SZA talks about how Punch @ TDE restricted what songs were and weren't on "SOS".

[Spiritual Stratocaster]

She got 23 songs on her album, most being 2-3 mins, what songs did he force you to keep long and songs did he force off…shut the fukk up.

The Punch SZA publicity beef angle is so fukking annoying, they got a hit album on their hands but keep the negative spin as part of their promo

Word

"Omg all this success on the album...I think it's okay "

Like Damn enjoy your success ma..

 

[Ziggiy]

I imagine that's probably the case for a lot of rappers starting out, especially back in the day. First album more curated by a third-party and then they start expanding their own vision. Like with Nas for example, I imagine with Illmatic Large Pro and MC Serch probably had a bigger hand in getting it all together, and then It Was Written was more himself

DJ Premier sequenced Illmatic

DJ Premier Reveals That He Sequenced Nas' 'Illmatic'

During an appearance on Anderson .Paak's radio show ".Paak House Radio," DJ Premier discussed how he came to sequence Nas' classic album.

www.okayplayer.com

I think the Track Masters sequenced It Was Written but I don’t have a link for proof. I believe the Complex “Making Of It Was Written” mentioned it. Poke & Tone made it out to seem like IWW was a team effort between them, Steve Stoute, and Nas.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

I imagine that's probably the case for a lot of rappers starting out, especially back in the day. First album more curated by a third-party and then they start expanding their own vision. Like with Nas for example, I imagine with Illmatic Large Pro and MC Serch probably had a bigger hand in getting it all together, and then It Was Written was more himself

I know Premier sequenced Illmatic. Something tells me that half the time, Nas didn't care about that kind of thing and let someone else do it. The sequencing/tracklisting for The Lost Tapes wasn't done by him, if I remember correctly.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Basically she writes and sings and Punch is in charge of everything else

Sounds like standard A&R/Management work to me. Not every artist is a genius who has a top to bottom vision for their albums.

I could see Jay Rock being similar with allowing Punch or someone within TDE to regulate tracklistings and sequencing.

Kendrick and Ab-Soul more than likely dictate their work from end to end. Especially Kendrick. His work always comes across as a singular creative vision.

Schoolboy Q could go either way.

Agreed. Kendrick also sequenced all of Q's albums.

She seems too scatter brained to be a Prince or MJ type artist who has a clear vision of where she wants to go, and that clearly led to some of the delays. Also I noticed she brought up Rob Bisel a lot in that clip. When creating her last album, SZA clashed a lot with Derek Ali, aka MixedByAli - who was the main TDE engineer for a long time. He mixed Hit Different, and that original version of Good Days (at the end of the video). Yet he doesn't have any credits on SOS, and the album version of Good Days has a different mix from Bisel. When the official video for that song came out it was pretty obvious there was a different mix. Vocals weren't as clear, instrumentals were higher and fuzzier. I noticed that a lot while listening and it kind of leads to parts of the album sounding ehhh. Makes me wonder if switching from Ali to Rob was the only thing Punch and them let her decide. And it was the wrong decision lol. If you look at the album credits there are literally dozens of engineers and mixers on the album alongside Rob.

Ali then went on to mix/engineer Summer Walker's new album.

 

[Fanservice]

This nikka “Punch” need a new nickname or something. Shyt ain’t a good look for the headlines

 

[EastsideRio]

Who the fukk would make a song called boy from South Detroit? It’s no such place, it don’t even exist





Refrence made up 1980’s victory songs brehs

 

[EastsideRio]

That south Detroit song wouldn't fit on the album and isn't that good to be more than a skit tbh. Put that shyt as a bonus track.

Michiganders hate that “South” Detroit shyt. Nothing is south or south of Detroit.

 

[bourgeoisie tall freak]

it's a reason why TDE is a legendary record label and twitter is literally bird talk, sis

 

[Guvnor]

Michiganders hate that “South” Detroit shyt. Nothing is south or south of Detroit.

True but shyt probably just a play on the girl from Ipanema and south Detroit made the song flow better.

Agreed. Kendrick also sequenced all of Q's albums.

She seems too scatter brained to be a Prince or MJ type artist who has a clear vision of where she wants to go, and that clearly led to some of the delays. Also I noticed she brought up Rob Bisel a lot in that clip. When creating her last album, SZA clashed a lot with Derek Ali, aka MixedByAli - who was the main TDE engineer for a long time. He mixed Hit Different, and that original version of Good Days (at the end of the video). Yet he doesn't have any credits on SOS, and the album version of Good Days has a different mix from Bisel. When the official video for that song came out it was pretty obvious there was a different mix. Vocals weren't as clear, instrumentals were higher and fuzzier. I noticed that a lot while listening and it kind of leads to parts of the album sounding ehhh. Makes me wonder if switching from Ali to Rob was the only thing Punch and them let her decide. And it was the wrong decision lol. If you look at the album credits there are literally dozens of engineers and mixers on the album alongside Rob.

Ali then went on to mix/engineer Summer Walker's new album.

Why was that the wrong decision if Ali and SZA clashed? SZA album is more successful than Summer Walker and the mix sounds better. Especially the acoustic songs like Nobody Gets Me. Kill Bill sounds crisp asf. They did gods work to make SZAs mediocre voice sound like that or she got way better.

 

[KingsOfKings]

Something's he's not wrong about

 

[thaKEAF]

Is there a thread on album sequencing? That in itself is something that can make or break most albums.

 

[FunkyFresh]

TDE normally knock it out the park in terms of sequencing

Oxymoron aside. First half of the album flowed well the second half it just seemed like
It was single after single, great tracks but I think it’s could have flowed better

Death row album sequencing

 

[jwinfield]

Agreed. Kendrick also sequenced all of Q's albums.

She seems too scatter brained to be a Prince or MJ type artist who has a clear vision of where she wants to go, and that clearly led to some of the delays. Also I noticed she brought up Rob Bisel a lot in that clip. When creating her last album, SZA clashed a lot with Derek Ali, aka MixedByAli - who was the main TDE engineer for a long time. He mixed Hit Different, and that original version of Good Days (at the end of the video). Yet he doesn't have any credits on SOS, and the album version of Good Days has a different mix from Bisel. When the official video for that song came out it was pretty obvious there was a different mix. Vocals weren't as clear, instrumentals were higher and fuzzier. I noticed that a lot while listening and it kind of leads to parts of the album sounding ehhh. Makes me wonder if switching from Ali to Rob was the only thing Punch and them let her decide. And it was the wrong decision lol. If you look at the album credits there are literally dozens of engineers and mixers on the album alongside Rob.

Ali then went on to mix/engineer Summer Walker's new album.

Just realized Ali wasn't on Mr. Morale.

 

[K.O.N.Y]

Damn sza has no writing or production credits to herself

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Damn sza has no writing or production credits to herself

Is she a producer? And seems like the current climate has everyone on writing credits, some of it being producers finessing their way into credits for more royalties others for the most mundane contributions, 8+ writers seems to be the wave these days