Like many other musicians, SZA is not happy about the wave of White House and ICE videos that use popular songs without the permission of artists.
SZA recently retweeted a post from her label boss, Terrence “Punch” Henderson, calling out the recent wave of propaganda videos from the Trump administration that used the music of artists without consent.
“Trying to provoke artist to respond in order to help spread propaganda and political agendas is nasty business,” wrote Punch. “Knock it off.”
The “Kill Bill” singer was in firm agreement with Punch, and added, “White House rage baiting artists for free promo is PEAK DARK… inhumanity + shock and [awe] tactics… Evil n Boring .”
The White House account on X, formerly Twitter, recently posted a video of ICE officers in military fatigues arresting people set to SZA’s song “Big Boys.” The post featured the caption, “WE HEARD IT’S CUFFING SZN. Bad news for criminal illegal aliens. Great news for America.”
Following SZA’s criticism, per Deadline, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson added, “Thank you, SZA, for drawing even more attention to the tremendous work America’s ICE officers are doing by arresting dangerous criminal illegal aliens from American communities.”
SZA’s post comes not long after Sabrina Carpenter criticized the White House for using her song “Juno” in social media videos without her consent.
“This video is evil and disgusting,” she wrote in response to the abhorrent video, which showed multiple people being arrested by ICE. “Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
Carpenter and SZA aren’t the only artists who have expressed a strong opposition to the practice, which typically features video content celebrating mass immigration arrests set to memes or popular tracks.
Olivia Rodrigo also criticized the DHS for using her song “All American Bitch” to soundtrack a video that told immigrants to “self-deport” or “face the consequences.” In her response, she wrote, “Don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.”
