Isn’t it crazy how every time Lizzo releases a song (or does anything, tbh) and feels good as hell about it, the haters and trolls are always Johnny-on-the-spot ready to bash her about it? If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the Instagram Live Lizzo held over the weekend following the release of her latest single, “Rumors” with Cardi B.
Per Complex, Lizzo hopped onto the app to express how the negativity about her new song was affecting her. In a snippet posted to Twitter, she tearfully explained how she normally doesn’t care about all the mean things people say about her but that her sensitivity increases when she’s working so hard to put out meaningful work.
“For the most part it doesn’t hurt my feelings, I don’t care,” the “Juice” singer began. “I just think that when I’m working this hard, my tolerance gets lower. My patience is lower, I’m more sensitive. And it gets to me.”
Naturally after the clip circulated, Cardi B. took to Twitter to send love to Lizzo, writing in a separate tweet: “When you stand up for yourself they claim your problematic & sensitive. When you don’t they tear you apart until you crying like this. Whether you skinny, big, plastic, they going to always try to put their insecurities on you.Remember these are nerds looking at the popular table.”
Chloe Bailey, who’s recently dealt with more than her fair share of online harassment, also sent out a statement of support online: “I’m so proud of you @lizzo people are gonna talk, but you have power in your voice. thank you for inspiring me.”
In addition to the Instagram Live, Lizzo later posted a TikTok video where she further discussed the criticism of her music, specifically touching on the “Mammy” trope some haters have incorrectly attributed to her music.
“This is exactly why I started off the song [“Rumors”] with ‘they don’t know I do it for the culture.’ These people who are saying this are probably the same people who are mad when I’m being hypersexual. And the ‘Mammy trope’ is actually de-sexualized so it can’t both be true. Make it make sense. I really think people are just mad to see a fat, Black woman that makes pop music and is happy. Y’all are so upset that I’m happy,” the “Water Me” singer explained.
Lizzo later summed up all her feelings in an inspiring tweet Sunday afternoon, writing:
“Loving yourself in a world that don’t love u back takes an incredible amount of self awareness & a bullshit detector that can see through ass backwards 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.”