Despite the philanthropic purpose and uplifting mood of his Team Love Dance-A-Thon Fundraiser Sunday, Diddy drew heat from the easily-offended denizens of social media when an excerpt of Diddy cutting off Lizzo‘s twerking session migrated from the livestream the wider social media ecosystem. At the time, Diddy said it was because the livestream was on Easter Sunday and he wanted to keep it “family-friendly.” Today, he explained exactly what he meant by that, hoping to appease the hundreds of accounts accusing him of fat-phobia.
Diddy said 'aht aht!!!' not on Easter Sunday!! Lizzo 😩😩 pic.twitter.com/xsQw5v6K8D
— The Shade Room Teens (@shaderoomteens) April 12, 2020
Many on Twitter felt that Diddy exercised a double standard in requesting Lizzo put a pause on her dance session, pointing out that model Draya Michele was allowed to twerk it out to her heart’s content. However, it seems those folks overlooked some important context in projecting on Puff’s reasoning: The difference in the ladies’ respective song choices. As it turns out, Diddy objected more to the lyrics from Moneybagg Yo and Blac Youngsta’s “123,” which Lizzo used to as her own background music.
As he explained in a video at the end of the stream, “There’s one thing that I wanna make clear. My queen, my sister, Lizzo, when I stopped the music, it’s because it had a lot of curses in there. Not because she was twerking. She’s one of the best twerkers in the world, okay? So let’s keep that clear. It wasn’t about twerking. You’re allowed to twerk on Easter. There was a lot of cursing on the record and I don’t need child services knocking on my door right now, you understand?”
Diddy on stopping Lizzo: “When I stopped the music, it’s because it had a lot of curses in there, not cuz she was twerking. She’s one of the best twerkers in the world.” pic.twitter.com/tRl2cEZshL
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 13, 2020
Specifically, the portion of the song Lizzo threw her backside to contains the lyrics: “She a bad b*tch, eat the p*ssy like a spinach / She’ll suck d*ck on the way to the dentist.” Meanwhile, Draya’s dance to Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up” did contain the uncensored version, in which Juvenile rhymes “You a fine motherf*cker,” which has some Twitter users skeptical about Diddy’s explanation (although if you count the asterisks above, it’s pretty clear that one requires way more censorship than the other).
Also, his younger kids were with him when Lizzo was on. His adult kids were on when Draya was on.
— Charlee Pride (@piccharesq) April 13, 2020
In any case, it’s a prime example of how things can be taken out of context on the internet — or at least, interpreted in many different ways. Fortunately, there were many other moments that seemed positive to take away from the Dance-A-Thon, such as Drake telling Diddy about the new music he’s making while on lockdown.