Lizzo

The American hip-hop singer and rapper known as Lizzo was born Melissa Jefferson on April 27, 1988, and brought up in Houston, Texas. While still residing in Texas, she began her rap career forming a group called the Cornrow Clique. After relocating to Minneapolis in 2011, she began performing with indie rap and hip-hop groups and even flirted briefly with an electro-soul duo she called Lizzo and the Larva Link. She released her critically-acclaimed debut album in 2013 titled Lizzobangers, a collection of 14 widely diverse tracks. The album was released on the label Gross National Product but was soon picked up by Virgin, who re-released it the following year. Lizzo has continued to build on this early success and has now become an established hip-hop artist with several successful projects to her credit. After struggling with her weight from a young age, Lizzo turned what she initially perceived as a problem into what is now one of her major assets, appearing nude on the cover of her 2019 album, Cuz I Luv You. Thanks to the wildly popular singles "Juice," "Tempo," and "Truth Hurts," her sophomore album went to Number 4 on the US pop charts. This was followed by the Cardi B collaboration "Rumors" and the viral single "About Damn Time," which hit Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after the release of her fourth LP Special in 2022. Its parent album, in turn, went to Number 2 on the Billboard 200.