Kill Bill

A murder ballad where jealousy fuels a fantasy of revenge, set to a groovy, detuned melody.

"Kill Bill" is a song by American singer-songwriter SZA and the fifth single from her second studio album, SOS (2022). It is a pop and R&B murder ballad, built around a midtempo, groovy rhythm and a detuned melody. Guitars, a bassline, and a flute that was sampled from a Prophet-6 synthesizer constitute the song's production, which is influenced by the boom bap subgenre of hip hop. Mirroring the plot of the Kill Bill film duology (2003–2004) after which the song is named, the lyrics discuss a fantasy to kill an ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend out of jealousy, and they employ humorous irony alongside violent imagery that contrasts with SZA's soft vocals.

Quick Facts

Artist

SZA

Album

SOS

Written

2022–13 July 2022

Released

10 January 2023

Recorded

13 July 2022

Studio

Ponzu (Los Angeles); Carter Lang's home studio (Chicago)

Genre

Pop
R&B
hip hop

Label

Top Dawg; RCA

Lore & Background

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'."

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.