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"Smoking on My Ex Pack" is a song by American singer-songwriter
records during the making of ''SOS''. The final product contains three rap tracks—one in the beginning, one in the end, and one in the middle. The rap track in the middle is titled "Smoking on My Ex Pack". The song's composition incorporates chipmunk soul, a production style that uses looped
''Looped'' is a play by Matthew Lombardo about an event surrounding actress Tallulah Bankhead. It had a Broadway run in 2010, after two previous productions in 2008 and 2009, all three of them featuring Valerie Harper.
Plot
Based on a real even ...SZA
Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA ( ), is an American singer and songwriter. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she began making music in the early 2010s, releasing two extended plays before signing with the hip ...
from her second studio album, ''SOS
is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, that was originally established for maritime use. In formal notation is written with an overscore line, to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" ...
'' (2022). The second of the album's three rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
tracks, it is a boom bap song with a chipmunk soul production style, fusing hard-hitting drum beats with a sped-up sample
Sample or samples may refer to:
Base meaning
* Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set
* Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal
* Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...
of Webster Lewis's "Open Up Your Eyes" (1981). Before ''SOS'', SZA had been known as an R&B artist who made "sad girl" music, a narrative she wanted to dispel because she viewed it as reductive. Particularly, she believed her being categorized strictly as R&B was racially insensitive. As such, she wanted to experiment with "aggressive" hip hop music for ''SOS'', leading to the conception of "Smoking on My Ex Pack". Its producer was Jay Versace, to whom SZA credited her first attempts at rap music.
In the lyrics, SZA makes braggadocious comments about her sexual desirability and ridicules her past lovers in various ways, for instance insulting their penises. Her rapping originally lasted for over two minutes, but she had the song cut in half because she was unsure if the rapping was good enough. Critics in contemporary reviews felt otherwise and found the songwriting effectively harsh and the flow satisfactory, believing it showcased SZA's potential to become a proper rapper. Some deemed "Smoking on My Ex Pack" a highlight of ''SOS'' or of her discography. After the album's release, the song charted in the US and Canada, reached number 71 on the ''Billboard'' Global 200, and was included in the set list of the SOS Tour.
Background
SZA
Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA ( ), is an American singer and songwriter. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she began making music in the early 2010s, releasing two extended plays before signing with the hip ...
released her debut studio album, ''Ctrl
In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, performs a special operation (for example, ); similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself. ...
'', in 2017. Primarily an R&B album that deals with themes like heartbreak, it received widespread acclaim for SZA's vocals and the eclectic musical style, as well as the 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. Her next studio album was highly anticipated by fans and music critics alike, and as early as August 2019 she alluded to its completion "soon", during an interview with DJ Kerwin Frost.
From April to May 2022, SZA told media outlets that she had recently finished the album in Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
and said that it was coming soon. Wanting to experiment with genres she had not yet incorporated in her discography, SZA envisioned it to be an amalgamation of disparate musical styles, or in her words, "a little bit of everything". While some tracks were balladic or soft, certain others had an "aggressive" sound. Apart from the "traditional" R&B that had been a staple of SZA's past works, the album also contained prominent elements of hip hop music.
Music and production
SZA wanted to include rap as a major element of her second studio album, ''SOS
is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, that was originally established for maritime use. In formal notation is written with an overscore line, to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" ...
'' (2022). The media tended to categorize her as an R&B artist, and she staunchly disagreed with the description. In her view, she was being described strictly as R&B because she was a Black woman, to which she asserted: "I love making Black music, period. Something that is just full of energy. Black music doesn't have to just be R&B ..Why can't we just be expansive and not reductive?"
According to Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
, president of SZA's record label Top Dawg Entertainment, SZA recorded an " nowiki/>extended play">extended_play.html" ;"title="nowiki/>extended play">nowiki/>extended plays worth" of strictly Rap music">rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...samples of Soul music">soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
music; in the case of "Smoking on My Ex Pack", the song sampled is Webster Lewis's "Open Up Your Eyes" (1981). "Smoking on My Ex Pack" is a boom bap song, built around hard-hitting drum beats.
Jay Versace, a record producer and former comedian, produced "Smoking on My Ex Pack". Versace, whom SZA credited with getting her interested in creating "aggressive" rap music, created the beat sometime in 2022, three years after the two first met up for the album's recording sessions. He was inspired by the boom bap music he had heard growing up, much of which played on his car radio when he was driving with his father. For "Smoking on My Ex Pack", he wanted SZA's take on these childhood songs: "I literally made that for her ..That was specifically for her."
Versace chose to sample "Open Up Your Eyes" because of his interest in love ballads from the latter half of the 20th century, citing the "really crazy instrumentation in their music". Particularly, he liked the song's Horn (instrument)">horns Horns or The Horns may refer to:
* Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells
* The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain
* ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...and vocals, so he created the sample in Ableton and formed a beat around it. Once he finished, he sent the audio file to SZA, who started writing the lyrics almost immediately. About the production, she texted him: "Your beats are so easy to write to. Why am I already writing lyrics right now?"
Lyrics
SZA said that while creating ''SOS'', she learned that sometimes she could act like a villainous "bitch" and that she had to come to terms with this perception of herself. According to her, many songs on the album centered around themes of revenge and "being pissed" to a degree that she had never felt before. She described how these feelings manifested in its tracks: "It is in the way I say no ..It's in the fucked up things that I don't apologize for." Versace encouraged her to "talk her shit" on "Smoking on My Ex Pack", the lyrics to which she wrote to dispel a narrative that she only made "sad girl music". Its initial version was over two minutes long, but SZA scrapped the song's first half because she did not feel confident enough in her rapping skills. The released version of "Smoking on My Ex Pack" is 1 minute and 23 seconds long. ''Spin'' compared its lyrics to blind items, or articles that do not disclose the identity of their subject and are frequently gossip pieces.Braggadocio
Braggadocio may refer to:
*Braggadocchio, a fictional character in the epic poem ''The Faerie Queene''
*A braggart or empty boasting
*Braggadocio (rap), a type of rapping
*Braggadocio (typeface), a typeface
*Braggadocio, Missouri
Braggadocio is ...
is also a major element of the songwriting. In the song's verse, SZA communicates her desirability to men and announces "them hoe accusations weak" and "them bitch accusations true". After revealing how she embodies those traits by saying she presents an unfriendly attitude and has sex with men she calls heart throbs, she finds various ways to insult her past lovers.
SZA raps about having "your favorite rapper" blocked on social media, saying she heard a rumor that his "dick was wack
WACK (1420 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a full service format and licensed to Newark, New York, United States. The station is owned by Waynco Radio, Inc., and features programming from CNN Radio and Westwood One.
WACK is the station whe ...
". Certain athletes, who try to flirt in her messages and incessantly ask she text them back but to no avail, are other subjects whom she targets. Her lesser side, she reasons, loves to taunt people, explaining her refusal to make exceptions for any of the men she does not acknowledge. She rejects an ex-boyfriend seeking to rekindle their relationship, through the lines "he screamin', 'Gеt back together', I'm screamin', 'Back of thе bus, trick! The lyrics contain a comparison between SZA's former romantic partners and Sideshow Bob
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger Jr., PhD, better known as Sideshow Bob, is a recurring character in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Kelsey Grammer and first appeared in the episode " The Telltale Head". Bob is a se ...
, a character from ''The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' who is a clown and a criminal:
Release
During a ''Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' cover story published in November 2022, SZA revealed that the album's release date was scheduled for sometime during the following month. She posted the album's track list on Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
on December 5, and ''SOS'' was released four days later. Out of 23 songs, "Smoking on My Ex Pack" appears as the eleventh track. The song charted in Canada, the United States and its component Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
, and the ''Billboard'' Global 200 upon the album's release. In April 2023, it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
.
One month after the album's release, American rapper Latto performed a freestyle rap over the beat of "Smoking on My Ex Pack". SZA reacted positively; on Instagram, she wrote, "OH ITS UPPPPPP", paired with a heart emoji. The song had its live performance debut during the SOS Tour, performed while SZA went backstage for an outfit change, which the stage screen captured.
Critical reception
Critics were positive about SZA's experimenting with rap on "Smoking on My Ex Pack", lauding it for showcasing her more confident side. They welcomed its lyrics for marking a departure from her other works, which primarily focused on angst and vulnerability, and its placement between tracks that, by contrast, focused on SZA's insecurities about her relationships. Much of the praise focused on the harshness and unfiltered nature of her songwriting. They found it clever, funny, or emotionally impactful. Shaad D'Souza of ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' wrote: "the 'SOS''lyrics that stick out to me aren't the deeply sad ones that seem to be the basis for a lot of 2am tweets and TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
captions, but the ones that call bullshit on ideas that SZA should have to be respectable or 'real'." Other music journalists wrote that "Smoking on My Ex Pack" best exemplified the album's lyrical motif of begrudging disapproval towards SZA's ex-partners and was the album's "most stank-face-inducing" track.
Another point of commentary was SZA's flow and delivery, attributes that led many critics to think her first attempts at rap music demonstrated her potential to become a good rapper. In the words of ''The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'' Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen: "she takes to rapping for the first time and she sounds like a natural, with impeccable flow and a healthy dose of venom." For this reason, Steffanee Wang of ''Nylon'' and Precious Fondren of ''HipHopDX
''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group.
...
'' called "Smoking on My Ex Pack" a highlight of ''SOS''—Fondren recommended that readers play it on repeat. Some critics liked how the harsh rapping in "Smoking on My Ex Pack" juxtaposed the soft sound of the album tracks that come before it. Paul Attard, ''Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'' writer, argued that this provided the album's otherwise weak middle section some much-needed catharsis.
"Smoking on My Ex Pack", for critics Jason P. Frank of ''Vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
'' and Robyn Mowatt of ''Okayplayer
Okayplayer is an online hip-hop and alternative music website and community, described by ''Rolling Stone'' as a "tastemaker" and "an antidote to dull promotional Web sites used by most artists".
The community was founded by The Roots' drummer ...
'', was a highlight of SZA's discography. Encouraging SZA to make more lyrically similar songs, Frank wrote: "in the context of her career, it's also a flex; her best is not her limit — it's the floor." In '' Complex'', Ecleen Luzmila Caraballo listed the "Smoking on My Ex Pack" rap verse as one of the best of 2022 and wrote that SZA's usage of wordplay further strengthened her lyrics. She and Frank, however, took issue with the song's length, feeling "Smoking on My Ex Pack" did not reach its full potential due to its shortness.
Credits
Adapted from the liner notes of ''SOS'' Recording and management * Engineered at Westlake Studio A (Los Angeles, California) * Mixed at The Gift Shop (Los Angeles) * Mastered at Becker Mastering (Pasadena, California) * Contains a sample of "Open Up Your Eyes" as performed by Webster Lewis, written by Skip Scarborough and Raina Taylor, published by Warner Chappell Music, Inc. (BMI) and Raina Bundy (Raina Bundy Publishing Designee) (BMI), used courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment. Personnel * Solána Rowe (SZA
Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA ( ), is an American singer and songwriter. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she began making music in the early 2010s, releasing two extended plays before signing with the hip ...
) vocals, songwriting
* Jahlil Gunter ( Jay Versace) songwriting, production
* Skip Scarborough songwriting
* Raina Taylor songwriting
* Dylan Neustadter engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
* Rob Bisel engineering
* Josh Deguzman engineering
* Syd Tagle assistant engineering
* Jon Castelli mixing
* Dale Becker mastering
* Katie Harvey assistant mastering
* Noah McCorkle assistant mastering
Charts
Certifications
Notes
References
{{Portal bar, Music 2022 songs SZA songs Songs written by SZA Songs written by Skip Scarborough American hip hop songs