thought would be “the pinnacle of what I could make.” SZA wanted to keep the track, titled “Consideration” as the “centerpiece” for her debut album CTRL, and was hesitant to give it to Rihanna. However, it would ultimately appear on Rihanna’s eighth studio offering. 

“I cared so much, and I was so like, just frustrated,” she explained during an interview with Variety. “I felt like, ‘I’ll never have anything this cool again.’” 

SZA admitted, “It was like the centerpiece to my album at the time,” whereas “it was just part” of Rihanna’s album. “I was like, ‘Please no,’” she added.    

Despite gearing up for a release and having just shot a video for the track, SZA revealed it was too late. “It was already done,” she said. “Whatever conversation label-wise was already done. It was just a matter of accepting and in hindsight it was so hard to let go and accept.” 

Rihanna “Consideration” Featuring SZA

Although she was initially devastated, SZA eventually saw the situation differently. “Now it’s like I’m so glad that that happened and that it didn’t cost me anything. If anything I just gained a bunch from it. And I thank God that I made cool music outside of that.” 

Check out the clip below and watch the interview at the end of the page. 

Back in 2017, SZA revealed that she played “Consideration” at a writing camp for Rihanna after being stumped for material. “I decided to play something from my album,” she told i-D. “She’s like, ‘B####, I want that one’, and I’m like, ‘Not that one. I could make you more?’ And she’s like ‘No, that one’.”