Intro
When you reclaim a word that was used to tear you down and you take the power out of it,
it empowers you and it makes them powerless. So even if you do call me a bitch, even if you do call me fat or a fat bitch or anything
like that that you think is going to tear me down, bitch, I already said it to myself
and I gave it power. So now actually all you're doing is hyping me up by using this word.
Chorus
So get more creative. Think of something else. You know, use your noggin.
Intro
So the beauty behind the record, Bitch, is that it contains a sample and an interpolation.
The sample is just the beat. That's when you take an old beat and you remix it and you put it on a new beat.
And an interpolation is when you re-sing someone else's song.
I typically never do this, but I wanted to do it for this song because the word bitch
Chorus
is my favorite fucking word. Everybody who know me know that bitch is my favorite word.
Biaash was your favorite word.
Biaash, me in short. In short, I wanted to pay homage to all the women who set the stage and empowered and
took the power back in that word. Because that word used to be used to put a woman down.
Bridge
It was so derogatory and it was so weaponized.
Missy Elliott, I remember, if you listen to Socket To Me or that whole era of music that
Missy put out, her and Da Brat were like, it's a new bitch era.
We taking this word back. She said it on the record. It was very bold and feminist and powerful and revolutionary for her to do that.
Chorus
And then Meredith Brooks wrote a song called Bitch, and that was on the rock and pop side
of the game. So I thought it was a beautiful bridge, Missy to Meredith to Melissa to Lizzo.
I think it's a perfect homage to all the women who paved the way so we can say,
I'm that bitch every single day.
Verse 1
When I say A to Z, I mean everything fucking in between.
I wear every hat, wig, toupee, bandana there is.
I am the social media manager.
I am promoting myself. I am talking to my creative director, tying everything together.
Chorus
I'm coming up with the ideas. I'm trying to have a regular personal life.
I wear every single hat and I feel like if I'm not talking to everyone and connected
to everything that's happening within the Lizzo world, it's not going to go right.
It is what it is. I heard what you said, goddamn, I let it get to me.
Verse 2
You want me to be everything except a human being.
That's my reply to anyone who has ever gone on the internet and talked shit or gone on
the internet and spread lies about me, gone on the internet and co-signed on some negativity.
It's like, man, remember, you're talking about a human.
Chorus
You're talking about somebody who could be your sister, who could be your best friend,
who could be your mama, who could be the person who gave you a free matcha at the matcha shop.
And you're like, actually, I like her. I would never say nothing bad about her. I could be anybody because I'm a human.
That line was really, really important for me to state in that first verse because I
Bridge
just think that human beings, we misunderstand each other so much because we don't communicate
and our levels of empathy are very low these days.
I'm just going to keep it a bean.
Empathy is not that girl these days because the way the internet is set up, we are very
Chorus
We're very judgmental and we're voyeurs into other people's lives and we feel like we can
judge them and there's no consequence for saying it out loud.
Verse 1
We ripped the whole song. It was ripped. I got to the bridge. And in my head it was like, girl, you been fighting it.
Chorus
Just fucking sing it. And I was like, and don't judge me.
I'm about to do something crazy. And then the bridge music started and I was like, I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm-
And they were like,
Throwing cushions around the room and shit, chords flying in the air. We were like, damn, that gotta be the chorus, huh?
Verse 2
If we gonna pay for it, baby, get your Imani's words.
So we slid that bitch to the hook. And yes, that is the hook of the song.
Chorus
And everything between, you know,
you wouldn't want it any other way.
Shout out to Meredith Brooks. I want the whole world to know that this is her record.
It's an interpolation, yes. I still had to make it Lizzo-y.
Bridge
There was things that she said in the 90s that worked.
I feel like that would've got lost in translation a little bit.
And I was like, this is the Lizzo's version. You know, I was like, Taylor's version.
I don't know if I'm anybody's hell or dream. I'ma keep it real. I don't think that I'm anybody's hell or dream.
Chorus
I'm somebody's mess and queen.
I do my thing, I do my, I do my, I do my thing.
Bitch, I do my thing, I do my, I do my, I do my,
she's a bitch. We wanted something sample-y. Ricky Reed was just like, bro, we can't even afford
Verse 1
any more samples on this shit.
Be your own sample. I'm the queen of being my own that.
Bum, bum, be dum, be dum. I can undulate on a record and they can take it
and fuck it up and make it sound like a sample. So Ricky was like, just hit a lick real quick.
Chorus
And I think that's the best thing you can say. It's like, she a bitch? Okay, I do my thing. Like, next? Is it a crime to be a bitch?
Verse 2
Is it? Lock me up, hoe.
Verse two for me was personal.
I felt like I was carrying the experiences of every Black woman in the industry who became
Chorus
successful, who had to deal with bitch allegations.
I remember being like, why is this a thing?
Why isn't there a campaign of a bunch of men being like,
I'm not an asshole. I'm the CEO. You don't see that shit. You just give them the grace.
Bridge
You know, you're like, okay, yeah. How else did he become a CEO? He had to be aggressive.
He had to be an asshole sometimes. That's how he got where he was. And people respect that. But with women, even though they have to do the same thing, except 10 times harder and
Chorus
have to deal with a thousand times more bullshit, once they get to that same position, it's,
Oh, she's a sellout.
Oh, she's mean. And it's like, well, what you want me to do, smile?
Do we ask all of the men who are the Fortune 500 CEOs to smile?
Verse 1
Like, I deserve the same amount of respect as the men.
If I lost some followers, it ain't a loss, because I ain't lost sleep since I slept in
my car. I lost some followers. That's cool. I used to sleep in my car for a fucking year.
You want to follow me? Bye, bitch. Bitch, I don't fucking care.
Chorus
I've been through worse shit. You know what I'm saying? Not knowing where my next meal was going to come from.
Scared. Thinking I'm going to die. You think your little unfollow is going to hurt my feelings?
Oh, honey.
Verse 2
They always do interviews where it's like, if you could talk to baby Lizzo, what would
you say? Or if you could talk to your younger self, what would you say?
I would be like, don't play yourself. You're a star. They may say you're aggressive.
They may say you're not nice. You need to smile more. But you're a star. Do what you have to do to get where you gotta go.
Chorus
And don't let none of the noise phase you or hold you back from it.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh,
I do my, I do my, I do my thing.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, I do my, I do my, I do my, she's
Bridge
a bitch? What you call me? I kind of wanted it to be like a fourth wall break in the song because I'm being real tough,
Chorus
I'm being real cool, I'm being real hey, hey, hey.
But then it's like, what the fuck is going on?
You know what I'm saying? That's where the logical me steps in and I'm like, let me talk about some big picture shit
that might go over some people's heads.
Verse 1
And this is where it gets very, very meta.
If you call me bad things, I'm gonna be bad, baby.
Chorus
Get to know me, you'll see.
There ain't no bitch like me.
I'm not just a bitch.
That is so crazy because that one line in the bridge
Verse 2
that I threw in there as an ad-lib is the evolution of the word bitch in a nutshell.
It's like a portal of what I was talking about in the beginning, like how this word
bitch was used as a weapon. You're a bitch, you know what I mean? And it's like, no, I'm that bitch.
Chorus
My intention behind it when I was singing that was, who am I talking to?
And in my mind, I saw just a young black girl, nine years old.
And when she's listening to it and she hears that part, and she's like,
Yeah, you a star. When you are singing a song out loud, you're talking to yourself.
Bridge
You're manifesting. And that's why I don't say nothing negative on my shit.
If I can inspire a young person to sing to themselves that they're a star over and over
and over, I've done my job.
When I work, I do get up pretty early.
Chorus
I woke up this morning like and checked my phone like, fuck, did I miss something?
Like I heard a deep voice in my house, but it was the handyman.
I thought it was glam. I said, I'm late for glam. So yeah, I'm on.
