From the orange cargo-inspired pants to the off-orange crop tops worn by SZA and her dancers (in a look reminiscent of Britney Spears in “Sometimes”–with a touch of TLC’s “No Scrubs” panache), everything about the latest from R&B’s favorite ingenue smacks of the 00s. Beyond the sartorial and the “just mucking about” in an “ordinary” environment like a car junkyard “concept,” what strikes one most with 00s clout is the actual attention to detail on choreography. From the opening moment of SZA sitting inside of an elevated truck before smash cutting right to her dance moves in front of a tableau of pulverized cars, we can see there is something both fresh and throwback about the “Solána”-directed video (Solána, in case you didn’t know, is SZA’s real name).
With accompanying vocals from Ty Dolla $ign (who will literally jump on any track to keep his name out there), “Hit Different” also bears the signature beats of The Neptunes, as well as a subject matter that’s all too common in the “modern” world: being in an open relationship. Thus, SZA dives right into the heart of the matter with, “Hit different when I think you might be with somebody else.” For as “evolved” as we all claim to be, jealousy is one human emotion that likely won’t be stamped out until our transition into robots is complete. Interspersed shots of her in the aforementioned truck bed languishing and then writhing or in an oversized tie-dye shirt on top of a hay bale also scream “00s” with the seeming non sequitur nature of it, particularly with regard to what the song is about. But that was the fantastic thing about the decade: not everything had to be so literal, or even to make much sense beyond an excuse for elaborate choreography and costuming. So don’t knock it, for where has trying to “make sense” gotten us in the years that have followed this now hallowed decade?
Considering SZA’s uphill battle with Punch, the label owner of Top Dawg Management (not so “top,” it appears), it’s a monumental achievement that a new single is finally out, with hope of her sophomore record’s release once again renewed. Maybe that’s why there’s a certain jubilance to the song despite its bittersweet undertones, with lyrics like, “All that I know is mirrors inside me/They recognize you,” serving to bring back the more unabashed romantic declarations of 00s singles as well.
Soon, SZA has done a costume change into even baggier blue cargo pants matched with a patterned tube top and coordinating oversized blouse for “modesty.” In this ensemble she dances amid a row of cars with their hoods open (unwitting symbolism about her own openness with her feelings, or the openness of her relationship?) as her backup dancers follow suit in their own complementary getups–eventually circling around her for something like a “dance-off” (another popular trend in the 00s immortalized by a report in Us Weekly claiming that Britney challenged Justin to a dance-off at a club when she saw him there with his new boo, Jenna Dewan [Timberlake’s backup dancer before becoming Channing Tatum’s wife and then settling for theater actor Steve Kazee]).
Ty Dolla $ign shows up too, just to make sure you didn’t forget he has a part in the song. And at the three minute, twenty second mark, things make a tonal shift, and therefore, so does the visual theme, with SZA appearing at a gymnast’s bar in Fulani braids and a bikini, crooning in her slowed down pace.
But, for the majority of the video, the 00s (or “aughts,” as some annoyingly call them) prevail. While SZA might have only been twelve in 2002, when the peak of these aesthetic and choreographic moments of 00s pop culture were occurring, it clearly sunk in during her sponge-like youth, for she has made the vibe all her own in this video.
