SZA's 'Lana' Just Broke A Record
Charting the most week’s at #1 for an R&B and/or Hip-Hop album by a woman since 1986.
Wrapping up an iconic 2024, SZA came through on her promise of Lana, the album… kind of. Despite delays, the St. Louis-born musician announces more songs on the deluxe album. As fans await new songs, Lana breaks a Billboard record.
As Hypebeast states, “The album, which recently received its deluxe Lana edition, earned 130,000 equivalent album units in the week ending January 2. This total includes 125,500 streaming equivalent album units (166.31 million on-demand streams of the songs), 4,000 in album sales and 500 in track equivalent album units.”
The last time this was achieved by a female artist was 38 years ago. The track was Whiteney Houston’s self-titled album that had a 14-week reign.
As for new songs: “Just got word all updated Mixes and new songs will be added Jan 6th,” SZA tweeted at the end of 2024. “Sorry they can’t do it any sooner,” she added revealing the team was out for the holidays. “Just wanted to keep y’all in the loop … Thank y’all for your patience.”
SZA’s fans are known for accusing their fav of lying — we know, weird. So when 2024 almost wrapped without her promise of Lana, an album she teased in June, they were not letting the moment slide. “Watch her never drop it,” one user tweeted. Another said, “We don’t believe her mind you…”
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To the surprise of many, the album’s release date came… and the album was yet to be released. According to the “Kill Bill” singer, there was an engineering delay. “FULL DELUXE OUT TOMORROW AM. On the 20th! Just needed a few more hours for new mixes to ingest evenly across all platforms.. (mixes are important),” she wrote on her Instagram story December 20th. To hold fans over, the full “Drive” music video featuring Ben Stiller is now available.
Thankfully, her team was able to align on a December 21, release date — meaning only a single day delay for die-hard fans. Only two days post-release and her fanbase is already coining “Scorsese Baby Daddy,” “30 for 30” with an El Debarge sample and “Kitchen,” as their favorites.
Hilariously, Martin Scorsese’s daughter, Francesca brought the fun to TikTok per usual. On Instagram she featured her father at the dinner table with none other than SZA’s “Scorsese Baby Daddy” playing in the background.
The December 20 release date was confirmed earlier that week by an Instagram reel that teased the album’s first single, “Drive.” The clip features none other than actor Ben Stiller, who’s singing along to the lyrics. Hilariously, SZA shared that Severance Season 2 is on the way, too. Fans immediately begged for lyrics while others encouraged them to read Stiller’s lips.
On December 18, she teased the album artwork, featuring her… as a bug. Die hard fans may remember the plethora of cover art mock-ups she dropped early 2024. Surprisingly, none of those made the final cut. The news launches as fans await her highly discussed Grand National tour with Kendrick Lamar.
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The album launched exactly two years after the release of S.O.S., which dominated the charts and became the first “R&B album by a woman to hit double digits since Mariah Carey’s self-titled debut in 1991.” It’ll feature 10 tracks and won’t replicate the essence of her fans’ favorite album, Ctrl.
At the time she said, “I know people wanted [Ctrl’s] “Broken Clocks,” “Love Galore” and all that other sh-t again, but I departed from that by choice… Not because I couldn’t do that again; it was just because I wanted to grow. I wanted to do something completely different.”
In other news, here are the most-hyped albums releasing this year.
