"Kill Bill" (originally titled "Igloo")[1] is the second track and fifth single from SZA's sophomore album SOS. It was released through Top Dawg and RCA on December 9, 2022.
The song gets its title from Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), a martial arts film duology that focuses on an assassin named the Bride and her quest to exact revenge on her ex-boyfriend by murdering him. Mirroring the films' plot, the song's lyrics discuss SZA's fantasy to kill an ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend out of jealousy. "Kill Bill" is a pop and R&B song backed by an electric bass and synthesizers, with a composition that consists of a midtempo, groovy rhythm and a detuned melody.
Critics praised "Kill Bill" for its candid exploration of SZA's unfiltered, violent emotions, finding her murder fantasies extreme but relatable to a degree. The song was a huge success in streaming services—it became SZA's first number one on the US Streaming Songs and Billboard Global 200 charts, and it surpassed 150 million global streams on Spotify within one month. The song reached the top 10 in over 10 territories worldwide, including the United States, with number one peaks in New Zealand and Singapore.
Following its success in streaming services, RCA Records promoted "Kill Bill" to US pop, rhythmic, and urban radio starting January 10, 2023. A music video for the song premiered on the same day; directed by Christian Breslauer, it reimagines several scenes from the Kill Bill films, featuring SZA as a rendition of the Bride and Vivica A. Fox, one of the actresses who starred in the duology, in a supporting role. The video ends as SZA confronts her ex-boyfriend and pulls his heart out, killing him.
Background[]
SZA released her debut studio album, Ctrl, in 2017. Primarily an R&B album that deals with themes like heartbreak, Ctrl received widespread acclaim for its vocal performances and eclectic musical style, as well as the relatability, emotional impact, and confessional nature of its songwriting. The album brought SZA to mainstream fame, and critics credit it with establishing her status as a major figure in contemporary pop and R&B music and pushing the boundaries of the R&B genre.
SZA alluded to potentially releasing her second album as early as August 2019 during an interview with DJ Kerwin Frost. Commenting on the creative process behind the album, she stated it would be as candid and personal as Ctrl: "This next album is even more of me being less afraid of who am I when I have no choice? When I'm not out trying to curate myself and contain." When SZA collaborated with Cosmopolitan for their February 2021 issue, she spoke about her creative process behind the album's conception. She said: "this album is going to be the shit that made me feel something in my...here and in here", pointing to her heart and gut.
From April to May 2022, SZA told media outlets that she had recently finished the album in Hawaii and said it was her most relatable or "unisex" body of work she had made to date. During a Billboard cover story published in November, SZA revealed that the title of her second album was SOS, scheduled for release sometime next month. On December 3, 2022, she appeared on Saturday Night Live and announced it would be released on December 9. Two days later, she posted the track list on Twitter. Out of 23 songs, "Kill Bill" appears as the album's 2nd track.
"Kill Bill" gets its title from Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), a martial arts film duology directed by Quentin Tarantino. The plot centers on an assassin named the Bride and her plans to murder Bill, the head of the enemy Deadly Viper assassins and a former love interest who tried to have her killed on the day she was about to be wed to someone else. While watching the films, Bill in particular caught SZA's attention, who found him a complex and nuanced character: "I feel like he doesn't understand why he did what he did. He's void of emotion, but he loved the Bride so much that he couldn't stand her to be with anyone else."
Music and lyrics[]
Music journalists have described "Kill Bill" as predominantly pop and R&B, drawing from associated genres such as psychedelic pop, pop-soul, and doo-wop. A midtempo, groovy rhythm and a detuned melody make up the song's composition, which is driven by an electric bass and synthesizers. SZA performs the song with a soft, croon-like vocal style.
SZA told Glamour in 2022 that many songs in SOS centered around themes of revenge, heartbreak, and "being pissed", adding "I've never raged the way that I should have. This is my villain era, and I'm very comfortable with that. It is in the way I say no [...] It's in the fucked up things that I don't apologize for." In the lyrics to "Kill Bill", SZA expresses resentment towards her former boyfriend after a break-up whilst at the same time trying to keep herself composed by looking at the situation from a rational perspective. The song's premise is heavily based on the Kill Bill films, in that it follows SZA as she plans to take vengeance on her ex-boyfriend through violent means.
In spite of her hatred and jealousy, SZA's love for her ex-boyfriend persists, exploring how intense love and intense vitriol towards somebody can often coexist with one another. She tries to navigate her issues through consultations with a therapist, which leads her to think she is mature and mockingly congratulates herself for it. Even though her therapist has advised her to seek other men, she loves him to such a degree that she would still rather be with him than anyone else. SZA sings that if she cannot have him back, then "no one should"; what follows is the chorus, in which she fantasizes about killing him and his new girlfriend. She acknowledges that it is a bad idea and wonders: "how'd I get here?"
As the song progresses, she begins to plan out her revenge—she carefully peruses old text messages with her ex-boyfriend that might implicate her in the murder. Come the final chorus, she has proceeded with the double homicide, and she reasons that going to jail is a better fate than being alone. SZA furthers justifies her actions by saying she murdered her ex-boyfriend out of love. In the last line of the final chorus, and the last line of the song, she admits she would rather go to hell than live without him.
Critical reception[]
Zoe Guy at Vulture noted the song for being an integral part of "an arsenal of pop-culture references" throughout the album and pointed out the "already well-seasoned lyrics about growing up". Steffanee Wang of Nylon chose the track as the top essential song of the album, praising the artist's ability to showcase her own emotions through "unspooling diaristic toxic thoughts and worst case scenarios". Pitchfork's Julianne Escobedo Shepherd referred to the song as a "stalker lullaby" that the singer uses to convey "all her darkest thoughts". Jon Pareles of The New York Times thought that Rowe sounded "both lighthearted and dangerous" on this "plush R&B ballad".
Discussing why the song became commercially successful and warmly received by critics and fans, Billboard writers pointed towards the emotional impact of its songwriting. They found the melodramatic nature of "Kill Bill" fun and wrote that although the sentiments echoed in the lyrics were extreme, there was a degree of relatability to the song's exploration of violence for the sake of love. As one of them, Cydney Lee, wrote: "while I obviously am not encouraging anyone to act on this, what woman (especially) hasn't emotionally been there before?? Also, people just love violence, and seem to have a weird fascination with 'crazy in love' relationship dynamics — and with it being track two on SOS, it almost felt like it was setting the tone for the album."
Commercial performance[]
"Kill Bill" was a huge success in streaming services, surpassing 150 million streams on Spotify within one month. It became SZA's third top 10 and highest-charting song on the Billboard Global 200 chart, where it reached number one in early January 2023 bolstered by around 64 million worldwide streams. It debuted within the top 5 three weeks prior with around 57.9 million streams, 36.9 million of which were from the United States. "Kill Bill" also debuted atop Billboard's US Streaming Songs chart on the issue dated December 24, 2022, and marked her first number 1 song there. It, along with three other tracks from SOS, were the only non-Christmas songs in the top 10 of the December 24 issue, and it also became the first non-Christmas song since 2018 to be the chart's number 1 entry.
With "Kill Bill" and "Nobody Gets Me", another track from the album, SZA acquired her sixth and seventh top 10 songs in the United States. Debuting at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Kill Bill" marked SZA's highest debut and highest-charting song as lead artist in the country, tied with Doja Cat's "Kiss Me More" (2021) on which she is featured as her highest-charting song overall. It topped Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for four consecutive weeks and was her second number 1 debut after "I Hate U" in 2021. Meanwhile in Canada, it debuted at number 5 and later peaked at number 4.
The song had several top 5 peaks in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. "Kill Bill" spent multiple weeks at number one in New Zealand and Singapore, was the top international song in Malaysia for one week, and reached number 4 in Vietnam and the MENA's regional chart. It became her fifth top 5 song in Australia once it entered the national singles chart at number 5. It reached its peak of number 2 the next week and fell to number 12 as Christmas songs occupied the entire Australian top 10 during the last week of 2022.
In mid–December 2022, "Kill Bill" debuted within the top 15 of the Irish Singles Chart and the UK Singles Chart. The song reached a new peak of number 4 in the United Kingdom at the beginning of 2023, after Christmas songs began falling off the chart once December ended. With this, "Kill Bill" became SZA's first top 10 solo song in the country and her third top 10 song overall. It peaked at number 3 around the same time in Ireland, whereas elsewhere in Europe, it was a top 20 song in Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and Portugal.
Release[]
Following the success of "Kill Bill" on streaming platforms, RCA Records chose it as the next single from the album. The label sent the song to US pop, rhythmic, and urban radio stations on January 10, 2023.
Music video[]
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Vivica A. Fox's appearance in the music video.
SZA expressed her gratitude for fans' warm reception of "Kill Bill" by posting a 20-second teaser of the music video to Twitter on December 29, 2022, having alluded to its creation around a week prior during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Directed by Christian Breslauer and produced by London Alley, the video is heavily inspired by the Kill Bill films. It recreates several scenes and plot points from the duology and features Vivica A. Fox, the actress who starred in Kill Bill as a Deadly Viper and the Bride's enemy Vernita Green, in a secondary role. Meanwhile, SZA appears as a recreation of the Bride's character; she appears in a red and black jumpsuit similar to the Bride's yellow and black one, and she uses a katana as her fighting weapon. The video premiered on YouTube on the same day as the song's release, briefly going private after its first 10 minutes of availability before being reuploaded again.
The opening scene contains the first out of many Kill Bill references, set in a trailer reminiscent of the one in which Budd, another of the Bride's sworn enemies, resided. During the scene, the boyfriend breaks up with SZA and leaves her in the trailer before he tells his gunmen, who act as the video's Deadly Vipers, to shoot her dead while she is inside. SZA survives the assault and gets in a car driven by Fox's character, after which she prepares to enact vengeance on the hitmen. She dresses up in the jumpsuit, gets a katana which she uses to decapitate a dummy, and drives on a motorcycle with the intent of finding her ex-boyfriend.
SZA arrives at a location analogous to the films' House of Blue Leaves, a Japanese bar that served as the headquarters for O-Ren Ishii, a high-ranking assassin of the Deadly Vipers. In there, she confronts several bodyguards who represent Ishii's Crazy 88, kill them one by one, and enter a room to face her ex-boyfriend. Drawn in an anime art style, the following scene is an allusion to the animated sequence that introduced Ishii's backstory in the Kill Bill films. The video comes to a close as SZA approaches the man and rips his heart out, fulfilling her revenge fantasies. In the outro for the video, another track from SOS, "Seek & Destroy", plays as a naked SZA hangs upside down tied in shibari, teasing a potential music video for the song.
Behind the scenes[]
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Remix[]
"Kill Bill (Remix)" is a remix by SZA featuring Doja Cat. It was released on April 14, 2023. The original song is from SZA's second studio album SOS.
After the immense success of SZA’s chart-topping hit “Kill Bill” about her own homicidal fantasies about an ex-lover, she now invites Doja Cat to feature on the track. The duo has collabed once before on Doja’s Grammy Award-winning lead single “Kiss Me More.” Doja was planned to be featured on SZA’s single “Shirt” for SOS (Deluxe) but due to scheduling conflicts, the collab fell through.
Lyrics[]
[Verse 1]
I'm still a fan even though I was salty
Hate to see you with some other broad, know you happy
Hate to see you happy if I'm not the one drivin'
[Pre-Chorus]
I'm so mature, I'm so mature
I'm so mature, I got me a therapist to tell me there's other men
I don't want none, I just want you
If I can't have you, no one should, I might
[Chorus]
I might kill my ex, not the best idea
His new girlfriend's next, how'd I get here?
I might kill my ex, I still love him, though
Rather be in jail than alone
[Verse 2]
I get the sense that it's a lost cause
I get the sense that you might really love her
The text gon' be evidence, this text is evidence
I try to ration with you, no murders, no crimes of passion
But, damn, you was out of reach
You was at the farmer's market with your perfect peach
Now I'm in amazement, playin' on my patience
Now you layin' face-down, got me singin' over a beat
[Pre-Chorus]
I'm so mature, I'm so mature
I'm so mature, I got me a therapist to tell me there's other men
I don't want none, I just want you
If I can't have you, no one will, I
[Chorus]
I might kill my ex, not the best idea
His new girlfriend's next, how'd I get here?
I might kill my ex, I still love him, though
Rather be in jail than alone
[Bridge]
I did it all for love (Love)
I did it all on no drugs (Drugs)
I did all of this sober
I did it all for us, oh
I did it all for love (Love)
I did all of this on no drugs (Drugs)
I did all of this sober
Don't you know I did it all for us? (I'll kill your ex tonight)
[Chorus]
Oh, I just killed my ex, not the best idea (Idea)
Killed his girlfriend next, how'd I get here?
I just killed my ex, I still love him, though (I do)
Rather be in hell than alone
Trivia[]
- In the music video, it features a guest appearance from Vivica A. Fox, the actress who starred in Kill Bill' as a Deadly Viper and the Bride's enemy Vernita Green, in a secondary role.
- The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Global 200 and on the US Billboard 100 chart, making it SZA's most successful song.
- And no, the song isn't about Bill Nye The Science Guy.
- the song that plays at the end of the video is "Seek & destory"