Cardi B Supports Lizzo Amid Racist, Fat-Phobic Reaction to Their New Single ‘Rumors’

Singer/rapper/flutist and all-around confident queen Lizzo dropped her first single since 2019 and though it’s gotten love, some of the hateful comments have proven to be hurtful to the beloved artist. “Rumors” which features rapper Cardi B quickly climbed the charts, reaching the #1 trending spot on YouTube, cracking the Apple Music Top 10 and debuting at #1 on Spotify, but the popular singer wasn’t able to fully enjoy her success. After releasing the song and the accompanying video, negative comments and messages about Lizzo’s appearance quickly surfaced on the Internet, putting a damper on the moment.

A few days after the song came out, Lizzo took to Instagram Live to address the haters, saying of the attacks, “It’s fatphobic, it’s racist, and it’s hurtful,” in the tearful 12-minute video. Since then, she’s received a slew of supportive messages and posts from fans as well as other celebrities including Cardi, Octavia Spencer, Jameela Jamil and Chlöe Bailey of Chloe x Halle.

“What I won’t accept is y’all doing this to Black women over and over and over again, especially us big Black girls,” said the singer who has long been a body positive activist. “When we don’t fit into the box that you want to put us in, you just unleash hatred onto us. It’s not cool. I’m doing this s— for the big Black women in the future who just want to live their lives without being scrutinized or put into boxes.”

“Loving yourself in a world that don’t love u back takes an incredible amount of self awareness & a bulls— detector that can see through ass backwards societal standards,” she later tweeted. “if u managed to love yourself today I’m proud of u. If u haven’t, I’m still proud of u. This s—s hard.”

Loving yourself in a world that don’t love u back takes an incredible amount of self awareness & a bullshit detector that can see through ass backwards societal standards…

if u managed to love yourself today I’m proud of u.

If u haven’t, I’m still proud of u. This shits hard

— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) August 15, 2021

Cardi is well-known for being vocal about the things she cares about and clapping back at online criticism, so she was quick to defend Lizzo. “When you stand up for yourself they claim your (sic) problematic & sensitive.When you don’t they tear you apart until you crying like this. Whether you skinny,big,plastic, they going to always try to put their insecurities on you.Remember these are nerds looking at the popular table,” she tweeted, going on to point out how well the single is doing and calling out racist comments about Lizzo.

When you stand up for yourself they claim your problematic & sensitive.When you don’t they tear you apart until you crying like this. Whether you skinny,big,plastic, they going to always try to put their insecurities on you.Remember these are nerds looking at the popular table. https://t.co/jE5eJw8XP6

— Cardi B (@iamcardib) August 15, 2021

Fans and fellow celebrities sent the singer tons of supportive messages as well, even flooding social media with some of the singer’s earlier music videos and videos of her live performances, creating fan art and edits based on the “Rumors” music video and posting memes about how much they love the song and music video.

@lizzo you’re loved everyday. Never seek approval from the world because there will always be those waiting to tear you down. Self love is foundational and only you can build it. #StayStrongBaby https://t.co/361QYTpD2e

— octavia spencer (@octaviaspencer) August 15, 2021

Though perhaps acclaimed actress Octavia Spencer said it best, “Never seek approval from the world because there will always be those waiting to tear you down. Self love is foundational and only you can build it. #StayStrongBaby,” she commented on one of Lizzo’s tweets, and we couldn’t agree more.