SZA Enters the New Jersey Hall of Fame, courtesy of Danny DeVito

SZA is now a New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee — and, by her own account, that was only the evening's second-biggest development.

"Got inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame," SZA wrote on Instagram after Thursday night's ceremony. "MORE IMPORTANTLY I MET DANNY DEVITO."

DeVito hosted the induction at the Dream Live Performing Arts Center at American Dream. The actor himself entered the Hall in 2010.

SZA's résumé hardly needed the boost. She has won seven Grammy Awards, landed two RIAA diamond-certified hit singles, and received the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. But her speech at the ceremony struck a more earnest tone than her caps-lock post.

"This is probably one of the biggest honors I've ever had," she said.

SZA was born in St. Louis and raised in the Maplewood, New Jersey suburbs. "I love Jersey, every corner of Jersey," she told the audience. She recalled jobs that ranged from a pizza parlor to a shoe store, and spoke about the community she built in her hometown.

"I just love community, and I promise to take that energy of community around the world wherever I go," SZA said. "When it's time to start a charity or just help other people, I think about how I come from a small town where everybody knows each other's first and last name. We've all participated in each other's lives and in raising each other, and I'm honored. So thank you so much."

The New Jersey Hall of Fame has previously inducted Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean, Paul Rudd, Toni Morrison, Tony Bennett, the Isley Brothers, Meryl Streep, the Jonas Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. During her speech, SZA singled out another Garden State native: Lauryn Hill, who attended the same high school as SZA. Hill has not yet been inducted.

SZA also defended her home state against those who treat it as a way station on the road somewhere else.

"It kind of prepared me for the world because it's not utopian, but it's very real," she said of growing up in New Jersey. "Sometimes people over Jersey and go straight to New York. But they're missing the meat. They're missing the energy. They're missing the heartbeat of the tri-state."

The induction places SZA — born Solána Rowe — alongside a roster of Jersey legends spanning music, film, and literature, and it does so while she is still in mid-career. Her pledge to carry "that energy of community" into future charity work suggests the honor may shape what she does next, not just what she has already done.