SZA has presented a top industry honor to TDE executives Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith and Terrence “Punch” Henderson, as their work was recognized with the Billboard Visionary Award.
The ceremony took place on Wednesday (January 31) in Hollywood, CA. After the pair — who first founded the record label 20 years ago, in 2004 — were introduced by the legendary Clive Davis. Following the introduction, he “All The Stars” chanteuse took to the mic to give her record label bosses their props.
“I was just talking to Punch the other day about how much vision he had to have to see what he saw in me with no credentials,” she said.
“I really was looking insane and behaving insane and refused writers and all these things, and he believed in me. People would come to him and tell him he should change how I look, or I should be doing these kind of beats or working with these writers, and he didn’t change a single thing about me.”
She continued: “He completely believed and constantly told me that I was the greatest, which I thought was ridiculous, and I was so grateful for his delusion. You know, Top literally also somehow had this belief in me, and I was nothing like any of my family members in TDE, I didn’t come from the same place, I was just a different type of person, and no matter how many times we would have conversations that differed, he would fight to understand me.”
Check out the full clip from the ceremony below.
The personal and professional admiration between SZA and TDE certainly goes both ways.
Last year, Punch took to Twitter (now known as X) to wax poetic on the “surreal” success of SZA’s album, SOS.
“Man. Sitting here thinking about all of the success and conversation surrounding SOS,” he wrote. “It’s truly a surreal moment. Wanted to take time and say thank you to every person who was/is involved in making this thing go! You are truly appreciated!”
As a result of the success of the album, SZA became the first woman in R&B to top the chart for five consecutive weeks at any point following an album’s release in the 21st century.
SZA and the TDE president didn’t always see eye-to-eye throughout the creative process before SOS‘s completion, but the winding road to the finish line proved to be more than worth it for both parties.
