SZA and Kendrick Lamar’s 30 for 30 doesn’t beg for interpretation. It plays like it already knows it’ll be studied.
A song that straddles intimacy and performance, it opens with Bobby DeBarge’s voice lifted from Switch’s I Call Your Name, drawing a direct line from vulnerability to bravado.
That sample alone sets a tone of confession, with DeBarge admitting to childish thoughts and insecurities.
They act as the track’s moral frame, drawing us back to a place before ego and spectacle.
Then SZA and Kendrick answer back, not as therapist and patient, but as co-conspirators in self-awareness and spectacle.
Originally released on 7 January 2025 as part of SZA’s reissue album Lana, the track is track two and was sent to radio alongside BMF.
Its commercial impact matched the noise around it, debuting at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs and peaking at No 10, and broke SZA’s record for most No. 1s by a woman on the chart.
Which makes sense – because this track doesn’t just ride the moment. It drags it into focus.
That balance of reflection and attack, melody and muscle, feels built for repeat listening but allergic to easy categorisation.
No. 10 on the Hot 100 following the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, despite not being part of the set list.
Produced by J. White Did It and Michael Uzowuru, the track trades between a smooth R&B structure and something more unhinged, more live wire.
Not quite a love song, not quite a diss track, but a deliberate exercise in framing.
SZA’s verses move like she’s rewriting her diary mid-entry. “Passed out in a n**** backseat / Crashed out on a black-sand beach,” she sings, pairing escapism with emotional burnout.
The images aren’t glamorous, they’re disoriented, a confession without apology.
Later, her voice curls around phrases like “That’s my only vice / I’d risk it all like I’m rolling dice,” walking that line between self-possession and recklessness.
There’s a melodic swagger to how she phrases things, almost rap-adjacent, without ever dropping the R&B cadence.
Then Kendrick arrives with a verse that sounds like it was carved out mid-laugh.
He doesn’t just add contrast; he alters the whole track’s posture.
Lines like “You fuckin’ with n****s that think they cuter than you / Say you on your cycle, but he on his period too” sparked immediate debate, especially given the pair’s recent history with Drake.
This moment echoes Kendrick’s strategic posture during Drake’s The Heart Part 6, carrying forward that same coded tension without ever spelling it out.
Kendrick builds his verse like a hall of mirrors, reflective, disorienting, and smug.
The phrase “some of y’all gon’ get washed” doesn’t just reference conflict, it doubles as cleansing.
He’s airing the industry out. The vocal layering between him and SZA builds tension that feels more personal than performative.
The title 30 for 30 is its own puzzle. Some hear ESPN docuseries, others speculate it might nod to Drake’s 30 for 30 Freestyle, while Reddit threads lean into numerology or a metaphor for endurance.
Thirty days, thirty nights, a full cycle of immersion. It might even nod to sobriety or isolation. The ambiguity is the point.
SZA and Kendrick construct the song like a meta-commentary on narrative control. They’re not offering answers. They’re handing you a locked box and asking what you see in the reflection.
The song doesn’t flow in a traditional verse-chorus format. Instead, it swerves, ducks, and repositions itself.
The outro is a stretch of “chat” repetition that feels less like filler and more like a fourth wall break.
One Reddit user suggested it mocks streamer culture, a cheeky nod to the performative intimacy of digital spaces.
Others hear it as a rejection of fake communication altogether.
Either way, the repetition leaves a ring in your ear, a reminder that even in high-art packaging, this is still a conversation between artists and their audience.
It also feeds into what sets this collaboration apart. Unlike features that feel more like data swaps, 30 for 30 has SZA and Kendrick occupying the same emotional plane.
They don’t just trade verses; they echo each other. When SZA says “Don’t hit me back,” Kendrick folds into the same sonic space, underscoring her withdrawal rather than responding to it.
That harmonic layering becomes its own form of commentary. They’re not duetting. They’re co-narrating.
There’s precedent to this kind of vocal chemistry. Think Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn.
Or more recently, Beyoncé and Jay-Z on On the Run. But 30 for 30 isn’t just a duet. It’s a tension chamber.
Unlike those pairings, SZA and Kendrick rarely resolve. Their dynamic on this track is less romantic and more tactical, like two generals sharing a battlefield.
It’s the same duality that powered their earlier 2024 track Luther, where the balance of harmony and friction set the tone for this later release.
On Luther, they moved like shadow and light. On 30 for 30, they walk in full daylight, but with knives tucked under silk.
That balance of smooth and sharp echoes in the production choices.
The beat is clean but deceptively tense, stripped back just enough to let their deliveries stretch and fold into each other.
One early YouTube comment put it plainly: it sounds like something that could play on HOT 97 or be dissected in a university seminar.
That split identity is deliberate. It’s pop accessibility meeting coded barbs.
If there’s one thread that runs through the entire track, it’s an unwillingness to settle.
Not for definition, not for validation, not for neat conclusions. 30 for 30 isn’t structured to please. It’s designed to provoke.
Whether you hear it as a relationship post-mortem, an industry reckoning, or a Drake diss in disguise, it plays out like a song aware that it’ll be picked apart.
And maybe that’s the real feat: turning a duet into an unsolvable riddle.
So what is 30 for 30 really? A reckoning? A flex? A feud wrapped in silk? Or just two artists refusing to be simplified?
The title asks for retrospection. Thirty moments in thirty lines, or thirty truths in thirty veils. But maybe the better question is: what are we still pretending not to hear?
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SZA 30 For 30 Lyrics Ft Kendrick Lamar
Intro: Bobby DeBarge
I used to think about immature things
You know, like
Do you love me? Do you want me?
Are you gon’ call me like you said you would?
Is this really your real phone number?
Chorus: Kendrick Lamar, SZA
Some of y’all gon’ get washed (Washed)
Some of y’all just gon’ pop shit
Some of y’all just gon’ talk (Talk)
But none of y’all ain’t really ’bout shit
Some of y’all just look lost (Lost, yeah)
I get this type of feeling you ain’t accustomed to
I swear I’d be at peace if it weren’t for you (Yeah, yeah)
Only want your love if it’s solid
But if it’s fuck me, then fuck you (Huh)
And that’s the way I like it
That’s the way I like it
And that’s the way I like it
Ain’t crackin’ a smile for none of these bitches
That’s the way I like it
I’m wipin’ ’em down in front of they nigga
That’s the way I like it
I’m thirty for thirty, I’m thirty for thirty, I’m thirty for thirty, I’m thirty for thirty, I’m
Post-Chorus: SZA
Chat
Should I fold that bitch, no yoga mat?
Chat
Should I dead that nigga? Don’t hit me back
Chat
Should’ve ran down on you, no questions asked
Chat, chat, they chattin’, they chat
Verse 1: SZA
When the sun go down, everything make me feel lonely, yeah
I love side thing, but right now, he’s just the homie
Tryna feel good inside, he never wanna hold me
Hype me up, you get me hyped, you my favorite coach
Come press the line
Fucking stress off, that’s my only vice
I take it off when he tell me if I’m feelin’ fine
I run it up, risk it all like I’m rolling dice
Takin’ it all, it’s my second life
That’s me (That’s me)
Passed out in a nigga backseat (Backseat)
Crashed out on a black-sand beach (Uh)
Already know my body
Already know that’s me
Bitch shit, then you might get minked
Mink, mink, mink
Only want the love if it’s solid
Chorus: Kendrick Lamar, SZA & Both
Some of y’all gon’ get washed (Washed)
Some of y’all just gon’ pop shit
Some of y’all just gon’ talk (Talk)
But none of y’all ain’t really ’bout shit
Some of y’all just look lost (Lost, yeah)
I get this type of feeling you ain’t accustomed to
I swear I’d be at peace if it weren’t for you (Yeah, yeah)
Only want your love if it’s solid
But if it’s fuck me, then fuck you (Huh)
And that’s the way I like it
Verse 2: Kendrick Lamar & SZA
Everything been otay (Otay)
They salute me so damn much, every time I show up, nigga about-face
Everything no cut, I fuck y’all up, I’m really gon’ trip ’bout bae (Mm-mm)
Blow the ’87 guts, why they waitin’ on us? Tell ’em I was on PCH
You fuckin’ with niggas that’s thinkin’ they cuter than you, oh
Say you on your cycle, but he on his period too, oh
The tables been turnin’ so much, I was thinkin’ it’s foosball
The tenderness of ’em, mistakin’ ’em for some wagyu, oh
Walk, talk like Kenny, like boss
Like Solána, I promise, more buzz, it’s a wasp
It’s a crater or a spaceship, shut the fuck up, get lost
No favors, I’ll wager whatever you worth, I ball
Somethin’ about a conservative, regular girl that still can beat a bitch ass
Thorough as fuck, don’t need your bitch ass
Psychic as fuck, can read your bitch ass
Zodiac sign, it must be a Gemini moon ’cause, shit, we about to go half
Mistakenly, nobody been in they bag, but how many bodies done been in her bed?
Chorus: Kendrick Lamar, SZA & Both
Some of y’all gon’ get washed (Washed)
Some of y’all just gon’ pop shit
Some of y’all just gon’ talk (Talk)
But none of y’all ain’t really ’bout shit
Some of y’all just look lost (Lost, yeah)
I get this type of feeling you ain’t accustomed to
I swear I’d be at peace if it weren’t for you (Yeah, yeah)
Only want your love if it’s solid
But if it’s fuck me, then fuck you (Huh)
And that’s the way I like it
That’s the way I like it
That’s the way I like it
Ain’t crackin’ a smile for none of these bitches
That’s the way I like it
I’m wipin’ ’em down in front of they nigga
That’s the way I like it
I’m thirty for thirty, I’m thirty for thirty, I’m thirty for thirty, I’m thirty for thirty, I’m
Post-Chorus: SZA
Chat
Should I fold that bitch, no yoga mat?
Chat
Should I dead that nigga, no strings attached?
Chat
Should’ve ran down on you, no questions asked
Chat, they chattin’, they chattin’, they chat
Outro: SZA & Kendrick Lamar
Chat
Do I let him bump his gums or get him whacked?
Chat
Do I take his head off and wear it for fashion?
Chat
Do I do my stuff and take it to the max?
Chat, they chattin’, they chattin’, they chat
