Source: Emma McIntyre / Getty
Lizzo opened up about how it feels to have Black people call her songs “white people music.” During an interview with Howard Stern, he pointed out how comments like that are just “stifling whatever you have inside of you” as well as it being an “unfair criticism.”
“[It’s] very hurtful, only because I am a Black woman,” the “About Damn Time” singer said. “I feel like it really challenges my identity and who I am, and diminishes that, which I think is really hurtful.”
The 34-year-old songstress said it’s ironic that people call her music that when it is heavily inspired by Black music of the past.
“On the other end, I am making funky, soulful, feel-good music that is similar to a lot of Black music that was made for Black people in the ’70s and ’80s. My message is literally for everybody, in any body” she said. “I don’t try to gatekeep my message from people.”
Lizzo added that being misunderstood by the masses encouraged her to release her HBO MAX documentary, Love, Lizzo.
“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,’” she added. “And now I don’t want to answer no more questions about this s***. I want to show the world who I am.”
Lizzo Has Heard This Kind Of Criticism Before
Even during her childhood, she was teased about her taste in music and clothes because it was so different from what her friends were listening to.
“It was a Black school,” Lizzo told Vanity Fair. “Mostly Black and brown, Caribbean, I had Nigerian friends…They were all listening to what was on the radio: Usher, Destiny’s Child, Ludacris and I was into Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer.’ I kept it hidden, even when I was in a rock band, because I didn’t want to be made fun of by my peers — they’d yell, ‘White girl!’ Also, I was wearing these flared bell-bottoms with embroidery down it—and they’d say, ‘You look like a white girl, why do you want to look like a hippie?’ I wanted to be accepted so bad; not fitting in really hurt.”
Watch a few clips from her interview with Howard Stern below.
