SZA says she's “never felt more powerless and disrespected” after images released without consent
SZA has spoken out after photographs of her were released without consent.
According to Vibe, the singer-songwriter – real name Solána Imani Rowe – was referring to a collection of images of herself in a blue bikini, which were reportedly taken and released by photographer Edwig Henson.
“Releasing pictures of me w out my consent is scary,” she wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “Y’all be careful working w folk u don’t know well.”
In response to a fan who asked “Is this about ur bikini shoot?”, SZA said: “He literally text me m said ‘sorry if u never wanna work w me again but I decided I’m releasing these’. Never felt more powerless or disrespected in my life.”
She added: “If I don’t want pics out cause I don’t wanna fight w My ex, or my album not done and I wanna wait or I decided i DONT wanna be hyper-sexualized in that way rn. Das my choice as a woman. As a human.
“lemme pray. Cause karma realer than anything Twitter got.”
Punch, the head of Top Dawg Entertainment, also tweeted to ask if anyone knew how to reach Henson. “This man leaked a whole photo shoot of SZA WITHOUT permission,” he said. “Now he’s not responding.”
Meanwhile, SZA is set to perform a string of US headline shows next month. The singer has released a handful of new tracks throughout 2021, including ‘Nightbird’, ‘I Hate You’ and ‘Joni’.
Back in July, SZA joked that she was “probably about to scrap all of [the next album] and start from scratch”. “I think they’ll be surprised to know that it’s not what they thought, and it’s not coming when they thought,” she said. “I hope that they’ll be pleasantly surprised.”