In Living Colour: SZA
Somehow without ever having met, SZA knows your entire life story. About that time you tried to turn a situationship into something more. Or how you were so deeply and madly in love that you couldn't think straight. How you’ve been too afraid to love again so you only see them on the weekends.
Her ability to transmute some of her biggest heartbreaks into beautiful melodies is what makes a SZA record just, well, you know: hit different.
Nobody can tell us to “stop sleeping on SZA” anymore because one truly cannot be unfamiliar at this point. Her steady and climbing rise in popularity has been an absolute pleasure to witness— considering her early associations with the “PBR&B” genre, a small slot to amass black artists with more “experimental” choices.
On this installment of “In Living Colour,” we dive into the color choices of pop music’s very own “shorty next door,” the incomparable, ever-blooming, Solana Imana Rowe.
Babylon
Bridge to Terabithia
emotion: sombre, grounded, mute, post-neutral, sepulchral
significance: Remember angst? Those crushing feelings of the world and wanting, so earnestly, to express our amateur feelings? SZA truly channeled that Ophelia reference with the clear act of self-immolation occurring in the video. This color palette captures a specific gloom, but gloom nonetheless.
Rest in Peace to hip-hop’s dearest Mac Miller. Not too many know Mac Miller has production credits on Z —way back when SZA used to enunciate when she sang.
Love Galore
Butterfly Effect
emotion: sensual, changing, powerful, mercurial, igneous
significance: My favorite part of this palette is definitely that sudden orange, a gift to the eyes guided by the warm lamplight and monarch butterflies that characterize this video's brightest elements. The darker hues explain a bedroom type of intimacy, one that sounds like that run in the chorus only SZA could do. SZA’s power is hard not to acknowledge this moment - an apropos light in the darkness, a present and sensual force.
Garden (Say it Like Dat )
Earth, Wind, & Fire
emotion: terrestrial, lush, viridescent, down-to-earth,
significance: This video gives ultimate green-goddess energy, complete with the paradise scenes and emphasis on natural beauty. This color palette highlights some really familiar earth tones we don’t have to look too hard outside to find - yet the video setting is an actual jungle. It’s an idea that has come full circle.
Hit Different
Summertime Blues
emotion: sorrow, tenderness, daydreaming, halcyon
significance: Blue has an almost immediate associate with calm yet this video really was a moment! Such a captivating visual with such an interesting pace to every moment. Much like this video’s pace, the color gradation is also a very tight one. Comfort, yet just stillness. Happy, but still blue. That particular melancholy in the too-bright summer heat.
Good Days
Tripping Balls
emotions: otherworldly, dreamy, warm, eclectic
significance: For a water sign, SZA really seems to surround herself in a natural, earthy setting rather quickly. Unlike the Garden video, funny animated mushrooms bring a new sense of vibrancy to her typically humble color choices with an almost unnatural, ashen take on a primary color scheme. That’s beyond the fact though, let’s just keep watching her dance.