A mixtape as a liberation. Nobody saw it coming, nobody has to buy it. A 34 -minute statement, the message was created in just three days: “I don’t give a shit!” Similar to the Photoshop cover, which exudes a nice retro feeling in the current mass of AI-generated images-Like It’s 2015 Again!
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Of course, the 13 short tracks are under the spell of events: two years ago, three former background dancers made a lawsuit against Lizzo. The reason: sexual harassment, bullying. A lawsuit of her stylist followed. Lizzo’s life has been shaped by court mail for several months. A new album has been announced for autumn, the title piece “Love in Real Life” was released in spring. Thesis: The album will be complicated.
There is obviously more in this mixtape than the artist suggests
It wants to make the mixtape all the easier. There is no musical finesse. Motifs by Beethoven’s “For Elise” are quickly installed in a stadium compatible hip-hop track. Why? Because it works! Lizzo shows her rap skills, the first vocal melody appears in the fifth piece, nice and gospeled, but textually as subtle as a hype-recurrent mandeur: “Still Can ‘Fuh”, including a great feature by Doja Cat. SZA also has a guest appearance: “Irl” takes up the “in Real Life” motif of the upcoming album.
What you do not know: this defiant celebration of life and the ego in this “Sick World” – how real is it all? At the beginning, at “Yitties on Yo Titties (freestyle)” you are there. In the long run you lose faith. Finally, at Ditto on a party intro, there is still a rub down to everyone who wants their badly: “Fuck your party, unvint me”. The longer the track runs, the more thoughtful Lizzo gives itself until it works in the end as it spotted itself: “It’s a Lizzo Summer!” There is obviously more in this mixtape than the artist suggests.