Lizzo, body positivity and being '100% THAT bitch'

Th five wordspart of a lyric that made rapper Lizzo one of the most famous artists of our time. It is part of her song Truth Hurts, which has been number one on the Billboard Hot 100 list in America for seven weeks. In this article, I am going to use the singer' her journey to success because it is tied closely to the current phase of globalization. The already mentioned infamous lyric and her powerful message will also be discussed to point out how popular culture can add new vocabulary to the English language through online platforms and how it can affect people's their lives.

Back to top

Globalization and the changing world of the music industry

lobalization accelerates and intensifies pre-existing phases of globalization. The defining infrastructures of stages of globalization are its new technologies. The technology of the current phase is the Internet, and also social networks. For a long time, musicians needed features on television or radio to become successful. Good reviews and interviews in the printed press were also a big factor in becoming known by a big audience.

These days that is not the case anymore, or more precisely, that is not enough anymore. In the contemporary music business, one must do all of that, and on top of , one needs to engage in online promotion and use all kinds of social media platforms to get noticed. So artists need to navigate off-line and online promotion to be relevant. Old and new media, or technologies, are required and coexist.

This is very much the case in the story of Lizzo, as we will see.

Back to top

So who is Lizzo?!

Lizzo is a female African-American singer, songwriter, rapper and classically trained flutist. Her real name is Melissa Jefferson, middle name Vivianne. She was born on April 27, 1988, in Detroit, Michigan (Wikipedia, 2019). Her family was very religious. Her parents played a lot of gospel music in the house. So you could say that music has always been a big part of her life. At the age of 14, she fell in love with hip-hop music, and so she started a musical group with friends (Wikipedia, 2019). Around that time, her stage name Lizzo was born. In a conversation with online magazine The Cut, she explained that it is a combination of ‘Lissa,’ after her real name Melissa, and ‘Izzo,’ which is a reference to Jay-Z’s song Izzo, which was very popular at the time. At Houston University, she took classical music with a primary focus on the flute, the instrument she had been playing since she was 12.

After a failed first attempt to make it in the music industry, she moved to Minneapolis in 2011. In 2013 and 2015, she independently released two albums, Lizzobangers, and Big Girrl Small World. In 2016, she was signed to big label Atlantic Records, and with them, she produced and released an EP, called Coconut Oil. The follow up of this extended play came three years later, in April of 2019, when Cuz I Love You was put out, her first official studio album.

In November 2013, Time already named Lizzo as one of 14 artists you should watch in 2014. 

Back to top

Promotion and support from renowned artists

After years of hard work, she became a big star. Part of her success can be traced back to good promotion, and collaborations with very popular and famous musicians and TV stars. As said, she went to Minneapolis. She described this move as ‘one of the best moves I’ve made’ in an interview with Rolling Stone. In the same interview, the singer recalls that ‘Within a year I was playing First Avenue.' (Minneapolis’ most famous venue) ‘Within two, Prince had asked me to come to Paisley Park to record.’ She worked with Prince on his 2014 album Plectrumelectrum. This opportunity gave her the confidence to be a solo artist, and it helped her in creating her own style that would turn out to be a mixture of rap, pop, rock, and funk. In November 2013, Time already named her as one of 14 artists you, as a music fan, should watch in 2014. 

In 2017 she joined the highly popular TV program Ru Paul’s Drag Race as a guest judge. Drag Race even used Good As Hell, a song from her EP, for the so-called Battle For Your Life lip-sync round in the same episode. The next year, in 2018, she was asked to be the supporting act for popular female group Haim and band Florence + The Machine during their tours in North America. Both Rolling Stone and Forbes featured her in their 2018 lists of artists you need to know.

Back to top

The success of Truth Hurts and the '100 percent' lyric

Let us now look at one of her songs that ultimately decided her queen-status, and that became her most significant success to date. I am, of course, talking about Truth Hurts. The truth about Truth Hurts is, however, that it is an ‘old’ Lizzo song, it was released in 2017. At the time of release, it did not do that well commercially. So then what is so special about Truth Hurts that two years after its release, it certainly became such a big hit?

Let us take a look at the actual song. Truth Hurts is a 2:53 minute track led by a piano sample. The lyrics are about relationship problems. So far, it does not really sound that exciting. How did it become so popular then - with 414.716.184 plays on Spotify (on November 9, 2019, as Figure 2 shows)? The thing that made it so popular is the opening line of the first verse: ‘I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100% THAT Bitch’.

‘Being 100 percent THAT bitch’ is slang for ‘being a woman everyone wants to be, and thus everyone is extremely jealous of’ according to the Urban Dictionary.

As of April 2019, the line was picked up by users of video-sharing app Tik Tok. Users of the app, mostly teenagers, began posting so-called DNA Test Challenge videos in which they pretend to do a DNA test with self-invented results in sync to Lizzo’s phrase. Below, you can find a compilation video of said clips that were posted on Tik Tok. These videos became a meme trend. And because of that trend, the song Truth Hurts became very popular as well. Its success exploded, and so the track climbed the music charts worldwide. Because it became such a hit she decided to release a deluxe version of album Cuz I Love You on the 3rd of May 2019, which contains three extra tracks, including Truth Hurts.

 

Another thing that helped its popularity is that the song was used in Netflix-movie Someone Great. At one point, Gina Rodriguez, one of the main characters of the film, sings along to the track. The movie was released on April 19, 2019, the same month in which the meme trend started. It is reasonable to think that the former is connected to the latter.

After Lizzo’s performance at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, where she did a medley of Truth Hurts and Good As Hell, there was another peak in the ‘100 percent’ meme trend on Twitter. Figures 2-5 show a few outstanding examples.

Back to top

The origin of the '100 percent' line?

The lyric and the song have become an immense hit, leading to Lizzo filing for a patent on that line so she can use it for commercial activities. However, recently, the rapper has been covered in lawsuits claiming the song is plagiarism. Lizzo is fighting all of these allegations. Except one. She has added one person to the list of songwriters. That person is Mina Lioness. Lioness claimed that she invented the ‘100 percent’ line in 2017 with one of her tweets  - and the song was released in 2017, a few months after Lioness' her tweet.  

Though Lizzo denies that she saw this tweet, she decided to credit Mina Lioness, and she even made a statement on Twitter about the matter. In it, she said that she saw a meme while recording in a studio in 2017 and that it made her feel like 100 percent that bitch and that she used it for a demo. Later on, it became part of Truth Hurts. It was brought to her attention that the meme she had seen in 2017 was inspired by Lioness' her tweet, and so she decided to credit her for it. See Figure 6. for the full statement.

The inspiration for the famous lyric was a meme, and the song that came out of that inspiration became the subject of a meme trend itself.

 

Her inspiration was a meme (which was inspired by a tweet), and the song that came out of that inspiration became the subject of a meme trend itself. That is an excellent example of how social media works. You see something on the internet, you use it, or get inspired, create something new, and the next step is that it can function as an inspiration to others.  And so the circle goes round and round.

Back to top

Impact

The infamous line can be seen everywhere, on social media, in memes, but also more serious contexts. Lizzo was quoted in the American political TV program Meet The Press by one of the presenters/hosts, Shawna Thomas. In the program, on September 1, Thomas said that 2020 election candidate Joe Biden should announce senator Stacey Abrams as his vice-presidential nominee. And then she quoted: ‘iIt’s like a Lizzo quote. She is 100% that B right now. And everyone knows it. And she is owning it. And that’s interesting’.

It is safe to say Lizzo’s ‘100 percent’ line has entered not only the online realm but also the ‘offline’ television world. Even on a sophisticated broadcast channel like NBC, which is the home of MTP, Jefferson’s words are used to bring an opinion on US politics. She was quoted before in a political manner. Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has used parts of Lizzo’s line in a tweet, on August 21st. So suddenly the line has climbed to a new level of usage, namely politics. 

Back to top

Body positivity and self-love

If you look at Lizzo's her lyrics, it becomes clear that they are not just fun and catchy, but that they also have a message. And that message is body positivity and self-love. The ‘100 percent’ line in Truth Hurts can be seen as a lyric about that issue as she explicitly talks about herself in that phrase. Truth Hurts is not the only song; almost her entire discography addresses these issues in one way or another.

Why these themes? Lizzo is, as said, an African-American woman. She is also a plus size. She is a big black woman with a big mouth and a lot of attitude in criticizing and labeling music industry. She is different and owns being different, and she is proud of it. Not being the perfect type of woman or not having a slim body is not something you should be ashamed of despite stereotypes around beauty made up by the modeling and television world.

However, the singer, of course, does not only inspire black plus size people. Since the early stages of her career she also has a lot of support from the LGBTQ+ community. The reason for that is, again, that she is different. Many LGBTQ+ members also feel different, and they recognize that in Lizzo. Lizzo is different and proud of it; she shows them that they can be proud of being different too. As of a few months ago, this even got another layer of meaning, as Lizzo decided to start calling her fans ‘Lizzbians’.

Back to top

Changing the norm

Lizzo fuelled a revolution of body positivity. She became a figure of inspiration and a role model to curvier young women who are insecure about their looks and the shape of their bodies. In an interview with Time, Lizzo has said that when she grew up, she had no one to look up to who was like her. That is why she wanted to become a role model herself: ‘I have to be that person because I don’t see that person. The space I’m occupying isn’t just for me, it’s for all the big black girls in the future who just want to be seen’.

She, of course, is not the only 'big' woman who advocates for body positivity, but she is, however, the one who is most explicitly showing it and addressing it during every opportunity she can. But there are also colleague rappers Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, for example. Lizzo addressed them in the already mentioned interview with Time and made the following statement:

'These women who are telling their stories-look at how they look. Have you ever seen anything like that before? Is it weird? Does it make you uncomfortable? It feels novel because we’re not the norm. I post a lot of naked pictures of myself- one, because I look good, but two, because I want to normalize it. When I post these things, it’s not to be provocative. I’m sick of black women being (seen as) provocative because you’re not used to us.’.

 this quote from the Time feature states, Lizzo posts a lot of nude pictures on her social media pages. Not only there though, the album cover of Cuz I Love You is also a photo of the rapper without any clothes on. This cover is a statement that underwrites her message of self-love, she loves her body, and she is proud of it. So proud that she dares to show it on that cover. Figure 7 shows that cover.

'I have to be that person because I don’t see that person'

Also, in live performances, Lizzo is not shy to show some skin. During the already mentioned performance at the MTV VMA, she was accompanied by the Big Grrls, her beloved group of plus-sized back-up dancers and singers. But that is not all of it. There was also a set of massive floating buttocks.

 

This was a collaboration between her creative director Quinn Wilson, Strange Loop Studios, and Landmark Creations. Figures 8 and 9 show photos of the performance and of the design. Besides that very visual statement, the rapper also held a speech about self-love and feeling ‘ in a (hiphop) world dominated by men.

Back to top

Lizzo in the context of globalization, culture, and language

The acceleration and intensification of globalization made patterns or scapes of social and cultural behavior happen (Appadurai, 1996). Lizzo is rebelling against conservative beauty standards and fuelling a revolution of body positivity and self-love. That is an example of a culture scape (Appadurai, 1996). Culture scapes are cultural scripts that start somewhere local, and then become global phenomena. As Lizzo is from America, she started said revolution in the US, but because she has a global reach her message and crusade were also picked up in other countries. She became a beacon of light in the first place to women, but also to others who feel looked down upon and are insecure about their bodies or about who they are. She uses diverse social media applications to express her message of loving yourself and being proud of how you look with words and with visuals.

As we have seen, Lizzo uses both ‘old' media’, like appearances on TV programs, and interviews in magazines, as new media, such as social media platforms. The existence of old and new next to one another is a feature of globalization. That coexistence is one of the reasons that Lizzo found her way to success.

The Internet and social platforms have created new communities, which are for many people, a fundamental dimension of everyday life (Castells, 2010).  are part of multiple networks that organize our social practices and behavior (Castells, 2010). Social media and the Internet are trans-national; they do not end at the borders of countries. And so those technological infrastructures have made our society into a global system and reshaped it into a network society.  

Because social media have created global communities, it is possible for Lizzo not only to help and inspire people from America but also people from all over the world. ,  Simone Weimans, a news presenter for the NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting), which is a public broadcasting company, was a guest in Dutch talkshow De Wereld Draait Door. There she said that Lizzo brought ‘light into the lives of her and many others.’ She gave them a voice but also the strength to, for example, wear some kind of outfit they would not have dared to wear before because of insecurities about their bodies or looks.

Social networks, which are based on peer-to-peer electronics, make circulation of any type of (digital) content possible (Castells, 2010). It is partly because of that circulation of content through social media platforms that rapper Lizzo eventually found her way to success. Because the song Truth Hurts was used in a movie licensed to video on demand platform Netflix, it became popular. Even more popular as users of another platform, video-sharing app Tik Tok, began posting the mentioned ‘100 percent’ videos that became a trend. The song gained massive popularity and let to hundreds of millions of plays on Spotify. It provided Lizzo with her well-deserved place in the spotlight. The popularity of the lyric let to memes on Instagram and Twitter. It became an actual expression, and so it was added to the urban dictionary. People began using the line everywhere, from tweets to conversations with friends to news channels. 

Back to top

References:

Appadurai, A. (1996), Modernity at large Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

Castells, M. (2010), The rise of the network society Hoboken: Blackwell Publishers

Back to top