SZA Is a Force of Nature and We Love It!

SZA pursues her passion for music and nature as she uses her platform to advocate for environmental justice. SZA partners with Tazo Tea to fight environmental racism, and she started her sustainable clothing line, Ctrl Fishing Co.

SZA is one of this century’s most outstanding R&B singer-songwriters. Before SZA became famous for her extraordinary musical talent, she pursued other interests: marine biology and fashion. She pursued a degree in marine biology when she attended Delaware State University. After leaving Delaware State, SZA interned for Billionaire Boys Club, a fashion brand founded by Pharell Williams and Nigo. The relationships that SZA built working in the fashion industry allowed her to connect with producers at Top Dawg Entertainment, who would be interested in supporting her career as a professional singer. The record label was amazed by her self-released mixtape, See.SZA.Run (2012) and S (2013), and she became the first signed artist on their label. Since then, SZA has won six Billboard awards, five BET awards, five Soul Train awards, four Grammy’s, four MTV awards, three NAACP awards, two iHeart Radio awards, and several other honors recognizing her remarkable music and character. Beyond pursuing a more profound knowledge of marine biology and fashion styling, she has also shared her love for nature. The R&B singer will often retreat to serene, natural environments to escape the craze of being the sensational star she is. SZA has expressed her passion for nature through her partnership with Tazo Tea, fighting against environmental racism, a sustainable clothing line, various songs and performances, and her social media.

SZA is an influential advocate against environmental racism and has partnered with Tazo Tea and American Forests to initiate the Tazo Tea Corps. Civil Rights leader Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. reports to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that environmental racism is “the intentional siting of polluting and waste facilities in communities primarily populated by African Americans, Latines, Indigenous People, Asian American and Pacific islanders, migrant farmworkers, and low-income workers.” The goal of this enterprise is to combat climate change and create jobs by employing a local workforce to grow and care for trees in marginalized communities in Richmond, Virginia, Minneapolis, the Bronx, San Francisco, and Detroit. During an interview with HuffPost, SZA shared that she wanted to work with Tazo Tea because:

“I’ve been drinking Tazo my whole life […] when I actually saw the project, I felt honored to be asked to be a part of it. Because it was so fundamental from the job creation to the actual canopy development, I feel super passionate about just having — even if it’s community gardens, not just planting trees — urban aesthetic development. And it really just was meant to bring value to the community. I just know what it feels like to add value to a community or to look at a community that doesn’t value itself, based on the way that they see themselves being treated.”

SZA empathizes with the message that this initiative aims to send to marginalized communities subjected to various pollution and waste disposal forms. She also shares her childhood experience of witnessing the presence of environmental racism. SZA grew up in Maplewood, a city on New Jersey’s coast. SZA shares that many of the Black children in her community were uncomfortable doing water or any outdoor activities. SZA suggests that water or nature activities are children’s most popular ventures growing up in Maplewood. Given the difference in the comfort level of doing these nature-themed activities between Black and other children living in Maplewood, this made SZA incredibly aware of the inequities displayed towards Black children regarding their overall social experiences and satisfaction. Reflecting on her upbringing bolstered her interest in partnering with the Tazo Tea Corps to fight the environmental injustice brought to communities where most of its residents were people of color.

SZA’s experience working in the fashion industry, coupled with her passion for environmental justice, fueled the idea for her sustainability clothing line, Ctrl Fishing Co. SZA announced her eco-friendly campaign in 2018 in an Instagram post that was captioned, “Who tryn save da ocean.” The post also suggests that SZA’s desire to create this clothing line was sparked by her former interest in marine biology. Ultimately, SZA’s mission with Ctrl Fishing Co is to create items with recycled clothes for better use than adding biodegradable waste in landfills. There are also usually funny captions or jokes associated with environmental rights, including “puck plastic” and “sustainable gang” embroidered on the clothing item. To ensure that the sustainability aspect of the clothing line is just right, SZA collaborated with Lebanese-Canadian fashion designer and founder of Slow Factory, Céline Semaan. She discusses her creative process with Semaan, and the singer reports to POPSUGAR, “We created our own fabric based off quilted pieces of landfill fabric in different colorways. We’re just trying to make sh*t that I really want to wear, but also in a way that doesn’t [mess] up our carbon footprint, or my karma, and that’s really difficult.” Through the creation of Ctrl Fishing Co, SZA raised awareness of the value of sustainable clothing and the good it does for the environment. SZA continues to intersect her passion for the environment with her interests like fashion and, notably, her music.

A common theme among some of SZA’s songs is her emphasis on the beauty of nature. In her hit, “Good Days” (2020), she suggests a good climate can alleviate anxiety. She sings, “Good day in my mind, safe to take a step out, get some air now, let your edge out.” With this lyric, SZA conveys a positive association between feeling content and enjoying a beautiful day outside, especially when thinking about Earth’s ever-lasting climate crisis. SZA’s “Pretty Little Birds” (feat. Isaiah Rashad) was released on her first album, Ctrl (2017). She personifies various types of birds and, in her lyrics, makes the listener feel like they are flying. She sings, “You are but a phoenix among feathers, you’re broken by the waves among the sea, they’ll die, they’ll let you wash away, but you swim as well as you fly.” The song also has a trippy, electric vibe, allowing listeners to form a deeper connection with the pretty little birds she refers to. After the blockbuster success of her sophomore album, SOS (2020), last year at a concert in Brooklyn, the singer announced she would be coming out with a deluxe version entitled Lana. SZA also posted various album covers for the announcement in different natural settings. The covers included her posing with several farm animals in a tent surrounded by camp gear, wrapped in greenery, embodying the “Mother Nature” essence.

SZA continues to express her love for nature through the set design of her performances. SZA recently released and performed one of her hits from her upcoming album, Saturn (2024), at the 2024 Grammy Awards. SZA’s performance was part of an ad for Mastercard’s Priceless Planet Coalition, an initiative that strives to restore 100 million trees in forests worldwide. The set appeared inspired by a valley or desert-like environment, forging a connection with the climate crisis. SZA and her dancers were surrounded by a dark environment with hanging vines, tightly coiled branches, various bushes and plants that were increasingly lush, and towering trees. SZA and her dancers wore nude, brown, black, and white to not distract from the natural beauty conveyed in the overall set. In 2021, SZA partnered with Grey Goose Essences to bring her fans a virtual music experience, In Bloom. This performance was streamed on YouTube for one night, where SZA brought fans their favorites from Ctrl and debuted upcoming songs she had yet to release. She designed the ethereal floral set, allowing her to integrate elements of nature. SZA made a statement referring to her role as a creative consultant on the show:

“The opportunity felt like a perfect match to me. I love incorporating elements of nature into my performances, and the fruits, botanicals, and herbs in Essences provide a great template for that. I feel like ‘In Bloom’ really captures where I’m at right now, especially after a year and a half of lockdown, which is also why it feels like the best place to debut some of my new material. I’m so excited for my fans to see this performance.”

In Bloom was a great representation of SZA as an artist as it was a culmination of her musical and nature interests.

SZA shares some of her favorite nature activities on her social media, like her trips to The Outlier Inn in Catskills, NY, in 2021 and Kauai in 2019. Also, when touring, SZA takes every chance she can to explore the world. While on her SOS tour, she explored the Wicklow Mountains during her show in Dublin. In an interview with HuffPost, SZA reports, “I love being outside, in general. I love nature and getting into hiking and all that type of sh*t. And having access to the great outdoors.”SZA pursues her singing and environmental passions simultaneously, bringing nothing but Good Days to her audiences.“