Lizzo spreads 'Rumors' with Cardi B, salacious first single from new album

The video features the two hip-hop superstars getting their Cleopatra on.

August 13, 2021 at 3:00PM
Cardi B, left, and Lizzo drop a few bombshells in the new single and video “Rumors.” (ATLANTIC RECORDS/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

After scoring big two years ago with "Truth Hurts," Lizzo is back with a new single about how much lies can hurt.

Overnight, the ex-Minneapolitan hip-hop and pop superstar dropped "Rumors," her first single from a new album reportedly due out by year's end. The track features her fellow chart-topping, man-dissing friend Cardi B and addresses their mutual experiences of being written up and off in tabloids and celeb-gossip columns.

"Spending all your time tryna break a woman down," Lizzo sings near the start of the mid-tempo grinder. "Realer sh-- is going on, baby, take a look around."

The 33-year-old singer/rapper goes on to address headline-generating stories about her DM-ing Drake ("No, I ain't [bleep him] yet"), not giving songwriting credits to former collaborators ("Had to cut some hoes loose, yeah / NDA, no loose lips / Now them hoes tryna sue me") and wearing a heinie-exposing dress courtside at a Lakers-Timbewolves game ("If you thought that I was ratchet with my ass hanging out / Just wait until the summer when they let me out the house").

Cardi joins in with lines about "fake ass, fake boobs" and "running with fake news" before shrugging it all off with, "I'm calmed down and I'm locked in / And my records live in the top 10."

The single — a shoo-in to crack Billboard's top 10 — was issued early Friday along with an Egyptian-fashioned video featuring the two stars in golden Cleopatra-like attire. It's not the first time Lizzo and Cardi have appeared on screen together, following their co-starring roles in the Jennifer Lopez-led 2019 movie "Hustlers."

Details of Lizzo's heavily anticipated follow-up to her 2019 breakout album, "'Cuz I Love You," are still under wraps, though plenty of rumors about it are flying — including one that Harry Styles is featured on another track.

Lizzo has also been busy of late developing a new series with Amazon Studios. She will return to the stage Sept. 4 atop the lineup of the Bonnaroo festival before she heads to Minnesota for a Sept. 11 performance at Treasure Island Casino Amphitheater, her only standalone/non-festival gig on the calendar. Her October appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was canceled earlier this week along with the entire fest, due to COVID concerns.

While Bonnaroo has implemented a requirement for attendees to show proof of vaccine or a negative COVID test result, representatives from Treasure Island did not have any such plan in place as of Thursday for her show there.

about the writer

about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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