SZA and her longtime manager, Top Dawg Entertainment‘s Terrence “Punch” Henderson, have parted ways. Punch signed SZA to Top Dawg in 2013 when she was 23 years old.
The Grammy winner clarified that there’s nothing but love and appreciation between them.
“To be clear, I love Punch deeply. NO ONE should be attacking him or being cruel on my behalf,” she said on social media, per HOT 97. “Sometimes people grow apart, and that’s okay.”
In a separate post, she added, “Nothing to celebrate. The end of an era. I wish him the best ❤️ whatever his choices may be. ❤️”
TDE has not yet publicly addressed Punch and SZA partying ways. Punch played a critical role in the rollout of SZA’s CTRL album, which put her on the map, producing the hits “Drew Barrymore,” “Love Galore” and “The Weekend.” The LP also earned SZA five nominations at the 2018 Grammys, including Best New Artist.
Her sophomore album, SOS, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with chart-topper “Kill Bill” breaking the record for spending the most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
The surprising news of SZA and Punch parting ways comes after her Lana (a deluxe version of 2022’s Grammy-winning SOS), which dropped on Dec. 20.
“It’s like a whole new project,” she told Variety. “It’s called ‘Lana’ — my name but, it’s the first tattoo that I ever got, when I was 13. It was 10 bucks a letter and I only had 40, so that that became my nickname for no reason. ‘Lana’ is really just the B-side of SOS.”
As Blavity reported, SZA is set to hit the road with Kendrick Lamar for Grand National Tour, which kicks off in April. Lamar is featured on “30 For 30,” the third track off Lana. On K.Dot’s GNX album, which the rapper released in November as a surprise drop, SZA lends her vocals to “Luther” and closing track “Gloria.” Previously, they collaborated on “All the Stars,” the lead single for the Black Panther soundtrack.
The post SZA And Longtime Manager, TDE’s Punch, Split: Here’s What To Know appeared first on Blavity.
