While Lizzo has been an active musician for a decade, it wasn’t until 2019 before she took the world by storm. Since her mainstream breakthrough, Lizzo’s songs waste no time becoming certified hits! Her third studio album, Cuz I Love You, won a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album and was also nominated for Album of the Year. Lizzo is now a household name, also known for her energetic live performances, as well as her inspiring lyrics and flute-playing abilities.
Lizzo’s songs cover a plethora of genres but lie within the scope of Hip Hop and R&B. Her lyrics are usually uplifting in nature, as she is very outspoken on topics surrounding self-love and self-esteem. After her commercial breakthrough in 2019, Lizzo has become a megastar, and these hits prove her continuous success.
“Tempo” became a club banger from the moment it was released. The R&B and trap-infused single is about Lizzo rapping about needing a faster-paced beat worth dancing to. “Tempo” also featured a sleek, cheeky rap verse from Missy Elliot. Now a body-positive anthem, “Tempo” is played whenever there’s some twerking going on. However, perhaps the most interesting part of the track is Lizzo’s classical flute playing, which she uses to close out the song.
“Cuz I Love You” might have failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100, but the opener to her breakthrough album of the same name is now one of Lizzo’s most revered songs. The single showed Lizzo’s strengths as both a vocalist and a rapper. “Cuz I Love You” is a big and bold, yet soulful number packed with tons of emotion. Lizzo famously performed the song at the 2020 Grammy Awards, where she was also the most nominated artist of the night.
Lizzo is one of few artists who has multiple sleeper hits. “Good as Hell” was initially released as a part of her first EP, Coconut Oil, in 2016. The motivational track, a feminist anthem, gained heavy attention in 2019. “Good as Hell” encourages women to fall in love with themselves and know their worth. After Lizzo performed the song at the 2019 MTV VMAs, it steadily rose on multiple charts.
“Good as Hell” eventually reached the third spot on the Billboard Hot 100 eight months after its 2019 re-release. Two music videos were shared, with the second blowing up on social media. That video featured Lizzo performing and having fun with the marching band at Southern University for homecoming week. A “Good as Hell” remix featuring Ariana Grande also became a hit, especially in Europe.
“Juice” is widely heralded as the best track off Lizzo’s third album, Cuz I Love You. The song, like many of her others, is all about self-love. “Juice” features fun and carefree one-liners like, “I’m like chardonnay, get better over time,” and “No, I’m not a snack at all. Look, baby, I’m the whole damn meal.” The song features many disco elements reminiscent of the 80s, and Lizzo paid homage to the sound with the music video. “Juice” also borrows elements from funk-pop, Hip Hop, and R&B.
Starting this song with the lyrics “It’s bad b*tch o’clock, yeah it’s thick thirty” marked the first of many witty lines on “About Damn Time.” The lead single off Special, “About Damn Time” became a global hit, eventually hitting the peak spot of the Billboard Hot 100. The song also went viral on TikTok and spurred numerous dance, rap, and singing challenges. However, the track’s major feat is snagging the Record of the Year Award at the 2023 Grammys.
This historic accomplishment made Lizzo the first rapper to win in that category and the first Black woman to take home the award since Whitney Houston in 1994. Lizzo wrote the song to have another uplifting anthem similar to “Good as Hell.” She wanted to create a song that reminded her fans to celebrate their survival in the wake of a post-pandemic world.
Many things contributed to the widespread success of Lizzo’s hit song, “Truth Hurts.” Although originally released in 2017, it was re-released two years later after it went viral on TikTok. “Truth Hurts” would eventually rise to the top of the charts, spending seven weeks as the No. 1 song in the country. Regarded as her breakthrough single, the song is a story about Lizzo falling in love with herself after a breakup.
Lizzo famously married herself in the popular music video, which was viewed over 300 million times. She also shared that she considered quitting music after “Truth Hurts,” her “best song ever,” failed to make waves back in 2017. Thankfully, she stuck through the rut, and her career has significantly blossomed since then.
NEWS
Massive Attack have been using their latest live show to challenge American data analytics and software company Palantir, with the band describing the firm's ambitions as "terrifying".
The pioneering trip hop group have woven criticism of the controversial surveillance technology company into their new stage production. During their upcoming performance at Primavera Sound, they plan to deploy "custom-made facial recognition software" capable of "scanning a 75,000-person crowd" and projecting audience members onto giant screens with tongue in cheek labels such as "11 weeks no time off, burnout" and "unfinished books", according to Novara Media.
Speaking with the publication, the visual concept takes direct aim at Palantir, the company established two decades ago by billionaire Peter Thiel. Backed financially by the CIA, the firm counts the US and Israeli militaries, ICE, the FBI and the NHS among its clients.
After unveiling the production in Helsinki, Robert Del Naja told Novara Media that he wanted audiences to better understand how Palantir's reach has expanded from supplying "kill chain tech" reportedly used in Gaza to now having access to the medical records of people across Britain.
"We really need a much wider debate on the suitability of a company like this having such capture of our societal infrastructure," he said. He explained that the criticism is embedded throughout Massive Attack's two hour performance and was developed alongside long time collaborator Adam Curtis and London art collective United Visual Artists.
"One visual element represents how a Palantir Gotham monitoring and ‘decision chain’ interface might look," Del Naja explained. "Using facial recognition technology, it lands on groups and individuals – implying a consequential outcome for a given target."
Novara Media also detailed how Palantir's software can connect information from multiple databases. The outlet reported that ICE allegedly combines the platform with body camera footage, social media data and information gathered through Israeli developed hacking software Paragon to identify protesters involved in resistance to immigration raids.
The publication further claimed that Palantir contributes to Maven, a software platform used by the US military, which has recently faced criticism after being linked to the bombing of a girls' school in Iran.
"I find their declarations, objectives and moral framing pretty terrifying," Del Naja said. "To enable AI systems to map police records, satellite tracked locations, health records and personal financial transactions and place all of that information – for the first time – into the hands of a company with an overt political agenda and social objectives of its own is a huge, potentially irreversible and dangerous overreach."
Another moment in Massive Attack's current live production appears during the closing section of "Girl I Love You", when a quote from Peter Thiel is projected on screen reading: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible".
Last year, Massive Attack introduced the satirical "facial recognition" sequence during their concerts and quickly rejected suggestions that genuine data recognition systems were being used on audiences.
"No Massive Attack live show has ever recorded or stored personal data," the group stated. "Only government departments, relevant authorities & approved contractors can access public databases in the UK, & doing so in multiple cities/countries would be impossible."
The band also pointed to the growing use of facial recognition technology across Britain, arguing that authorities are "overreaching almost all other western democracies with their use of public facial recognition … while there is no specific legislation regulating police use of these systems."
The statement arrived shortly after Massive Attack welcomed Kneecap onto the stage during their major show at the OVO Wembley Arena, introducing them as a group "who refused to be silenced for their solidarity with the Palestinian people."
Massive Attack have consistently spoken out in support of Palestine and a range of other progressive causes. More recently, they pledged to boycott Spotify following reports that CEO Daniel Ek had invested heavily "in a company producing military munition drones and AI technology integrated into fighter aircraft."
During their headline appearance at London's LIDO Festival last summer, the band were joined by actor and activist Khalid Abdalla along with Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def. Earlier this year, Del Naja also criticised what he described as a "draconian government" after being arrested while protesting the ban on Palestine Action.
The musician was one of hundreds of demonstrators who gathered in Trafalgar Square on April 11 to oppose the Palestine Action ban. He carried a placard stating "I Oppose Genocide, I Support Palestine Action".
Police removed him from the protest and arrested him on suspicion of expressing support for a proscribed organisation. He later responded with an extensive statement posted to Instagram.
Back in February, the band revealed a small run of European dates for the summer. The tour began on May 27 at Veikkaus Arena in Helsinki before continuing to Dalhalla in Rättvik on May 30.
The Bristol trip hop pioneers have not released new material since the 2020 EP "Eutopia". Their most recent studio album remains 2010's "Heligoland".
Speaking with NME in 2024, Robert Del Naja revealed that the band had "some new music which we've been sitting on for four years". He later shared in November that he hoped to finally release some of that material in 2026.
