The musician took to Instagram live to open up about hurtful responses she received after releasing her new single “Rumors,” with collaborator Cardi B coming to Lizzo’s defense.
Lizzo is back in the spotlight after releasing her new single “Rumors,” with the video for her Cardi B collaboration dropping on Friday.
But while Lizzo fans are likely excited about the new music, it seems some people are still going after the three-time Grammy winner for her appearance, and the “hurtful” comments got to be too much for the “Truth Hurts” musician on Sunday.
Speaking in an Instagram live, Lizzo teared up, saying she’s particularly sensitive when she’s been working as hard as she has been lately.
“On the days when I should feel the happiest, it just — I feel so down,” she said, as she dabbed at her eyes with tissues and recalled working “triple” and “quadruple” time, 12-hour days with press, rehearsals, filming, writing music and time in the studio. She even worked after a root canal, she said. “Sometimes I feel like the world just doesn’t love me back. It’s like it doesn’t matter how much positive energy you put into the world, you’re still gonna have people who have something mean to say about you.”
In the nearly 13-minute long video that has since been deleted but preserved by fans, Lizzo clarified that she’s OK if people don’t like her music, but she’s seeing personal attacks directed at her appearance: “People saying shit about me that just doesn’t even make sense. It’s fat-phobic, it’s racist, and it’s hurtful.”
Ultimately, though, Lizzo tried to stay positive and not let the haters get her down.
“I’m not making music for anybody. I’m a Black woman making music,” she said. “I make Black music, period. I’m not serving anyone but myself. Everyone is invited to a Lizzo show, to a Lizzo song. To this good energy. Everyone is invited. …For the people that just are always going to have something negative to say about me, that has nothing to do with music, or the content of my character, or me as an artist, and just has everything to do with my body or whatever trope you think I fall into, suck my pussy from behind,” she said. “‘Cause y’all motherfuckers gonna be the main ones catching up.”
And Lizzo insisted she wouldn’t stand for people going after other Black women who look like she does.
“What I won’t accept is y’all doing this to Black women over and over and over again, especially us big Black girls,” she said. “When we don’t fit into the box that you want to put us in, you just unleash hatred onto us. It’s not cool. I’m doing this shit for the big Black women in the future who just want to live their lives without being scrutinized or put into boxes.”
She also tweeted, “Loving yourself in a world that doesn’t love u back takes an incredible amount of self-awareness & a bullshit detector that can see through ass-backward societal standards… if u managed to love yourself today I’m proud of u. If u haven’t, I’m still proud of u. This shits hard.”
Cardi B defended her collaborator, retweeting a fan’s capture of some of Lizzo’s video and writing, “When you stand up for yourself they claim you problematic & sensitive. When you don’t they tear you apart until you crying like this. Whether you are skinny, big, plastic, they going to always try to put their insecurities on you. Remember these are nerds looking at the popular table.”
Cardi added, “‘Rumors’ is doing great. Stop trying to say the song is flopping to dismiss a woman’s emotions on bullying or acting like they need sympathy. The song is top 10 on all platforms. Body shaming and calling her mammy is mean & racist as fuck.”
Lizzo retweeted Cardi’s first tweet and thanked her for her support and told Chloe Bailey, who expressed her appreciation for Lizzo, “fuck the haters We Rise.”
On Monday, it seemed like Lizzo was in good spirits and embracing the new day, tweeting, “A new chance to win! We already winning !”
Other stars who expressed their support for Lizzo on social media included Jameela Jamil, Octavia Spencer, Stacey Abrams, and Shonda Rhimes.
Watch Lizzo’s full Instagram live video below.