Lizzo Calls Out 'Sickening' Mistreatment of Black Female Artists

Lizzo took a stand for legendary Black female artists who've been publicly ridiculed in the past.

Following the release of her new single, "Still Bad," the 4-time Grammy winner posted a series of tweets about the reception of the song.

"Saying my brand of 'poptimism' doesn’t work in a 'post Covid world' is a lazy take," Lizzo tweeted. "As if I didn’t release ‘about damn time’ post pandemic.."

Lizzo followed up by adding that those who see a "black woman make real music with radical joy triggers miserable people." After declaring that she's following the path paved by Janet Jackson and Earth, Wind & Fire, Lizzo added that "nobody’s doing it like me for Us."

Lizzo continued sounding off on Tuesday, when she called out the "sickening" mistreatment of Black women in the music industry, naming Jackson, and late artists Whitney Houston and Tina Turner.

"blacklisted Janet and now 20yrs later yall calling her music 'cute black girl bops' & giving her flowers," Lizzo wrote. "Dogged Whitney for her love life & called her a drug addict for laughs but now yall wanna honor her Yall laughed at Tina’s abuse and never let her forget… The least protected person in America…"

The responses to Lizzo's tweet were divided, with some denying that she's influential as the women she named, while others called out her past support of Chris Brown.

Without responding to anyone in particular, Lizzo doubled down on her "click bait critters," and said that bashing her is "a cheat code to going viral."

Lizzo has been open about the stigma of being a Black woman making pop music before, expressing in 2022 that she finds it "hurtful" when her music is considered to be solely for white fans.

"[It's] very hurtful, only because I am a Black woman, and I feel like it really challenges my identity and who I am, and diminishes that—which I think is really hurtful," she said on the Howard Stern Show, seen below.

"And then, on the other end, it's like, I'm making funky, soulful, feel-good music that is so similar to a lot of Black music, that was made for Black people in the '70s and '80s," she continued. "And on top of that, my message is literally for everybody, in any body. I don't try to gatekeep my message from people."