Kill Em Song Download
Kelley Deppert
Achieving success on streaming services, "Kill Bill" went number one in seven territories worldwide and reached the top 10 in eight more. It gave SZA her first number one on the Billboard Global 200. On January 10, 2023, RCA Records sent the song to US radio as the fifth single from SOS, attributing the decision to its streaming numbers. Boosted by a remix featuring American rapper Doja Cat three months later, the solo version of "Kill Bill" topped the US Billboard Hot 100, her first single to do so, after eight weeks at number two. It tied with three other songs for the second-most weeks at number two before reaching the top. On US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, "Kill Bill" broke the record set by "Old Town Road" (2019) for the chart's longest-running number one, with 21 weeks.
A music video for the song premiered the same day as its single release. Directed by Christian Breslauer, it reimagines several scenes from the Kill Bill films, with SZA as her version of the Bride and Vivica A. Fox, one of the actresses who starred in the duology, in a supporting role. SZA confronts her ex-boyfriend at the end and tears his heart out (with a special outro, set to SOS song, "Seek and Destroy", shows her bound with rope). On the SOS Tour, where she first performed "Kill Bill" live, she recreated various visual elements from the music video, including the costume. SZA had a spiked meteor hammer in hand that she swung across the stage, a callback to a fight scene in Volume 1.
SZA released her debut studio album, Ctrl, in 2017. Primarily an R&B album that deals with themes like heartbreak, Ctrl received widespread acclaim for SZA's vocals and the eclectic musical style, as well as the relatability, emotional impact, and confessional nature of the 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.[note 2]
"Kill Bill" was produced by Rob Bisel and Carter Lang, who wrote the song with SZA.[30] Its creation, by SZA's account, was "super easy", and she deemed it a "one take, one night" type of song.[note 3] While work on SOS had begun by 2019, "Kill Bill" was recorded in 2022 alongside a significant number of other tracks due to bursts of productivity from time pressure. Lang commented, "that's when [we] started feeling like, hey, 'We gotta do this shit like, it's been some years.' We bottled up that energy and everything was just sort of a preparation for that moment."[30]
Bisel asked Punch, president of SZA's label Top Dawg Entertainment, if he could do the mixing for "Kill Bill" on his own, to which Punch agreed. To Bisel, if anyone else took the task, the sonic vision he conjured for the song would get diluted: "I really wanted to see it through all the way to the end." His mentality for the sessions, which consisted of 120 tracks, was mixing the song "as if [he] had never heard the song before", a departure from his usual approach. Since reinforcing the song's boom bap influences was his primary goal, part of the task was making the drums from the rough recordings louder.[25]
Her therapist has advised her to seek other men, but SZA loves her ex-boyfriend to such a degree that she would rather still be with him than with anyone else. According to her, if she cannot have him back, then "no one should".[6][37] What follows is the hook, in which she openly fantasizes about killing him and his new girlfriend. She acknowledges, self-aware, that her intrusive thoughts are unhealthy and wonders "how'd I get here?"[38][39] Some critics argued that SZA amplifies the hook's unsettling nature and criminal themes using melodies evocative of lullabies.[7][39][40] For Philippine Daily Inquirer journalist Carl Martin Agustin, the hook conjures the imagery of "the bride preparing her mark for his eternal slumber".[21] Thurman's character manifests itself within SZA in the hook, moving the perspective away from Bill's. Despite hesitations, she begins her plans for revenge. SZA ends the hook with the line "Rather be in jail than alone."[20]
The last lyric of the final hook, and the last lyric of the song, contrasts with the first hook. "I might kill my ex, not the best idea / His new girlfriend's next," becomes "I just killed my ex, not the best idea / Killed his girlfriend next."[20] This final lyric shows her admission she would pick damnation in hell over his absence from her life. The "Rather be in jail than alone" from the previous hooks becomes "Rather be in hell than alone."[20][43] Some critics wrote that the last line unveiled the song's underlying tones of loneliness and turned "Kill Bill" into a tragedy.[41][44] In Nylon, Steffanee Wang thought it "will make you wonder how SZA can generate such devastation from such simplicity".[45]
"Kill Bill" was a success on streaming services,[46] with two weeks atop the Billboard Global 200 chart[47] and four weeks atop the US Streaming Songs chart.[48] It was SZA's first song to top the Billboard Global 200, and it did so in early January 2023, bolstered by around 64 million international streams. It debuted within the top 5 three weeks prior with around 57.9 million streams,[49][50] 36.9 million of which were from the United States. With these first-week US streaming figures, "Kill Bill" debuted atop Streaming Songs on the issue dated December 24, 2022, and marked her first number 1 song there. It became the first non-holiday song since 2018 to be the top entry on the chart for the week of Christmas.[51]
Once its airplay in the United States rose, "Kill Bill" reached the top 10 of the Radio Songs chart, SZA's first solo song to do so.[52] It was her third and fastest to top Rhythmic Airplay, the chart for rhythmic contemporary radio. The first was "Kiss Me More", a collaboration with American rapper Doja Cat, and the second was "I Hate U"; both were released in 2021. Rhythmic Airplay was the first radio chart "Kill Bill" topped. The song reached number one in early March 2023, after a 12% rise in audience impressions from the previous tracking week. With increasing reach in rhythmic radio, as well as urban and pop radio, "Kill Bill" entered the Radio Songs top 5 with 71.5 million in audience.[53] On Pop Airplay, it was SZA's second song to reach number one, after "Kiss Me More", and her first in a lead credit.[54]
With "Kill Bill" and "Nobody Gets Me", another track from the album, SZA acquired her sixth and seventh top 10 songs in the United States.[55] Meanwhile, in Canada, "Kill Bill" debuted at number 5 and later peaked at number 3.[56][57] SZA achieved her highest debut on the US Billboard Hot 100 when the song entered the chart as an album track in December 2022, at number three.[58] Before "Kill Bill", "Kiss Me More" had been her highest-charting song, with a peak of number three. "Kill Bill" surpassed the record when it rose to number two in its fifth week on the chart. Boosted by its release to radio and the premiere of its music video, its streams rose by 11%, airplay audience by 742%, and digital downloads by 37% compared to its fourth-week statistics.[59]
The song spent 17 of its first 18 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in the top 10. Of those 18 weeks, 8 were spent at number two.[60] Three songs kept "Kill Bill" from the top spot during its non-consecutive runs at number two. These are "Anti-Hero" (2022) by Taylor Swift,[59] "Flowers" (2023) by Miley Cyrus, and "Last Night" (2023) by Morgan Wallen.[61] After 8 weeks at number two, "Kill Bill" topped the Billboard Hot 100, becoming SZA's first number one in the United States. It tied with three other songs for the second-most weeks at number two before reaching the top, behind "Bad Guy" (2019) by Billie Eilish (9 weeks).[62] During the tracking week, the song's streams increased by 32% to 28.3 million, but its airplay audience decreased by 1% to 86.5 million.[63] On US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, "Kill Bill" was SZA's second number-one debut, after "I Hate U",[64] and was at number one for 21 weeks. It broke the record for the longest time a song spent atop the chart, surpassing Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" (2019),[65] despite decreasing consumption of the song by its 22nd tracking week.[66] During the succeeding tracking week, it was streamed 17.3 million times (down 5%), heard in radio by 69.2 million (down 5%), and sold 1,000 downloads (down 4%).[67]
The song had several top 5 peaks in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. "Kill Bill" spent multiple weeks at number one in New Zealand[68] and Singapore,[69][70] and it was the highest-charting international song in Malaysia for over a week.[71][72] It also went number one in Indonesia and the Philippines,[73] and it reached number 4 and number 3 in Vietnam and the MENA's regional chart, respectively.[74][75] "Kill Bill" marked SZA's first chart-topping song in Australia,[76] where it was certified quintuple platinum for selling over 350,000 units.[73][77] It received another platinum certification in New Zealand for selling over 30,000 units.[78]
Zoe Guy at Vulture noted the song for being an integral part of "an arsenal of pop-culture references" throughout the album and pointed out the "already well-seasoned lyrics about growing up".[38] Nylon chose the track as the top essential song of the album, praising the artist's ability to showcase her own emotions through "unspooling diaristic toxic thoughts and worst case scenarios".[45] Shepherd referred to the song as a "stalker lullaby" that the singer uses to convey "all her darkest thoughts".[39] Jon Pareles of The New York Times thought that Rowe sounded "both lighthearted and dangerous" on this "plush R&B ballad".[26] Melissa Ruggieri of USA Today included "Kill Bill" in her top 10 list of 2023's best songs,[83] while Jenn Pelly ranked it as the sixth-best song out of 100 on Pitchfork's year-end list[84] and Heran Mamo ranked it as the best song out of 100 on Billboard's year-end list.[85]
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