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Lizzo shared her thoughts on the "racist origins" of pop music. The artist spoke in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly as she was promoting her new documentary, Love, Lizzo. During the interview, Lizzo spoke about the criticism she faced over her style and music being "not black enough."
Lizzo was asked if she considers the origin of that backlash to be a stigma of pop music, as the genre can be white-feeling and if it leads to a hit, many think that the artist is catering to a specific demographic. Lizzo replied that "genre is racist inherently." She added,
“I think if people did any research they would see that there was race music and then there was pop music. And race music was their way of segregating Black artists from being mainstream, because they didn’t want their kids listening to music created by Black and brown people because they said it was demonic and yada, yada, yada.”
"Pop music is really rap in its DNA": Lizzo states her opinions on pop music
Lizzo shared that black artists were forced to create their own pop-adjacent genres that functioned almost like "code words." She mentioned R&B as an example and said that "eventually hip-hop and rap was born from that."
The singer said that "when you think about pop, you think about MTV in the ’80s" talking about how they can’t play rap music or they can’t put black artists on their platform because they think about "what people in the middle of America think."
The 2 be loved singer shared that in the current age of mainstream music, pop music is a well-oiled pop machine but with a racist origin. The artist, however, added that "the coolest thing" she has seen is rap and hip-hop artists becoming pop.
She said,
“Now pop music is really rap in its DNA, rap is running the game, and I think that’s so cool. But we forget that in the late ’80s and the early ’90s, there were these massive pop diva records that were sang by black women like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey. And I’m giving that same energy. I’m giving that same energy with a little bit of rap, and I think that people just have to get used to me.”
She added,
“I think anything that’s new, people are going to criticize and feel like it’s not for them. But once you know what it is, just like I’ve got a friend who don’t like avocado but she likes guacamole. It don’t make no sense. but once you get used to something, it might be for you.”
The artist said that "for people who don’t like pop music or don’t like Black artists that make pop music," she might be guacamole to them, referring to her previous example. This isn't the first time the Juice singer has talked about her facing criticism for making music for white people. In her interview with Vanity Fair last month, she mentioned,
“I am not making music for white people. I am a Black woman, I am making music from my Black experience, for me to heal myself [from] the experience we call life.”
Her documentary, Love, Lizzo, was released on HBO Max on November 24. She also announced her new North American tour dates and her show at next year’s Open’er festival. The artist will be touring the UK next year in support of her new second album, Special.
