Lizzo is in the eye of a superstar storm

*This session originally aired on June 11, 2019

The night before Lizzo swooped off a 5 a.m. flight and into World Cafe, her colossal album Cuz I Love You made her the highest streaming artist on Spotify. She had just been nominated for a BET Award in the category of best female hip-hop artist alongside Cardi B and Nicki Minaj. She was right in the eye of a superstar storm, and she wasn’t afraid to talk about the challenges that come alongside all the good bits of achieving her dreams. In Lizzo’s words, “If I had to be fake during all this press and all of this work, I think that it would eat me alive.”

Lizzo is a singer, writer, rapper, producer and classically trained flute player who has been training and working towards this incredible moment for a long time. We talked about the inspiration she drew from Aretha Franklin, what it was like for her to record with Prince when she was rapping in Minneapolis and the making of her major label full-length debut (albeit her third studio album) Cuz I Love You. You can hear it all in the player above, and read selected highlights from the interview on NPR Music.