Kill Bill

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Within the broader context of the SOS universe, this track represents the darkest corner of the narrator's psyche. SZA told Glamour in 2022 that many tracks in SOS centered around themes of revenge, heartbreak, and "being pissed": "I've never raged the way that I should have. This is my villain era, and I'm very comfortable with that." The premise of "Kill Bill" is heavily based on the Kill Bill films, a reimagining of Thurman's tale of revenge. While watching the films, Bill caught SZA's attention and she was inspired to create the song based on his behavior. She described him as a character who "doesn't understand why he did what he did", adding that he was "void of emotion, but he loved the Bride so much that he couldn't stand her to be with anyone else." In the first verse, the protagonist acts analogously to Bill, resentful about the new girlfriend that her ex-boyfriend has met: "Hate to see you with some other broad, know you happy / Hate to see you happy if I'm not the one drivin'."

In Their Own Story

The song was written during one of what SZA called "palate cleanser" moments, sessions where she would quickly write full songs in between ones she took more seriously and wanted to meticulously finish. With "Kill Bill", she wrote all of the lyrics on-the-spot in under an hour. What resulted was a song about a protagonist who goes on a quest to avenge her broken heart by murdering her ex-boyfriend for quickly moving on from their relationship. The violent lyrics are juxtaposed by SZA's soft, croon-like vocals, suggesting wholesomeness. Due to the violence, some radio stations played a censored version of "Kill Bill" with the word "kill" replaced by the sound of a slashing blade. The protagonist tries to navigate her issues through consultations with a therapist, making her dryly say she is mature and mockingly congratulate herself for it. Her therapist has advised her to...

Reader's Guide

"Kill Bill" was produced by Rob Bisel and Carter Lang, who wrote the song with SZA. Its creation, by SZA's account, was "super easy", and she deemed it a "one take, one night" type of song. Production began around May 2022 when Bisel, in his Los Angeles home's Ponzu Studios, played some chords on his Prophet-6 synthesizer. With it, he used Ableton to sample the synthesizer's flute-like sound. After adding a bassline from an electric guitar tuned down an octave, Bisel sent the Ableton clip to Lang for assistance. Lang's first approach to the beat consisted of a singular rhythm, which was an electronic fusion of bouncy bass drums, Roland TR-808 snares, and 16th-note hi-hat beats. Settling on a polyrhythmic production with a swing style, he took more beats from a separate, vintage drum machine and made them twice as slow as the first approach, and he added more guitars and bass on top. The two also incorporated a choir and backing vocals into the song. "Kill Bill", which was under the working title "Igloo", had five or six different demos from which Bisel and Lang had to pick for SZA. When she listened to the demos one night in July 2022, she immediately gravitated towards the boom bap beat. About a week later, on July 13, SZA was alone with Bisel in the studio for recording sessions, asking him to loop the beat in the background. It took five to ten minutes for SZA to come up with the hook's melody and lyrics, which she wrote on her phone. Within one day, the entire song was finished—SZA needed only one or two takes to record the vocals.

Did You Know?

• "Kill Bill" was SZA's first number-one on the Billboard Global 200 and US Hot 100 charts.
• The song spent eight weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 before an April 2023 remix featuring Doja Cat propelled the solo version to the top.
• On US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, it broke the record set by Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" (2019) for the chart's longest-running number one at 21 weeks.
• The music video, directed by Christian Breslauer, features Vivica A. Fox, one of the actresses who starred in the Kill Bill duology, in a supporting role.
• The song was recorded under the working title "Igloo" and had five or six different demos before SZA chose the boom bap beat.