SZA's Ctrl: From TDE's Only Woman to Movie Star | 50 For 50

Before Ctrl ever came out, SZA was the only woman on a label full of rappers, quietly building a catalog nobody outside TDE was paying attention to. Garrett Gonzales and Mike Joseph trace SZA's real origin story — a religiously blended New Jersey upbringing, a near-quit before Ctrl ever got made, and her signing as the first (and for years only) woman on Top Dawg Entertainment's roster — before digging into the three overlooked mixtapes, See.SZA.Run, S, and Z, that built her reputation years before her debut album existed.

From there it's a full Ctrl track-by-track and a Ctrl vs. SOS sound comparison — how Ctrl's hazy, focused neo-soul gave way to SOS's much bigger, genre-hopping sprawl, including a surprising classic-R&B streak on "Snooze" with Babyface that traces straight back to Luther Vandross and the Quiet Storm era. Garrett and Mike also run through her best collaborations, from Kendrick Lamar's "Luther" — which just won Record of the Year at the Grammys — to "All the Stars" and Doja Cat's "Kiss Me More."

The episode closes with a Grammy Redux covering two decade-defining snubs and the Record of the Year win that finally broke through, plus the Dream Collaborator pick for this one.

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