LIZZO - [REL] CUZ I LOVE YOU

Melissa Vivianne Jefferson (born April 27, 1988 in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.), known professionally as Lizzo, is an American rapper and singer. She is a founding member of indie hip hop groups The Chalice, Grrrl Prty, The Clerb, Ellypseas, and Absynthe. Her debut album, Lizzobangers, was released in 2013. In 2015, she released her sophomore album, Big Grrrl Small World. Born in Detroit in the late 80’s, Lizzo spent much of her formative years in the church, where she was raised on the gospel sounds of The Winans, The Clark Sisters, and Fred Hammond, along with mainstay secular artists such as Stevie Wonder and Elton John. At the age of 10 her family moved to Houston, TX, and Lizzo was exposed to a wide array of emerging Southern musical styles, from the trademark chopped and screwed rap tracks of the underground, to the progressive and polished R&B sounds of groups like Destiny’s Child that were raising the city’s national profile to new heights. In fact, it was after she stumbled across a Destiny’s Child performance at Wal-Mart that Lizzo—then a 5th grader-- was inspired to start writing music on her own. Over the next decade that decision would take her through the trenches of some of the most varied musical genres: R&B girl groups (I.N.I.T.I.A.L.S., Cornrow Clique), progressive rock bands (Elypseas), solo rap ventures, and electro-pop duos (Lizzo & The Larva Ink). In 2011 she made the move to Minneapolis with Larva Ink in order to be a part of that city’s blossoming and collaborative musical community. Lizzo & The Larva Ink was well received there, and the group earned a few encouraging nods from the press. Lizzo was soon introduced to Sophia Eris and Claire de Lune, with whom she would form The Chalice, the three-piece all-female rap/R&B group that would elevate Lizzo’s profile and reputation. In 2012 The Chalice released We Are The Chalice, an album that would gain them instant local success amongst fans and critics alike, garnering City Pages’ prestigious Best New Band and Picked To Click accolades in the same year. The success brought setbacks, though, and a falling out soon led to the demise of Lizzo & The Larva Ink. Feeling discontent with the loss of one group and the hurried blur of success of another, Lizzo was creatively drained from writing We Are The Chalice in two short months. She found herself in the throes of her first full-blown case of writer’s block. Unable to create music for herself, she began listening to several different local albums in hopes of finding inspiration. It was LAVA BANGERS, a 20-track instrumental mixtape from Doomtree producer and Minneapolis music vet Lazerbeak, that ultimately caught her ear. Beaks’ beats proved the fix for Lizzo’s problem. “I sat at home and listened to LAVA BANGERS, and when “Lift Every Voice” came on, my writer’s block was cured,” says Lizzo. “I think it revived my gospel roots. I wrote pages and pages of songs, and finally reached out to Lazerbeak, not thinking anything would come of it.” Her timing could not have been better. Beak, impressed with Lizzo’s output with The Chalice, as well as her guest appearances on several other local releases, was looking for a change of pace from his daily Doomtree production and business responsibilities. He immediately signed on to work on some demos. Beat tapes were exchanged, songs were written, and mutual friend and musical collaborator Ryan Olson (Totally Gross National Product founder, Gayngs/Marijuana Deathsquads mastermind) was brought on board to creatively oversee the project. Olson recorded and edited all 15 tracks in his bedroom studio, bringing in laid back hype-man Cliff Rhymes along the way to add even more layers to Lizzo’s dynamic vocals. LIZZOBANGERS is the culmination of that four-way collaboration, an album that manages to capture all of the varied musical influences of Lizzo’s upbringing and combine them with the forward-thinking experimental production style of Beak and Olson. The end result is a brave new project that encapsulates the best parts of both the familiar and the future. After the release of Lizzobangers, Lizzo continued to refine her mixture of rap, soul, pop, funk, gospel, and live-band energy. Her 2015 album Big Grrrl Small World expanded the emotional and musical range of her early work, balancing sharp rap verses with vulnerability, humor, and body-positive self-assertion. The record helped establish Lizzo as an artist whose music could be both technically agile and deeply personal, rooted in confidence but unafraid to address loneliness, insecurity, race, femininity, and self-worth. In 2016, Lizzo released the EP Coconut Oil, a project that marked a clearer shift toward polished pop and R&B while preserving the gospel and hip hop foundations of her earlier music. The EP included “Good as Hell,” which would later become one of her signature songs, as well as the title track “Coconut Oil,” a warm self-love anthem celebrating Black beauty, healing, and softness. During this period, Lizzo’s flute playing, theatrical performance style, and message of radical self-acceptance became increasingly central to her public identity. Lizzo reached mainstream commercial breakthrough with her third studio album, Cuz I Love You, released in 2019. The album combined soul belting, pop hooks, funk grooves, rap cadences, gospel drama, and brassy live instrumentation, turning her long-standing artistic influences into a more accessible and arena-sized sound. Songs such as “Juice,” “Tempo” with Missy Elliott, and “Cuz I Love You” showcased her range as a vocalist, rapper, and entertainer, while “Truth Hurts” became a major hit after first being released in 2017. The success of Cuz I Love You brought Lizzo international recognition and multiple Grammy wins, including Best Urban Contemporary Album for the deluxe edition of the record. Her 2022 album Special continued Lizzo’s move toward bright, danceable pop while keeping her themes of self-love, resilience, romance, and emotional recovery at the center. Its lead single “About Damn Time” became one of her biggest songs, blending disco, funk, and pop into a celebratory anthem about surviving stress and choosing joy. The song won Record of the Year at the 2023 Grammy Awards, further confirming Lizzo’s position as one of the defining pop performers of her generation. Across Special, Lizzo leaned into gratitude, healing, sensuality, and optimism, presenting confidence not as a fixed state, but as something repeatedly rebuilt after hardship. In 2025, Lizzo returned with the mixtape My Face Hurts from Smiling, released on June 27 through Nice Life and Atlantic Records. The project marked a shift back toward her rap roots, placing more emphasis on freestyles, punchlines, trap production, humor, and confrontational confidence after the glossy pop and disco direction of Special. Featuring collaborations with SZA and Doja Cat, the mixtape included tracks such as “Still Cant Fuh,” “IRL,” “Yitty on Yo Tittys (Freestyle),” and “New Mistakes.” The project’s title captured Lizzo’s exaggerated, defiant smile as both a joke and a shield, reflecting an era in which she leaned into sarcasm, resilience, and self-protection. In September 2025, the mixtape was expanded as My Face Still Hurts from Smiling, adding nine more tracks and new guest appearances from Lil Jon and Tierra Whack. Together, the releases served as a bridge between Special and BITCH, reconnecting Lizzo with the rowdier rap energy of her early catalog while preserving her themes of self-love, body confidence, survival, and humor. In 2026, Lizzo released BITCH, her fourth major-label studio album and a project centered on reclaiming a word often used to shame outspoken women. The album features tracks such as “A Toast,” “Don’t Make Me Love U,” “BITCH,” “Sexy Ladies” with UCB (Uncalled 4 Band), and “Goodmorning!”. Musically, the record draws from pop, funk, R&B, hip hop, disco, and go-go, while lyrically it continues Lizzo’s interest in confidence, boundaries, romance, humor, and emotional survival. “Sexy Ladies” especially connects her sound to Washington, D.C. go-go traditions through its collaboration with UCB, showing how Lizzo’s music often turns personal empowerment into communal celebration. Throughout her career, Lizzo’s music has been defined by its fusion of genres and its refusal to separate technical musicianship from personality. A classically trained flautist as well as a rapper, singer, songwriter, and performer, she has built a catalog that moves between hard-edged rap, gospel-rooted vocal runs, disco-pop choruses, funk basslines, R&B warmth, and theatrical humor. Her songs frequently address self-love, body image, sexuality, heartbreak, friendship, joy, depression, and resilience, often transforming private insecurity into public celebration. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.