Yeah, you read that right. No need for a double take — SZA really did cover "Lose Yourself," and it sounds fantastic, albeit unrecognizable from the original.
Sometimes all it takes to revive a buried classic is for a contemporary artist to pay it homage. We saw Royel Otis bring back the Cranberries' "Linger," Beyoncé tip her cowboy hat to "Blackbird" and Mitski reimagine Pete Seeger's "Coyote, My Little Brother," and now it's SZA's turn.
The multi-genre star behind SOS and Ctrl took to Instagram last night to share a cover of Eminem's hit track from his 2002 semi-biographical film 8 Mile, and she gave it all the signature SZA flow, runs and melancholy it needed to become completely her own, with an entirely redone instrumental to boot.
She clarified in the caption that the cover won't officially come out as part of any future projects, instead asking, "[You] ever just cover Eminem on some tender shit for feels?"
Most people probably haven't thought to cover the notoriously aggressive-sounding rapper "on some tender shit," but then again, SZA isn't most people. Check out a full snippet of her "Lose Yourself" cover below.