SZA introduced on social media Monday that her long-delayed album “Lana” — which will probably be a deluxe version of her Grammy-winning second full-length “SOS” — is approaching Friday. The put up options actor Ben Stiller singing alongside passionately with what’s presumably the brand new single, “Drive,” whereas driving on a wet night time.

Whereas her forthcoming stadium tour with Kendrick Lamar presents an awesome alternative to launch new materials — she’s been touring behind “SOS” because it was launched two years in the past — followers might be forgiven for skepticism, as there have been many false alarms (and first the album was a deluxe version, then it wasn’t and could be its personal album, now it’s a deluxe version once more). Nonetheless, evidently this time “Lana” is coming for actual.

The newest spherical of teasers started on the two-year anniversary of “SOS” with a brief video trailer that included a snippet of one of many album’s tracks. Within the nature-themed teaser, SZA pulls down her saggy camo pants to pee by a creek. She seems to be instantly into the digital camera earlier than pulling out tissue paper to wipe herself up and the phrases “Lana” seem throughout the display screen. She sings, “ we acquired an actual historical past/That’s the rationale I can’t select me/ that dick been good to me/You make it exhausting for me to decide on me.”

Again in August of final yr, she advised Selection, “[‘Lana’] is outtakes [from ‘SOS’] and new stuff, too — I added a few songs. It’s like a complete new challenge. It’s referred to as ‘Lana’ — my title however, it’s the primary tattoo that I ever acquired, once I was 13. It was 10 bucks a letter and I solely had 40, in order that that turned my nickname for no cause. ‘Lana’ is de facto simply the B-side of SOS.”

A month later, on Sept. 8, she carried out a free live performance on the Brooklyn Navy Yard the place she introduced the album — “The deluxe is a complete ’nother album. It’s referred to as ‘Lana.’ It’s seven to 10 songs and it’ll be out this fall.” Together with tracks from “SOS” and her debut full-length “Ctrl,” she carried out three unreleased songs on the live performance which were dubbed by followers “Boy From South Detroit,” “Saturn” and “DTM” (additionally known as “Diamond Boy,” and performed as a piece in progress throughout her Rolling Stone interview earlier this yr), though the official titles remained unclear.

The delay might be as a result of unauthorized “Lana” leaks, as SZA tweeted (after which deleted) again in March. She defined she could be “beginning ‘Lana’ from scratch” as a result of “y’all leaked three songs from the deluxe.” She continued, “At this level, y’all can hold the throwaways and leaks. I’ll be beginning ‘Lana’ from scratch. Don’t ask me about it once more,” including a couple of minutes later, “I’ll spherical up the leaks y’all already acquired and u can have these. Looks like a good deal. ENJOY.” That tweet was deleted shortly afterward.

Within the early hours of Wednesday morning, she wrote a collection of tweets stating the identical plan in additional element, confirming the deluxe version of SOS will now function “the leaks and outtakes” and Lana will probably be its personal album. “Lana deserves extra time and music nobody’s ever heard earlier than,” she wrote.