LIZZO
New single: Faded
Released 18th May 2014
Debut album: LIZZOBANGERS
Virgin Records
www.lizzomusic.com
twitter.com/lizzo
I ain’t your hook girl, I’m your feature and I don’t need your attention because of my features – “Hot Dish”
Lizzo has arrived.
In 2014’s hip-hop culture, built on stale rhymes about sex, money and drugs, Houston-bred, Minneapolis-based artist, Lizzo relies on inventive wordplay and an ability to seamlessly flow between rapping and singing to set her above the rest.
Her debut solo release LIZZOBANGERS lives and dies by Lizzo’s unique delivery and cadence, fueled by the depth of her pop-culture, social and historic references, ranging from Lizzie Borden to Cogsworth to Anna Wintour.
It’s that L to the I to the Z Z O / Ain’t got no time for the C3P0, Wookie, rookie / Never knock nookie, but I’d rather stack cookies / Looking at the sunset the color of Snookie – “Faded”
The Guardian says LIZZOBANGERS sounds like an old school major label rap release by a female MC…think Salt-n-Pepa and Queen Latifah for some idea of the comically frank and feisty lyrics and the dexterously deployed snippets and samples.”
LIZZOBANGERS crystallizes Lizzo’s multifaceted approach. The album is the result of a creative collaboration between Lizzo and producers Lazerbeak (Doomtree) and Ryan Olson (Gayngs/Polica). Described as being “audacious, raucously inventive and fun,” by The Boston Globe, the album displaces the stereotypes and expectations of what a rapper should sound like.
Lizzo has spent serious time with gospel, R&B, rock and classical music over the years, and draws from her diverse influences on Lizzobangers’ party-starting beats. Accompanied by production from Doomtree’s Lazerbeak, she shows off deliriously taut rap flow as well as refined singing capabilities on her debut. This quick-witted, deviantly funny, very real new arrival from the Totally Gross National Product family fairly sizzles with talent. Get stuck in now, says Dazed & Confused
Beyond the pop references and inventive wordplay, LIZZOBANGERS goes deep into challenging stereotypes, societal norms and the state of our culture in a rare matter-of-fact and non-politicized way.
Chicago Sun Times declares: “The lead single, “Batches and Cookies (feat. Sophia Eris),” astutely dishonors climbing social ladders: “Thrift store shopping look like Anna Wintour/ You ain’t gotta ask about it ’cuz I been hurr / Ridin’ in them chariots like we in Ben-Hur”. But it is the track “W.E.R.K,” in which she advises her own young fans: “Look like a girl/ Act like a lady/ Think like a man/ Werk like a boss,” that will catapult her.”
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 skipped class to catch 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, The Chalice), progressive rock bands (Elypseas), electro-pop duos (Lizzo & The Larva Ink), and her current trap-based hip-hop collective/crew GRRRL PRTY. Meanwhile, she graduated with a classical flute degree from the University of Houston and turned down a scholarship for graduate studies at the Paris Conservatory in order to pursue her current projects.