Though SZA and Drake have been in each other’s orbit since at least 2009, the two have never collaborated — until now. The pair just released “Slime You Out,” a down-tempo rap-n-b track where they take turns dogging out the opposite sex.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you girls,” Drake begins. “I feel like y’all don’t need love, you need somebody who can micromanage you, tell you right from wrong.” Following a sung verse lambasting women after being played, he swings it to SZA, who goes in on men. “How the fuck you so real but play bitch on my line?” she asks. The song appears to be a single from Drake’s forthcoming album, For All the Dogs.
In October 2020, Drake revealed publicly that he and SZA had dated over a decade ago, well before she was an established artist (her earliest music goes back to around 2012; her critical breakthrough, Ctrl, came in 2017). On 21 Savage’s “Mr. Right Now,” he rapped about a newer fling who was a fan of SZA’s: “Yeah, said she wanna fuck to some SZA, wait / ‘Cause I used to date SZA back in ’08 / If you cool with it, baby, she can still play.” A few days later, SZA responded, corroborating Drake’s claim with a slight correction: they dated in 2009, when both would have been over 18. Since SZA would not have turned 18 until late 2008, she wanted to set the record straight. “in this case a year of poetic rap license mattered 🥴lol I think he jus innocently rhymed 08 w wait [sic],” she tweeted. “I just didn’t want anybody thinking anything underage or creepy was happening . Completely innocent . Lifetimes ago . [sic]”
Lifetimes, indeed. SZA now has two critically acclaimed albums under her belt, both of which have not left the Billboard 200 since their debuts. SOS, her latest, spent 10 weeks at Number One, making it the first R&B and/or hip-hop album by a woman to do so since Mariah Carey’s self-titled debut in 1991. The last R&B/hip-hop album to do so was Views…by Drake.