Lizzo

About

Lizzo, born Melissa Jefferson, is an American singer and rapper, known for her self-affirming anthemic pop rap.

Online History

On September 10th, 2013, Lizzo uploaded the video for her first singer "Batches & Cookies" from her debut album Lizzobangers. The video received more than 639,000 views in six years (shown below). The album Lizzobangers arrived the following month to positive reviews.^[1]

Three years later, on May 11th, 2016, Lizzo's single "Good As Hell" was released on YouTube. The video received more than 7.8 million views in three years (shown below, right).

The following year, she uploaded the video for the single "Truth Hurts." The post received more than 5.4 million views in less than two years (shown below).

On October 20th, 2018, Lizzo tweeted ^[5] a video of herself performing a flute solo at a concert. The tweet received more than 87,000 retweets, 284,000 likes and 5.25 million views in less than four months (shown below).

Several months later, on January 4th, 2019, she tweeted the video for the song "Juice" on YouTube. The post received more than 2.8 million views in less than one month (shown below, left).

Later that month, on January 29th, Lizzo performed "Juice" on Ellen. That day, the official Ellen show YouTube account shared the performance. The post received more than 440,000 views in one week (shown below, right).

Reputation

Much of Lizzo's musical career and public persona has received praise from critics. In 2019, New York magazine^[6] published a profile Lizzo entitled "It’s Just a Matter of Time Till Everybody Loves Lizzo." Known for her body positive brand of pop-rap, Lizz's albums have received mostly positive reviews. Her 2013 album Lizzobangers received a score of 85 (based on five critics) on the review aggregator Metacritic.^[7] Two years later, her album Big Grrrl Small World received a score of 79 (based on 10 critics) on Metacritic.^[8]

Criticism

Khloe Kardashian Good American Campaign

On February 1st, 2019, Lizzo announced her participation in the advertising campaign Khloe Kardashian's clothing company Good American on Instagram. ^[9] The post received more than 66,000 likes in three days (shown below, left).

That day, a fan responded to the photograph "queen why?" Lizzo responded, "I hear you! But I'm taking advantage as well. If Khloe posts me then I have exposure to little girls/boys/non-binary who could hopefully through my music, unlearn the toxicity of the media."

Music Critics Tweet

On April 22nd, 2019, Pitchfork gave Lizzo's album Cuz I Love You a 6.5/10 review.^[10] The review was mostly positive with light criticisms such as "Despite her obvious skill and charisma, some of the album’s 11 songs are burdened with overwrought production, awkward turns of phrase, and ham-handed rapping." In response Lizzo^[11] tweeted, "PEOPLE WHO ‘REVIEW’ ALBUMS AND DONT MAKE MUSIC THEMSELVES SHOULD BE UNEMPLOYED." She went on to tweet and delete messages including:^[12]

Let me clarify: i think music critics are necessary. But I think some people get drunk on power and love bringing artists down who've spent so much love on their projects. I think if they knew how much went into creating a song the cynical assholes would get less jobs"

THAT being said. I've received nothing but LOVE from music journalists! There was ONE review that was inaccurate and rude for the sake of being 'edgy' and it made me hot. But fuck that sad bitch

PS-- YOU ARE ALLOWED TO NOT FUCK W/ MY MUSIC! You are entitled to your own opinion!!! I JUST HATE CYNICAL INACCURATE REVIEWS THAT CITE THE WRONG PRODUCERS. Ok love y'all.

The outburst caused backlash from Twitter uses, particularly those in the music journalism industry. Some saw the tweets as indignation that Lizzo did not see the difference between music criticism and PR. Popdust wrote an article about the distinction between the two.^[12] Craig Jenkins tweeted "I think a lot of artists conceptualize the press as extended PR support, and I don't think anyone should ever get that comfortable."^[13] User @tirhakahlove^[14] joked that most music critics are already unemployed (shown below, right).

Others turned her tweet into a snowclone in an effort to mock her point. For example, user @JoshhTerry made the point absurd by using Game of Thrones (shown below, left). User @GuardianYoshi made the joke referencing J.Cole (shown below, right)

Related Memes

Bye Bitch

Bye Bitch refers to a viral reaction video of Lizzo waving from the back of a moving golf cart as she says "Bye bitch" and laughs.

On April 21st, 2018, Lizzo tweeted^[2] the video with the caption, "A WHOLE BLACK ASS MOOD #BeautyconNYC." The post received more than 130 retweets and 800 likes in less than one year (shown below).

The following day, Lizzo tweeted^[3] the "bye bitch" portion of the video with the caption "bye bich." The post received more than 1,800 retweets, 7,200 likes and 6.3 million views in one year.

Several days later, she used the video as a reaction to rapper Kanye West's recent statements on United States President Donald Trump. ^[4] Within one year, the tweet received more than 7,100 retweets and 27,000 likes (shown below).

On the week starting July 29th, Lizzo's hit single 'Truth Hurts' reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. On July 29th, she celebrated by tweeting "BYE #6 BIIIIIIITCH" along with a video of herself quickly drifting away in a pool on a unicorn floaty while uttering her viral social media phrase "bye bitch." The tweet has since amassed 84,538 likes and 16,741 retweets.

TikTok Fellatio Video

On January 19th, 2020, Twitter user @stayingpressed tweeted a TikTok video published by Lizzo with the caption "im trying to hard to stick up for her and shes going around doing this 😭😭😭 GIRL??" (shown below). The TikTok video, which has since been deleted, featured Lizzo on her knees in front of a man insinuating that she would soon perform fellatio. The video gained over 546,700 views and 490 likes on Twitter in four days.

On January 21st, Twitter user @DragonflyJonez^[14] tweeted, "Lizzo on tiktok bout to give the sloppity boppity what the hell is going on here man 😭" (shown below, left). The tweet garnered over 6,700 likes and 1,900 retweets in two days. That day, @Maine_Char^[15] tweeted, "So Lizzo cant make jokes on tiktok like everyone else? Y'all act like she took the zick out & slapped herself in the face with it. Y'all so corny sometimes" (shown below, right). On January 22nd, The Daily Dot^[16] published an article covering reactions to the video.

Search Interest

External References