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Nearly 16 years ago, SZA dated her friend Kendrick Lamar’s now arch-rival, Drake. But, it was just a fling.
While SZA has said she’s on good terms with her ex, Drake, she’s also close friends with Lamar. Next weekend, she’ll be taking the stage at the Super Bowl with the “Not Like Us” rapper, who’s headlining the event. The two musicians are also going on tour together this year, following the 2024 release of Lamar’s album, GNX. SZA is featured in two songs on the album, “Gloria” and “Luther.”
The two friends have previously collaborated on multiple songs, including “Babylon,” which was on SZA’s 2014 EP, Z, and “All The Stars” from the soundtrack of the 2018 film, Black Panther.
Although SZA’s spending a lot of time with Kendrick in 2025, she’s had both a working and semi-romantic relationship with Drake, born Aubrey Drake Graham.
Here’s everything we know about SZA’s 2009 fling with the Canadian rapper, years before his feud with Lamar.
Drake publicly reveals he dated SZA in a 2020 song
In Drake’s 2020 song, “Mr. Right Now” with Metro Boomin and 21 Savage, he revealed that he once had a relationship with SZA, whose real name is Solána Imani Rowe. “Yeah, said she wanna f*** to some SZA, wait / ‘Cause I used to date SZA back in ’08,” he sang.
SZA didn’t hesitate to respond to this tune, as she later made some clarifications about when the brief romance happened.
“So It was actually 2009 lol,” she wrote on X/Twitter in October 2020. “In this case a year of poetic rap license mattered. Lol I think he just innocently rhymed 08 w wait. Anybody who really knows me and was around during this time can confirm.. it’s all love all peace.”
SZA addresses their fling more than 10 years later
According to the “Kill Bill” singer, her 2009 relationship with Drake was never that serious.
“We were really young,” she told Rolling Stone in 2023 about her time dating the “Family Matters” rapper. “It wasn’t hot and heavy or anything. It was like youth vibes. It was so childish.”
During an interview with Audacy in December 2022, she said that she and Drake were on good terms, noting they’ve “always been cool.”
“It’s never been weird. It didn’t come completely out of the blue when he let me know,” she said, referring to the romance being mentioned in “Mr. Right Now.” “I didn’t know it was a song with 21 [Savage] or anything like that. But anytime he’s ever mentioned me, it’s always been positive. He’s never said anything negative about me. I’m grateful for that. I think highly of him… He’s King Drake.”
SZA appears on Drake’s 2023 album
The two musicians have worked together before, as they collaborated on the 2023 tune, “Sline You Out,” from Drake’s album, For All the Dogs. SZA was also featured in another song on that album, “Rich Baby Daddy.”
Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud continues in 2024
Drake and Lamar’s once friendly relationship has descended into years of traded barbs and thinly veiled disses, fueled by fans who clash over which one is the better artist, and finally boiling over into a full-blown feud. The two singers have frequently made public but subtle digs at each other, leaning into one public perception in 2014 that Drake was a glorified pop artist, rather than a credible hip-hop star.
Last year, the tense drama between the singers reached new heights. Lamar turned to openly naming Drake in his track “euphoria”, seemingly a nod to Drake’s role as a producer on the hit HBO teen drama, which he dropped randomly in April 2024. The six-minute track sees Lamar open fire on Drake’s racial identity, his alleged use of ghostwriters, and recent remarks and behavior that have led to accusations of misogyny.
Just a few days later and before Drake had properly responded, Lamar dropped another incendiary track, “6:16 in LA”, on his Instagram.
Drake responded by releasing a series of diss tracks, including “Family Matters”, made up of three parts, in which he accuses Lamar’s pro-Black activism of hypocrisy.
The slew of diss tracks from the two stars continued, with the “Humble” rapper releasing “Not Like Us” via YouTube in May 2024. The song has racked up over 10 million views within only a matter of hours. It features an aerial image of Drake’s mansion with target symbols within.
In November, Drake filed two separate legal actions against Universal Music Group and Spotify, as he accuses UMG, the owner of his label Republic Records, of artificially inflating streams of “Not Like Us”.
In allegations that UMG branded “offensive and untrue”, the filing said that UMG “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves with a song, ‘Not Like Us’, in order to make that song go viral, including by using ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements.”
It said the company and streaming giant Spotify “have a long-standing, symbiotic business relationship” and alleges that UMG offered special licensing rates to Spotify for the song. The petition also accused UMG of firing employees seen as loyal to Drake “in an apparent effort to conceal its schemes”.
