Lizzo reclaims sexist insult on new album

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

**Lizzo** (0:21)
I'm young, I'm sexy, I'm turnt, I'm nobody's mama. So I'm gonna go outside and have fun.

**Chris Bentley** (0:30)
Lizzo is back. And on her new album, she says she's not apologizing for who she is.
It's Friday, June 12th, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR. I'm Chris Bentley. Today on the show. Some new music for your summer playlists, and why you shouldn't let anyone else tell you what your song of the summer is.

**Miguel Perez** (1:11)
It feels like it's gotten harder and harder to crown a song of the summer with every passing year, because yeah, music fans are so fragmented, and tastes and trends are just so unpredictable.

**Chris Bentley** (1:23)
But first, for your consideration, Lizzo, AKA Melissa Vivian Jefferson, AKA the Minneapolis floutist turned pop star, is back with a new album, her first studio LP in four years. She joined us to talk about it with Robin Young.

**Robin Young** (1:40)
The title is, we can't say, because public radio. So let's just say it rhymes with Rich, and it will probably make her more so.
Lizzo, Melissa, welcome back. And start with that word. You know, you're not the first person to claim it. Missy Elliott is someone who took ownership of it in the late 1990s. What does it mean to you?

**Lizzo** (2:16)
It was like a stamp in time. This word that was used to degrade women, and it was such a beautiful thing when Black women started to reclaim it and transformed it. And I thought it was a powerful message to have a part of my narrative, to be like, people can throw words at you, but you own it. The best way to not be destroyed by someone else's vitriol is by taking it and putting it on like a super suit or an armor.

**Robin Young** (2:47)
Well, something maybe you've needed. Now, I'm going to be as brief as I can about your ongoing legal issues with your backup dancers. I know you can't say much. This is a legal situation, but you have said claims of harassment are absolutely not true.
You're looking forward to actually testifying if there's any kind of trial. So comment in any way you want, but I'm thinking that people might be saying maybe you're saying something about those legal issues with this title.

**Lizzo** (3:12)
It's up to people's interpretation. I think there's a lot that I have to reclaim right now. I spent a lot of time out of the public eye, and I think people formed a lot of opinions about me. Coming back, claiming that and just owning the parts of myself that sometimes are a little bit more intense or bitchier, I think is important for me.

**Robin Young** (3:39)
Well, this is, I guess, what I'm getting to because very often, women who take control of their lives, and in this case, you are really firmly in control of your career, of your music, of how everything works on the stage, and sometimes that strength in a woman is interpreted as being the B word.

**Lizzo** (3:58)
Yeah, I agree. I think people don't know how hard I work, and maybe people have some prejudices about me. Being a fat black woman, they probably don't think that I'm working as hard as I'm working, which whatever, but I'm 24-7, and I think that some of the things that have been said about me, if a man was running his show the way he was running his show, I don't think anyone else would bat an eye. I also think that I've had this happy-go-lucky, positive girl persona put on me, and I don't think I've been allowed to have flaws or depth. I think that what I'm doing now is adding a little bit of more texture to the way people perceive me.

**Robin Young** (4:45)
Well, it is your music. It's great, by the way, this album is just great, defiantly so on songs like That Girl, lots of ours. And there's a lot of dissing of your body throughout the song, but then you end on a high note. Let's listen.
Big girl at the Met. You did shut down the red carpet when you walked at the Met in 2022 This is the big Met gala. Screaming and yelling fans went absolutely quiet when you stopped and began playing your golden flute. That's what you're referencing there?

**Lizzo** (5:34)
Yeah.
I also, you know, the representation of being the first plus size black girl to do the carpet, I think is was important. And I wear that with a badge of honor.