"Shirt" is a song about a complicated romantic relationship where SZA's beau has got involved with another girl.
SZA details the emotions she feels:
Bitterness towards her love rival.
Feel the taste of resentment
Simmer in my skin, it's all about
Insecure because she shares her man with someone else.
Still don't know my worth
Still stressin' perfection
Distraught at his betrayal.
It ain't supposed to hurt this way
All I need is the best of you
Despite all her negative feelings, SZA still enjoys the thrill of this hot-and-cold romance.
Feelin' lost, but I like it
Comfort in my sins and all about me
SZA recorded the song in 2020 and first posted a clip on her TikTok in December of that year. Within a month, the track went viral on the app and birthed a dedicated dance challenge. Back then, it didn't have a title, but fans and viewers referred to the song as "Shirt" based on the first line of the chorus.
Bloodstain on my shirt
SZA confirmed on a January 8, 2021 tweet that she was fine using it as the official song title.
SZA featured an extended snippet of "Shirt" at the end of her "
Good Days" music video, which she released on March 4, 2021. However, the complete song remained unreleased until October 28, 2022.
SZA co-wrote and co-produced "Shirt" with veteran hitmaker Rodney Jerkins (Jennifer Lopez's "
If You Had My Love," Brandy & Monica's "
The Boy Is Mine," Beyoncé's "
Deja Vu"). The singer knew she was on a winner with the legendary R&B architect behind the boards. "I remember Rodney playing beat after beat after beat," she told Apple Music. "And all I could think was, damn, I wanna eat these all at once."
LaKeith Lee Stanfield co-stars with SZA in the Bonnie and Clyde-inspired, Dave Meyers-directed, video.
Atlanta and
The Harder They Fall actor Stanfield also appeared in the visuals for SZA's 2021 single "
I Hate U."
"Shooting live ammunition was probably the hardest part, and being shot with all the paint color goo," SZA recalled in a Vevo Footnotes video. "It was water soluble but you only get one chance to shoot it right and it might get in your eyes. LaKeith was annoyed about that."
SZA performed "Shirt" on the December 3, 2022 episode of Saturday Night Live. The R&B singer sang the song against an animated blue background while flanked by dancers.
It marked her second Saturday Night Live appearance, following her debut in 2017 in support of her debut album, CTRL.
The original version of the song, which had the working title "Narnia dirt bike," sounded entirely different. "It was like something from the year 3000," Jerkins told
Complex. He reworked his production, so it has a sparse, airy beat with minimal drums.
SZA booked Doja Cat to feature, but she had to drop out after undergoing emergency vocal cord surgery.
Dave Meyers took inspiration from SZA's fandom of Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown for the video. "We built an SZA-fied version of an offbeat underworld," he said, "and mixed in some symbolism around mental 'burdens' and cleansing to give the video a sense of spirituality to contrast the violence."
The colors of each video scene (including the blood) all symbolize burdens. "Orange symbolizes impatience, purple is for arrogance, green symbolizes judgment, which was shown with a judge dead in the trunk," Meyers explained. "Pink represents innocence, which we showed with the dead clown."
Stanfield is symbolic of SZA's ego. They are the same person, which is why she leaves him for dead at the end. "Clues for this are LaKeith stretching out of her body in the Astro scene," Meyers said, "and LaKeith seeing SZA in the rearview mirror in the car."
SZA and Meyers shot the car scenes on a Friday night on a real street. "We couldn't go more than 10 MPH with cops on all sides of the car, and the car kept breaking down," Meyers recalled.
"Shirt" took Best R&B at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. "
Kill Bill" was up for Song Of The Year and Video Of The Year but lost in both categories to "
Anti-Hero" by Taylor Swift.
