Lizzo Addresses Criticism That She Writes ‘White Music‘: ’My Message Is Literally for Everybody’
Lizzo wants to shut down the narrative that her music is not designed for an inclusive audience of listeners. On Tuesday (Dec. 13), the “About Damn Time” singer sat down for an interview on The Howard Stern Show, in which he asked her how it feels when people say her brand of pop music is written with “white people” in mind, something she revealed is one of her most common critiques in her recently released documentary, Love, Lizzo.
The Grammy winner explained that the comment is “very hurtful, only because I am a Black woman.” She further explained that the assumption “challenges my identity and who I am and diminishes that, which I think is really hurtful. And then at the other end, I’m making funky, soulful, feel-good music what is so similar to a lot of music that was made for Black people in the ’70s and ’80s. And on top of that, my message is literally for everybody and anybody.”
She added, “I don’t try to gatekeep my message to people, so all three of those things for me I’m just like you don’t even get me at all. And I feel like a lot of people truthfully don’t get me, which is why I wanted to do this documentary because I was like, I feel like y’all don’t understand me, y’all don’t know where I came from and now I don’t want to answer no more questions about this sh–. I want to show the world who I am.”
Love, Lizzo was released via HBO Max on Nov. 24. Per the documentary’s official synopsis, the film goes into “the inspirational story behind [Lizzo’s] humble beginnings to her meteoric rise with an intimate look into the moments that shaped her hard-earned rise to fame, success, love and international stardom.”
Watch Lizzo discuss her music on Howard Stern in the above video.
Starr Bowenbank
Billboard
