Feeling “beautiful and free” with butterflies in her hair, Lizzo checked in with Audacy’s Julia to talk all things “Rumors,” and her promised “NEW ERA” filled with music “for bad b****es that make bad b**** captions.”
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Getting right to it, Lizzo revealed that “Rumors” was actually “a random song” and not an initial first choice single. But after playing it for people and seeing their reactions, even after prefacing it as “a weird one,” she knew “this one gotta go first, this one sets it off.”
“I feel like I’ve been gone for a minute… intentionally kinda staying outta the way and laying low, at least music wise, and people have had a lot of things to say about me.” Lizzo continued, “I don’t respond anymore, I don’t clap back anymore, but this song is a great way to come out the bamboo and be like ‘Watchu say about me? I heard everything you said.’”
With that said, “Rumors” is more than just clap back track, it’s fun and catchy and has a crazy lit feature from Cardi B. Always wanting to do a song with her Lizzo knew the “perfect person for this is Cardi B,” which goes without saying, but she still went on to share why. “She always has these wild rumors about her and she’s literally in my opinion the clap back queen, every time she has a response it’s perfect.”
Due to COVID, the two never actually hit the studio together - even though you’d never know it. Nevertheless, thanks to modern technology, they were able to FaceTime throughout the collaboration process.
Okay, but like lets pause for a sec - can we talk about that music video though. The song is lit, no doubt, as both sarcastically sing that “all the rumors are true,” while dismantling the gossip. BUT! That Tanu Muino directed visual, with its Hercules vibes, has leveled these ladies up to straight up goddess status. Featuring crazy long nails, incredible ’fits, NSFW special effects, and lots and lots of gold - trust us, just press play (after you finish reading of course).
As Julia noted in a top of the interview the song is packed full of caption worthy lyrics. Sharing her personal favorite to be “No, I ain't f*** Drake yet,” and asked Lizzo if Drake was always the go to for that line or if she picked him from a list of men. To which Lizzo replied, “It’s always been Drake,” - same, girl. Same.
But let’s be real, yeah we’ve only heard one track from her new era, but Lizzo’s musical catalog that we do know is already filled with tons of caption worthy lyrics and major music moments. So how does Lizzo know that she’s done something damn good musically? Well, it gives her that just finished the puzzle magical feeling. Not following? We’ll just let Lizzo explain.
“I’ll write something, and then there’s a moment when it clicks, and it’s never the same thing. Sometimes it’ll be the second verse, sometimes it’ll be one line in the hook, sometimes I’ll lay down the harmonies and it’s just you feel like ohhh. I always look around like ‘oh my gosh - oh we did something.’”
I describe it as - you know when you’re making a puzzle, and you have a whole section of a whole puzzle put together but there is one piece. You take that one piece and you put it in there and it just goes Poof.” - Actually, tbh were not quite sure how to phonetically spell out the exact sound she made, but like that’s close enough.
As surprising as it might be that Lizzo surprised herself by choosing to put “Rumors” out as the first single, she revealed that what she loves most about the song is that at its core it’s a “Rock n Roll song.”
“It still has Rock elements," Lizzo admitted, "there’s a lot of guitar. But it sounded like a Radiohead song and I love Radiohead, and I remember being like ‘Oh this is so cool,’ like it was just so gnarly and weird and dark and fun and rap and slick - I loved that about the song.”
And since the song is called “Rumors” after all, Julia asked if there are any rumors Lizzo’s heard about herself that she actually kinda vibes with, and there actually is. “Yeah, there’s a rumor that my a** is insured for a million dollars, I love that rumor, let’s make it a reality,” she shared.
As for a rumor she’d like to start about herself, after contemplating for a bit, she burst out in laughter claiming she had an answer but opted not share, saying, “I’m not gonna say it, it’s inappropriate… You don’t want to know.” Which obviously just makes us want to know even more now.
Lizzo went on to share her favorite drunk and hungover foods, and talk about her famously shooting her shot at Chris Evans. But most importantly she offered up some info about her impeding “new era” that filled with “great music.” Proudly saying, “I’m so dedicated to making good music and I have not let myself down.”
Ummm, way to just rock our world and leave us reeling. Okay we’re officially freaking and so hype to hear what our flute Queen has in store. For all the above and more, check out Lizzo’s entire interview at the top of the page.
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