Tempo
by Lizzo (featuring Missy Elliott)

Album: Cuz I Love You (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • This fast and furious body anthem finds Lizzo talking about how she needs a heavy beat to dance. Slow dances are for skinny girls; those with curves and extra kilos like Lizzo need a "tempo" so they can shake their booty and twerk.
  • Lizzo's Atlantic labelmate Missy Elliott jumps on this ode to curvaceous women. The "Truth Hurts" artist told Beats 1 that she reached out to the veteran MC after hearing the song's completed instrumental.

    "I was like, 'I hope she blesses me with a verse,'" Lizzo explained. "Like, you never know, you send it to your idols, you never know if they gonna send it back."
  • The young Lizzo idolized Missy Elliott not only for her music, but also for showing her that black girls with an above-average BMI could be heard. Speaking with Exclaim, Lizzo said when she first recorded the song it was a case of, "Finally I can talk my s--- about being a big girl." But when Missy came on board, it became, "A full-circle moment of being seen by her existing when I was younger."

    The songstress added that she hopes she can do the same for young girls listening to her music.
  • The Andy Hines-directed video finds Lizzo partying with her crew in a diner parking lot. Packed with colorful characters and surreal choreography, it is reminiscent of Elliott's early visuals.

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