After Lizzo tearfully addressed the hateful messages she was receiving on social media, she received an encouraging one from T.I.
In a seven-minute Instagram video from Sunday (Aug. 22), Tip offered up some words of advice to the Grammy-winning superstar, who suffered vitriol from “racist” and “fat-phobic” online trolls last week following the release of her new single “Rumors,” featuring Cardi B.
“Listen, sweetheart, you are beautiful. You are talented. You are good enough for all the great things that the world has to offer. And don’t wait for nobody idea in the public to validate that, bruh. Don’t do that, because their perception of you has more to do with them than it does with you,” the rapper said in the video. He captioned the video, “You fye shawty. Keep doing what you do & [middle finger emoji] Deez people mane !! – Terrence Howard voice.”
A Facebook company spokesperson confirmed to Billboard that Facebook and Instagram were taking down hateful comments under her accounts as well as removing accounts. Tip also encouraged the singer and others who’ve faced hate on social media, “Don’t pick up your phone and look in your comments and expect for strangers off the internet, who got their own s— they’re trying to bear with and deal with and go through, you know what I’m saying?”
The singer occasionally panned the camera to his 5-year-old daughter Heiress, who was audibly singing in the backseat. He later encouraged his followers to tag Lizzo in the comments section so that she could see his message since he claimed to not know her personally.
“I think she talented. I think she dope. I think she beautiful. I think whatever she got going on, bruh, that s— keep working, man. Keep doing it,” he concluded. “When people start talking bad, that’s how you know it working. Keep going. Keep pushing, man.”
Lizzo is joyfully reaping the benefits of her hard work after “Rumors” debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, earning Lizzo her third top 10 hit and her first to launch in that section. The song also concurrently debuted at No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts.
She further addressed the bullying and criticisms during her Aug. 18 appearance on Good Morning America, where she spoke to the erasure and marginalization of Black women in the music business. “But I chose to be undeniable and I chose to be loud and I chose to be great. And I’m still here,” the “Truth Hurts” singer said in her latest interview.
Watch Tip’s positive message below.
