Lizzo came to Drink Champs ready to talk. The kind of talking where you say the thing out loud and let it land, however it lands. From the Nicki conversation to the GOAT debates, she never once played it safe.
“There Just Was Only One”
When Nicki Minaj came up, Lizzo went somewhere most artists avoid entirely. She made it plain that she has no ego in it and no aspirations to hold any crown. Then she said something harder than the usual narrative around women in rap.
“I don’t think that it was that it could only be one. There just was only one.”
She cleared up something the internet keeps getting wrong. She does not have a relationship with Nicki. “I don’t have this person’s phone number. I’ve never had a conversation longer than two minutes with this person. I truly don’t know her. I know of her.” So when things started showing up online, the confusion was real.
Lizzo holds both things at once without flinching. Nicki is a great rapper with great records. She also does not like how Nicki has been acting toward her and her friends. She calls it what it is. Nuance. And she said it with her whole chest.
What Michael and Prince Actually Required
The Michael versus Prince question took a turn fast. Lizzo steered the conversation toward what that level of artistry actually costs and why she does not think we will see it again.
“That’s not going to come to you after going viral on TikTok.”
She made a point that doesn’t get said enough. Motown invented what modern pop is. Point blank period. During one of the darkest periods for Black people in American history, they looked at an industry paying them pennies on hits and built their own operation. The Jackson family was at the center of that, and Lizzo made sure it got its proper credit.
She called the question unanswerable and meant it. But what she built around it was worth more than a pick.
She Told a Radio DJ She Was About to Be Famous at 14
Lil Flip is the reason Lizzo started taking freestyling seriously. She used to call into 97.9 The Box in Houston to enter the morning show freestyle challenge, and she kept winning. Concert tickets. Recognition. Momentum. One day, the DJ told her she was really good. She looked into that phone and told him, “I’m about to be famous.” She was 14. That version of Lizzo and the one sitting on Drink Champs with four Grammys is the same person.
Bruno Mars Told Her to “Stop Making It Political”
She works out of the same studio as Bruno Mars, and he gave her direct notes on Naked from her last album. She was trying to make the song empowering and political. He shut it down fast. “Who you getting naked for the world for politics? You getting naked for your man. Then write about that.”
She took the note. She also observed his catalog, which more people should sit with. Bruno Mars has maybe thirty songs across his entire career, and almost all of them are hits. That level of quality control is nearly impossible to find in an era where volume gets mistaken for strategy.
Lauryn Hill’s One Album Still Wins the Argument
The Missy vs. Lauryn question almost broke Lizzo. She said she could literally cry thinking about what both women meant to her. Then she made the case for Miseducation plainly. “I’ve never heard anyone rap as good as they sing and sing as good as they rap.”
One solo album. Still considered one of the greatest of all time. The conversation around it never gets old because it was never supposed to.
Lizzo had a lot more to say. Don’t miss! Check out the full episode right here.