Smoking On My Ex Pack

## Smoking On My Ex PackSong by SZA

"**Smoking On My Ex Pack**" is the eleventh track from SZA's sophomore album *SOS*. It was released through Top Dawg and RCA on December 9, 2022.

A snippet of the song's demo has leaked. ( listen)

## Background

SZA released her debut studio album, *Ctrl*, in 2017. Primarily an R&B album that deals with themes like heartbreak, it received widespread acclaim for its vocals and 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 therefore highly anticipated, and she alluded to its completion as early as August 2019 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 and said that it was coming soon. Wanting to experiment with genres she had not yet incorporated in her discography, she envisioned it to be an amalgamation of various 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* (2022), refusing to be described solely as an R&B artist because she was a Black woman: "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?" The album contains three rap songs—one in the beginning, one in the end, and one in the middle. "Smoking in the Ex Pack" is the rap song in the middle, placed between many acoustic songs with themes that discuss insecurities in her relationships. Built around a chipmunk soul production, it incorporates a looped, sped-up sample of "Open Up Your Eyes" (1981) by Webster Lewis alongside hard-hitting drum beats that give it a boom bap musical style.

"Smoking on My Ex Pack" was produced by Jay Versace, a record producer and a former comedian, whom SZA credits with getting her interested in creating "aggressive" rap music. Versace created the beat for the song sometime in 2022, three years after the two first met up for the album's recording sessions. The production was inspired by boom bap music he had heard from his childhood, many of which reminded him of songs that would play on the car radio during drives 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 "Open Up Your Eyes" as the song's sample because of his interest in love ballads from the latter half of the 20th century, citing the "really crazy instrumentation in their music". He became hooked with the horns and the vocals in "Open Up Your Eyes" in particular, so he created a sample of it in Ableton and started forming the beat around it. Once he was done, 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?"

## Release and reception

During a *Billboard* cover story published in November, SZA revealed the album title, as well as the release date which was scheduled sometime next month. On December 5, 2022, she posted the album's track list on Twitter, and *SOS* was released four days later. Out of 23 songs, "Smoking on My Ex Pack" appears as the eleventh track. Upon its release, the song charted in the United States and Canada, with peaks at numbers 52 and 61, respectively. It peaked at number 23 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number 71 on the *Billboard* Global 200.

Critics were positive about SZA's experimenting with rap on "Smoking on My Ex Pack". They welcomed its lyrics as a departure from her other works, which primarily focused on angst and vulnerability, and lauded it for showcasing her more confident side. Much of the praise focused on the harshness and unfiltered nature of her songwriting, which they found clever, funny, or emotionally impactful. *Vulture* and *Okayplayer* found the song a highlight of her discography; *Complex* listed its rap verse as one of the best of 2022 and argued that SZA's usage of wordplay further strengthened her lyrics. Asking SZA to make more lyrically similar songs, *Vulture* wrote: "in the context of her career, it's also a flex; her best is not her limit — it's the floor."

Another point of commentary was SZA's flow and delivery, attributes that led 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*, "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, *Nylon* and *HipHopDX* called "Smoking on My Ex Pack" a highlight of *SOS*; *HipHopDX* recommended its readers to 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; *Slant Magazine* argued that this provided the album's otherwise weak middle section some much-needed catharsis. Meanwhile, a few others considered the song's length as its primary weakness, feeling like it did not reach its full potential due to its shortness.

## Lyrics

**[Verse]**

Roll the clip and run it back, I'm really like that

I'm really not friendly, I need my credit, n\*ggas hate that

I need the numbers

I need the data, got you talkin' crazy

Abracadabra, you n\*ggas sideshow

I'm Bobbin' like psycho

You gassin' like Texaco

Infection like microbe

You test it, I might go

You push it, I might pop

I'm fuckin' on heartthrobs

I got your favorite rapper blocked

I heard the dick was whack

Your favorite athlete screamin', "Text me back"

I make no exception

The lesser part of me loves all the cap

He screamin', "Get back together"

I'm screamin', "Back of the bus, trick"

Hawaii for weather

Booty softer than leather

These hoes is featherweight

I wipe my phone and gave some dome, I beat the case

Them "ho" accusations weak

Them "bitch" accusations true

You hatin' from nosebleeds, I wish you well

**[Chorus]**

Smokin' on my ex pack tonight

Smokin' on my ex pack tonight

Smokin' on my ex pack tonight

Smokin' on—

You can trust in me

I can, you said

"I can trust in you"

I can, I can

You can trust in me

You can, you can

Oh, oh

## Trivia

* The song is rumored to be about one of her alleged ex-boyfriends, Drake.
* Smoking her ex’s pack is mentioned in the lyrics, which alludes to properly disrespecting them, and moving on from a previous relationship.