Songfacts®:

• Here, SZA croons about giving up fighting a shoddy affair. "This song is about being played by a dude," she told Genius. "This whole song is about being played out by a nigga who thought he was cuter than you, who thought he had it all together and he was, 'Skrrt skrrt', and he was on the move.
  
  "But somewhere in between this whole mayhem of whatever's going on, you got over it, and you flipped the script and didn't say anything," SZA added. "Why play yourself? You want me, you enjoy it, I want you, we have a good time and you're still not here for some strange reason."
• Travis Scott raps the third verse, as well as supplying some ad-libs during the song. "I'm definitely a huge fan of Travis," said SZA. "I think he merges that super-fine line between melody and syncopation and pocket. And I love his pockets, and I love his note choice. He's just gnarly. He's perfect."
• The song was first teased in November 2016, on SZA's Instagram. The entire track was later debuted at SZA's private show in New York on January 10, 2017.
• The track was produced by Carter Lang and THANKGOD4CODY. "I love this beat. I love tropical sounding beats," said SZA. "I always think of Muppets Vacation. Kokomo. 'That's where we wanna go.' I always get excited when I hear tropical beats."
• The torturous end scene in theNABIL-directed video was inspired by the 1990 American psychological thriller Misery.
• THANKGOD4CODY recalled how the production was a joint effort between him and Carter Lang: "I started on the beat, and Carter came downstairs to the basement and helped me," he told Billboard. "Then, I took that beat upstairs to my room, put my Apple headphones in and made the drums. I came back downstairs and played that for her. The next day she hopped on it."
• Ctrl was ranked #1 on Time magazine's Top Albums of 2017 list. The publication praised SZA's record for its "witty songs marked by gorgeously sparse R&B production and ironclad melodies."
• SZA performed the song without Travis Scott during the December 9, 2017 episode of Saturday Night Live. She sang a new unreleased verse about not letting a man get in the way of her self-improvement as a substitute for the missing rapper's rhymes.
• The song contains a spoken-word outro by SZA's grandmother, Norma Rowe, where she encourages her granddaughter to speak up for herself. SZA's nan also features on the CTRL tracks "Garden (Say It Like Dat)" and "20 Something."
• SZA, Ty Donaldson, ThankGod4Cody and Carter Lang, along with their friend Chris Classick, who operates a studio in Chicago, convened at Lang's house in Michigan. "I drove a bunch of stuff up and we set up in the basement, "Lang recalled to Consequence, "and Ty, Cody, and I were making ideas, while SZA and Chris were tracking upstairs in this makeshift kitchen studio in my mom's office with blankets and such."
  
  They established a creative flow, with everyone contributing ideas. Downstairs, Cody and Lang stumbled upon a captivating Moog riff, which served as their starting point. They halted there to fine-tune it, then Lang moved on to another instrument and a beat spontaneously materialized. This new rhythm carried a mesmerizing, spacey vibe and an infectious bounce, thanks to Cody's skillful drumming. While Cody was crafting the beat, Lang would transition to another instrument, recording his contributions on the fly.
  
  With their groove in full swing, they ventured upstairs to present the beat to SZA. She spent a substantial amount of time, at least a whole day, working on it. Their creative stint lasted about a week, yielding not only this track but also "Broken Clocks" and some other starts.