SZA and Don Toliver’s Joni lands inside the quiet between thoughts; barely two minutes long, yet unforgettable for how close it feels.
Recorded during early 2020 isolation in Kauai with Rob Bisel, it only found its way into the world on February 9, 2025, via Lana, the SOS deluxe reissue.
Delays caused by leaks and sample clearance not only stalled its rollout, they turned Joni into a quiet legend even before official streaming.
Its earliest life was a rougher trap version, uploaded to SZA’s anonymous SoundCloud in August 2021 alongside “I Hate You” and “Nightbird,” but it was the softer acoustic cut built on Elliott Smith’s Angeles fingerpicking that stayed with her.
The song draws on SZA’s admiration for Joni Mitchell’s balance of blunt truth and romantic idealism.
There’s a literary intimacy to the lyrics, as though we’re fraternising with someone’s internal monologue.
Across fleeting verses she moves through memory and desire, “I miss my mama when the tide is low,” blunt lines like “If the money right, is the pussy good?”, and wounded grace (“I’ve been wiped out like three times; beat that shit, call me nine lives”).
That pivot from “I got perfect timing” to “We got perfect timing,” changes perspective, and makes you wonder: what does Joni mean for SZA or the listener right now?
In that subtle flip, Joni becomes a meditation on presence, not about perfection, but about the quiet alignment that sometimes arrives after falling apart.
It’s less about chasing the right moment and more about recognising when time and self finally click into place; in family, in desire, in resilience. In those two minutes, SZA outlines a lifetime of small hopes and whispered surrenders.
Don Toliver’s cameo is understated but welcome, almost like a thought joining hers mid–stream.
YouTube listeners have called for more collaborations between the two, and the track’s stripped–back production makes the blend of voices feel deliberate, even in its brevity.
Some fans treat its 127–second runtime as a tease, others see its shortness as part of its charm.
There’s a kind of sad happiness in the way SZA folds darker lines into a delivery that shimmers like sunlight on water.
Musically, Joni leaves behind R&B layers, letting sparse guitar, and her airy harmonies invite you in.
The song drifts between unflinching detail and a soft–focus fantasy, letting both moods bleed into each other until they’re impossible to pull apart.
Its winding path to release is part of its story. SZA once said fans had “ruined” the song by circulating the leak, and TDE’s Punch cut it from SOS for being too familiar.
After years of loose leaks and label hesitation, it finally landed just hours before the Super Bowl halftime show.
Even after a 42–track spree, this two‑minute breath reasserts that in SZA’s world, delivery beats length every time.
Joni peaked at No. 35 on the New Zealand Hot Singles chart, but its staying power won’t be measured there.
That makes you pause and wonder: what does Joni mean, really, for SZA, for the listener?
It leaves you wondering whether “perfect timing” is about finally syncing with another person or about knowing exactly when to disappear.
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Joni Lyrics By SZA ft. Don Toliver
Verse 1: SZA
Summer’s over, and the money gone
I miss my mama when the tide is low
Moon corrals us to the water and my daddy calls on his
Favorite daughter for a host of loving words, I might oblige him
If the money right, is the pussy good?
I keep it tight for the right one
Save it all for the right one
Call it perfect timing
Verse 2: SZA
Make it bounce, baby, do a little more
I’ve been wiped out like three times
Beat that shit, call me nine lives
I got perfect timing
I got perfect timing
Per—
Verse 3: SZA
I can’t stop ’til my shit shine
I can’t stop ’til I reach my pеrfect
Tic-toc, ’til it go away
Time waits for nary man
I regrеt all the things we said in haste
Knowing the golden hour awaits for me
Twilight calls my name
Wrist froze, let the ice call my name too loud
Double zeroes by my name now
“And it’ll all makes sense in the end,” that’s what they say to us
Spending our time smoking that angel dust
We on perfect time, perfect timing
We got per—
Verse 4: Don Toliver
Okay, we fell out
But where I’ve been
See I can’t go, no, no, no, no, no more
Been around, up and down, oh
Been around myself
Been down on a lonely road, oh-oh-oh
We spend the night and kept it tidy
I’m so ready for many more, many more times
(Many more, many more, many more)
Talk love, girl, I need me plenty more (Plenty more)
For many more, many more times
