In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Lizzo addressed the speculation that she creates music for a “white audience”. The 34-year-old musician makes tunes that reflect her black experience. You can pick up on bits of hip-hop, gospel, and R&B in her songs. She also has hit anthems like Good as Hell and About Damn Time that have skyrocketed to the top of the pop charts.
Lizzo is worried about the chart-topping songs because even though they were created for black people, whites seem to like them more. She says that’s what “disturbs her the most.”
“This is probably the biggest criticism I’ve received, and it is such a critical conversation when it comes to black artists,” the singer stated. “When black people see a lot of white people in the audience, they think, ‘Well, this isn’t for me. This is for them.’ The thing is, when a black artist reaches a certain level of popularity, it’s going to be a predominantly white crowd.”
The singer and the business woman said, “I am not making music for white people. I am a black woman. I am making music from my black experience.”
Lizzo, whose birth name is Melissa Jefferson, said “for me to heal myself (from) the experience we call life.”
The singer, who is from Detroit, knows that what she is doing is powerful for younger Black people. She wants there to more love and self-love in the world, as she said: “We need self-love and self-love anthems more than anybody.”
She continued, “So am I making music for that girl right there who looks like me, who grew up in a city where she was underappreciated and picked on and made to feel unbeautiful?’” she asked before answering, “Yes.”
Lizzo had a few words for the people who are trying to say she’s racist.
“It blows my mind when people say I’m not making music from a black perspective—how could I not do that as a black artist?”
In the meantime, Kanye West made comments about Lizzo’s weight on Fox News with Tucker Carlson. West stated, “When Lizzo loses 10 pounds and announces it, the bots — that’s a term for like telemarketer callers on Instagram — they attack her for losing weight because the media wants to put out a perception that being overweight is the new goal when it’s actually unhealthy.”
“Let’s get aside the fact of whether it’s fashion and vogue, which it’s not. Or if someone thinks she is attractive, to each his own. It’s actually clinically unhealthy, and for people to promote that… it’s demonic.”
Carlson asked West to explain why he felt that people of the Black race were being treated unfairly. West had an answer ready.
“It’s a genocide of the black race. They want to kill us in any way they can.”
Lizzo shut down West and Tucker’s allegations during a show at Scotiabank Arena, saying: “I feel like everybody in America got my mother******* name in [their] mother******* mouth for no mother****** reason.”
