- 3 hours ago
Lizzo made her Genius debut to break down her hit single “BITCH.” The multi-talented star pulled up and proved why she’s that b*tch, opening up about reclaiming negative words, why she decided to use both a sample and interpolation on the track despite rarely doing so, wearing “every hat” throughout the creative process, and more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00When you reclaim a word that was used to tear you down and you take the power out of it,
00:04it empowers you and it makes them powerless.
00:06So even if you do call me a bitch, even if you do call me fat or a fat bitch
00:10or anything
00:10like that that you think is going to tear me down, bitch, I already said it to myself
00:13and I gave it power.
00:15So now actually all you're doing is hyping me up by using this word.
00:18So get more creative.
00:19Think of something else.
00:20You know, use your noggin.
00:30So the beauty behind the record, bitch, is that it contains a sample and an interpolation.
00:36The sample is just the beat.
00:38That's when you take an old beat and you remix it and you put it on a new beat.
00:41And an interpolation is when you re-sing someone else's song.
00:45I typically never do this, but I wanted to do it for this song because the word bitch
00:49is my favorite fucking word.
00:51Like everybody who know me know that bitch is my favorite word.
00:53Biash was your favorite word.
00:56Biash, me in short.
00:57I wanted to pay homage to all the women who set the stage and empowered and took the
01:02power back in that word because that word used to be used to put a woman down.
01:06It was so derogatory and it was so weaponized.
01:09Missy Elliott, I remember like if you listen to Sock It To Me or that whole era of music
01:14that Missy put out, her and Da Brat were like, it's a new bitch era.
01:17We taking this word back.
01:19Like she said it on the record.
01:20It was very bold and feminist and powerful and revolutionary for her to do that.
01:24And then Meredith Brooks wrote a song called Bitch and that was on the rock and pop side
01:30of the game.
01:31So I thought it was a beautiful bridge.
01:33Missy to Meredith to Melissa, to Lizzo.
01:36I think it's a perfect homage to all the women who paved the way so we could say I'm
01:40that bitch every single day.
01:52When I say A to Z, I mean everything fucking in between.
01:58I wear every hat, wig, toupee, bandana.
02:03There is.
02:04I am the social media manager.
02:06I am promoting myself.
02:08I am talking to my creative director, tying everything together.
02:12I'm coming up with the ideas.
02:14I'm trying to have a regular personal life.
02:17I am like I wear every single hat and I feel like if I'm not talking to everyone and connected
02:22to everything that's happening within the Lizzo world, it's not going to go right.
02:26It is what it is.
02:36That's my reply to anyone who has ever gone on the internet and talked shit or gone on
02:40the internet and spread lies about me, gone on the internet and co-signed on some negativity.
02:45It's like, man, remember, you're talking about a human.
02:48You're talking about somebody who could be your sister, who could be your best friend,
02:52who could be your mama, who could be the person who gave you a free matcha at the matcha shop.
02:55And you're like, actually, I like her.
02:57I would never say nothing bad about her.
02:58I could be anybody because I'm a human.
03:00That line was really, really important for me to state in that first verse because I
03:05just think that human beings, we misunderstand each other so much because we don't communicate
03:10and our levels of empathy are very low these days.
03:14I'm just going to keep it a bean.
03:17Empathy is not that girl these days because the way the internet is set up, we are very
03:22judgmental and we're voyeurs into other people's lives.
03:26And we feel like we can judge them and there's no consequence for saying it out loud.
03:31Well, I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother, I'm a sinner, I'm a saint.
03:38We writ the whole song.
03:40It was writ.
03:41I got to the bridge.
03:43And in my head it was like, girl, you've been fighting it.
03:46Just fucking sing it.
03:48And I said, just roll on me.
03:49And I was like, and don't judge me.
03:51I'm about to do something crazy.
03:52And then the bridge music started and I was like, I'm a bitch, I'm a lover.
03:56And they were like, throwing cushions around the room and shit, chords flying in the air.
04:02We were like, damn, that got to be the chorus, huh?
04:05If we going to pay for it, baby, get your Imani's words.
04:08So we slid that bitch to the hook and yes, that is the hook of the song.
04:23Shout out to Meredith Brooks.
04:25I want the whole world to know that this is her record.
04:27It's an interpolation, yes.
04:28I still had to make it Lizzo-y.
04:30There was things that she said in the 90s that worked.
04:33I feel like that would have got lost in translation a little bit.
04:37And I was like, this is the Lizzo's version.
04:39You know, it's like Taylor's version.
04:40It's like, bitch, Lizzo's version.
04:42I don't know if I'm anybody's hell or dream.
04:44I'm going to keep it real.
04:45I don't think that I'm anybody's hell or dream.
04:48I'm somebody's mess and queen.
04:55Bitch.
04:56I do my thing.
04:58I do my, I do my, I do my.
05:00She's a bitch.
05:01We wanted like something sample-y.
05:03Ricky Reed was just like, bro, we can't even afford any more samples on this shit.
05:08Be your own sample.
05:09And I'm the queen of that.
05:10I'm the queen of being my own that bum, bum, be dumb, be dumb.
05:13Like I can undulate on a record and they can take it and fuck it up and make it sound
05:17like a sample.
05:17So Ricky was like, you know, just hit a lick real quick.
05:21And I think that's the best thing you could say.
05:22It's like, she a bitch.
05:23Okay, I do my thing.
05:24Like next.
05:25Is it a crime to be a bitch?
05:27Is it?
05:28Lock me up, hoe.
05:30Uh, you mean boss?
05:32You been through what I been through.
05:33You know the cause.
05:34Verse two for me was personal.
05:37I felt like I was carrying the experiences of every black woman in the industry who became
05:45successful, who had to deal with bitch allegations.
05:48I remember being like, why is this a thing?
05:50Like, why isn't there a campaign of a bunch of men being like, I'm not an asshole.
05:55I'm the CEO.
05:56You don't see that shit.
05:58You just give them the grace.
06:01You know, you're like, okay, yeah.
06:03How else did he become a CEO?
06:04He had to be aggressive.
06:06He had to be assertive.
06:07He had to be an asshole sometimes.
06:08That's how he got where he was.
06:10And people respect that.
06:11But with women, even though they have to do the same thing, except 10 times harder and
06:16have to deal with a thousand times more bullshit, once they get to that same position, it's,
06:21oh, she's a bitch.
06:22Oh, she's a sellout.
06:23Oh, she's mean.
06:25And it's like, well, what you want me to do, smile?
06:27Do we ask all of the men who are the Fortune 500 CEOs to smile?
06:31Like, I deserve the same amount of respect as the men.
06:35If I lost some followers, it ain't a loss.
06:37Cause I ain't lost sleep since I slept in my car.
06:39I lost some followers.
06:40That's cool.
06:41I used to sleep in my car for a fucking year.
06:44You unfollow me?
06:44Bye, bitch.
06:46I don't fucking care.
06:48I've been through worse shit.
06:49You know what I'm saying?
06:50Not knowing where my next meal was going to come from.
06:53Scared.
06:53Thinking I'm going to die.
06:54You think your little unfollow is going to hurt my feelings?
06:57Oh, honey.
07:01I am who I am cause I speak from the heart.
07:04Baby, don't play yourself.
07:05You a star.
07:07They always do interviews where it's like, if you could talk to baby Lizzo, what would
07:10you say?
07:11Or like, if you could talk to your younger self, what would you say?
07:13I would be like, don't play yourself.
07:15You're a star.
07:15They may call you a bitch.
07:16They may say you're aggressive.
07:18They may say you're not nice.
07:19You need to smile more.
07:21But you're a star.
07:22Do what you have to do to get where you got to go.
07:24And don't let none of the noise phase you or hold you back from it.
07:31Ooh, I do my, I do my, I do my thing.
07:34Ooh, I do my, I do my, I do my, she's a bitch.
07:40What you call me?
07:41I kind of wanted it to be like a fourth wall break in the song because I'm being real tough.
07:47I'm being real cool.
07:48I'm being real, hey, hey, hey.
07:49But then it's like, what the fuck is going on?
07:52You know what I'm saying?
07:52That's where the logical me steps in.
07:54And I'm like, let me talk about some like big picture shit that might go over some people's
07:59heads.
08:00And this is where it gets very, very meta.
08:03If you call me bad things, I'm gonna be bad, baby.
08:12Get to know me, you'll see.
08:17There ain't no bitch like me.
08:20I'm not just a bitch.
08:22I'm that, I'm that bitch.
08:23That is so crazy because that one line in the bridge that I threw in there as an ad-lib
08:28is the evolution of the word bitch in a nutshell.
08:32It's like a time, it's like a portal of like what I was talking about in the beginning,
08:36like how this word bitch was used as a weapon.
08:39You're a bitch.
08:40You know what I mean?
08:41And it's like, no, I'm that bitch.
08:54My intention behind it when I was singing that was, who am I talking to?
08:58And in my mind, I saw just like a young black girl, like nine years old.
09:02And when she's listening to it and she hears that part and she's like, yeah, you a star.
09:06When you are singing a song out loud, you're talking to yourself, you're manifesting.
09:11And that's why I don't say nothing negative on my shit.
09:14If I can inspire a young person to sing to themselves that they're a star over and over
09:19and over, I've done my job.
09:23When I work, I do get up pretty early.
09:26I woke up this morning like and checked my phone like, fuck, did I miss something?
09:30Like I heard a deep voice in my house, but it was the handyman.
09:33I thought it was glam.
09:34I said, I'm late for glam.
09:35So yeah, I'm on.
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