In this dreamy ballad, SZA cherishes every moment with her romantic partner. She yearns for his love and affection and wants to be his top priority, despite their ups and downs.
I can't lose when I'm with you
How can I snooze and miss the moment?
You just too important
SZA doesn't want to fall asleep and waste the precious moments she has with her love interest.
SZA recorded "Snooze" for her second album,
SOS. The album is chock-full of movie references – she even titled one song after a
Quentin Tarantino film. In the second verse, she mentions the Cadillac convertible and the titular character's love interest in
Scarface.
In a droptop ride with you, I feel like Scarface
Like that white bitch with the bob, I'll be your main oneSZA wants to drive around with her guy feeling like Scarface's partner, Elvira Hancock.
SZA wrote "Snooze" with R&B legend Babyface, along with Khristopher Riddick-Tynes and Leon Thomas III of the production duo The Rascals. When SZA arrived at the session to work on a different song, she saw The Rascals making the beat for "Snooze" in the hallway. "Leon's voice is a sample in the beat," she told Wild 94.9's Angelina. "That's his ways in being part of the beat and when I heard just that vocal-like sample, I love samples like that."
As examples, SZA cited the vocal sample of River Tiber's 2016 single "West" on her
CTRL track "
Broken Clocks," and the vocal sample of Gabriel Hardeman Delegation's 1976 song "Until I Found the Lord (My Soul Couldn't Rest)" on "
SOS."
"I'm like a fiend for that," SZA continued, "so I was like what is that and um I just kind of wandered into the room like someone following their nose and um , yeah he was building this beat from scratch and I was like this is crazy and then Babyface came in and added a bunch of stuff or melodies with a guitar and they were producing together and then I took it back and then I sent it to them and that was that."
Babyface scored his first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 as a producer in 23 years when "Snooze" jumped 15-10 on the Hot 100 dated August 19, 2023. Babyface's previous appearance in the Top 10 as a producer was in December 2000 with Pink's "Most Girls."
Directed by SZA and Bradley J. Calder, the video shows SZA in a whirlwind of love scenes. Think embraces in a pool of water, dances that spin worlds, chill hangouts, and the occasional lovers' spat. SZA's in the thick of it all, weaving a tale of romance and emotion with different leading men. Actors Young Mazino and Woody McClain, pop star Justin Bieber, and producer Benny Blanco all have cameos as the singer's various love interests. In one scene, SZA even dances intimately for a cyborg.
Scottish producer BLK Beats (Tory Lanez, Lil Tecca) co-produced the song with Babyface and The Rascals. While living in his aunt's attic in Glasgow, BLK got the call to brainstorm some ideas for SZA's Women in R&B project. "I had a makeshift studio, and I was in a bit of limbo," he told BBC Scotland. "But I made the original demo for 'Snooze' and sent it through to my friend and co-producer Leon Thomas and they expanded on the session - and the rest was history."
BLK Beats originally thought the song was too laid-back to chart well. "But I was completely wrong," he said. "Which is very nice, the charts completely ate it up. SZA is just a genius and she's able to transform any record with the way she comes up with a melody. I don't think any other artist could have made that track."
This won Song Of The Year at the 2023 Soul Train awards. SZA also took home the prizes for Best R'n'B/Soul Female Artist, Album of the Year for SOS, and The Ashford and Simpson Songwriter's Award (also for "Snooze").
"Snooze" took Best R&B Song at the Grammy Awards in 2024, where SZA performed it along with "Kill Bill."
When "Snooze" logged its 30th week at #1 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop radio airplay chart, it became the longest-running leader since the chart launched in April 1992. It overtook the 29 weeks that Chris Brown featuring Young Thug's "
Go Crazy" spent atop the tally.
"Snooze" won for Best R&B at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2024. It was nominated for Video Of The Year but lost to "
Fortnight" by Taylor Swift.
"Snooze" lived up to its title by becoming a sleeper hit. The song debuted at #29 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in December 2022 as a non-single track from SOS. Despite not being initially promoted as a single, it slowly climbed the charts thanks to impressive streaming numbers. "Snooze" took eight months to reach the Top 10, finally achieving this milestone in August 2023.
Babyface, who contributed guitar and melodies to "Snooze," left a lasting impression on SZA with his positive and collaborative energy. Though she missed contributing to Babyface's Girls Night Out album because of stress while finishing SOS, she'd like to create a full album with him in the future.
