Snooze (song)

"Snooze" is a song by American singer-songwriter SZA from her second studio album, SOS (2022). It was sent to rhythmic contemporary and urban contemporary radio as the sixth and final single from the album on April 25, 2023. SZA wrote the song with producers Babyface, the Rascals (Leon Thomas III and Khristopher Riddick-Tynes), and BLK. The acoustic version features Canadian singer Justin Bieber, who stars in the official music video of the song's original version, and was released on September 15, 2023.

"Snooze" was a sleeper hit. It experienced a slow-burn success on the US Billboard Hot 100, debuting at number 29 in December 2022 and remaining on the chart for several months despite not being serviced as an album single yet, ultimately reaching its peak of number 2 nearly a year later on the week dated October 7, 2023. The song spent a total of 70 weeks on the Hot 100. It additionally broke the record for the most weeks atop the US urban radio chart, with 30 weeks, and was the only song to chart in the country for all of 2023. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, "Snooze" was the seventeenth best-selling single of 2023. The song was positively reviewed by music critics and won Best R&B Song at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. “Snooze” was named the No. 1 Best R&B Song of the Streaming Era by Spotify.

Background

SZA released her debut studio album, Ctrl, in 2017. Primarily an R&B album that deals with themes like heartbreak, it received widespread acclaim for SZA's vocals and the eclectic musical style, as well as the emotional impact and confessional nature of its songwriting. The album brought SZA to mainstream fame, and critics credit it with establishing her status as a major figure in contemporary pop and R&B music and pushing the boundaries of the R&B genre. Her next studio album was therefore highly anticipated, and she alluded to its completion as early as August 2019 during an interview with DJ Kerwin Frost.

From April to May 2022, SZA told media outlets that she had recently finished the album in Hawaii and said that it was coming soon. Wanting to experiment with genres she had not yet incorporated in her discography, she envisioned it to be an amalgamation of various disparate musical styles, or in her words, "a little bit of everything". Apart from the "traditional" R&B that had been a staple of SZA's past works, many tracks had a balladic, soft, or heartfelt sound.

Music and production

"Snooze" is an R&B and pop song.

The first "Snooze" demo came from producer Blair Ferguson in late 2021, while he was staying the winter in Glasgow at his aunt's attic. Asked to brainstorm ideas for a collaboration between SZA and Babyface, Ferguson wanted to give the two a traditional R&B melody, which incorporated, in his words, "the dreamy and smooth aspects of [SZA's] sound". Upon finishing the demo, he sent it to Leon Thomas III, one half of the production duo the Rascals alongside Khris Riddick-Tynes. The duo further worked on the demo with Babyface, with a fast turnaround time.

The song was one of two that SZA and Babyface created and finished together during their 2021 sessions. It was initially not going to be on SOS, instead a planned collaboration on Babyface's ninth studio album, Girls Night Out (2022). During the flight to Babyface's studio to Los Angeles, Riddick-Tynes worked on the drums for "Snooze", then joined him and Thomas the next day. With Ferguson's demo as their guide, the three began composing several instrumentals from scratch, and when SZA entered the studio to finish another song, she heard Thomas and Babyface rehearsing one of the beats.

SZA heard Thomas use his voice as a sample on the instrumental, creating a vocal chop he achieved by slowly singing the melody in a different key then increasing the tempo, and was instantly captivated. Babyface further worked on the melody by adding instruments such as guitars, while SZA began writing the lyrics, finished within 20–30 minutes, and recorded her vocals in the same day.

Lyrics

SOS has many themes such as love, hate, self-worth, revenge, and growth. The song "Snooze" is about being underestimated; it has been described as a "dreamy ballad" where SZA reflects on a relationship that she wants to put her all into despite feeling like she is the only one trying to make the relationship work. Throughout the SOS album, SZA alludes to other media such as movies. In the number-one single "Kill Bill", SZA directly references the Quentin Tarantino-directed film of the same name not only with the title, but also throughout the song lyrics and music video (Hopper, 2023). In "Snooze", she references the movie Scarface with the lines: "In a droptop ride with you, I feel like Scarface / Like that white bitch with a bob, I'll be your main one". The song also gives the feeling of satire because throughout almost the entire song she sings of the passion she has towards her love interest, going as far as killing and hiding bodies for her said lover, yet at the ending bridge, the lyrics make a switch and start to give off a tone of regret and sadness. The language throughout the song is passionate with a hint of violence with words like "kill", as well as "mobbin', schemin', lootin', hide your bodies". This violent language directly conflicts with tone of the title that is supposed to give off a dreamy, sleep-like effect, which again plays into the satire tone of the song as a whole. Despite her use of the words "snooze" and "dreamin'" throughout the lyrics, she continuously throws in violent words to show her passion for the relationship and her anger toward the fact that she is willing to do anything to make the relationship work, but the effort is not being reciprocated.

Release

During a Billboard cover story published in November 2022, SZA revealed the album title, as well as the release date which was scheduled sometime next month. She posted the album's track list on Twitter on December 5, and SOS was released four days later. Out of 23 songs, "Snooze" appears as the eighth track. "Snooze" had its live performance debut during a 19-show North American tour in support of SOS.

"Snooze" debuted at number 46 in Australia, number 36 in Canada, and number 29 in the United States. Top Dawg Entertainment and RCA Records sent the song to rhythmic, R&B/hip-hop, and pop radio in April 2023. A four-track bundle of it, which includes a sped-up version of the song, was released to download and streaming platforms in August.

Mesfin Fekadu ranked "Snooze" as the best song of 2023 for The Hollywood Reporter, writing: "Babies and young children are cutely singing the melody (and in harmony!). Boys and men are proudly singing the lyrics written solely by a female artist. And the aunties approve of its R&B authenticity. [...] How can you snooze and miss the moment?" In January 2024, Rolling Stone ranked the song as the 19th greatest R&B song of the 21st century.

"Snooze" is certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for surpassing 2,000,000 units sold The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the only song that spent all of 2023 charting there. It peaked at number 3 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and spent 30 weeks at number one on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, breaking the record set by Chris Brown and Young Thug's "Go Crazy" (2020) for the longest time atop the chart.

Music video

To tease the music video for "Snooze", SZA posted two behind-the-scenes footage to Instagram on August 12, 2023. Each video was set to an unreleased song. The song appeared, again, at the end of the music video, continuing a habit in which SZA would conclude her videos with snippets of incoming music. The video premiered on August 25, 2023. Directed by SZA and Bradley J. Calder, it features cameos from actors Young Mazino and Woody McClain alongside music artists Justin Bieber and Benny Blanco, all of whom play SZA's love interests. With each character, she feeds a horse, lies on grass in a park, smokes a cigarette made of cannabis, embraces in a pool of water, engages in arguments, and watches as one of them plays a video game. In one scene, SZA dances for a robot. The video was ranked as the fourth best of 2023 by Dazed's Elliot Hoste.

Accolades

Credits

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of SOS.

Recording and management

• Engineered at Westlake Barn and Studios A and D (Los Angeles, California)
• Mixed at Ponzu Studios (Los Angeles)
• Mastered at Becker Mastering (Pasadena, California)

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

Release history

See also

• List of Billboard Global 200 top-ten singles in 2023
• List of Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles in 2023
• List of Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles in 2024

Notes

References