Lizzo's 'I Love You B*tch' Was Prompted By A Cardi B Tweet

When you’re writing music (or creating anything, really), inspiration can come from anywhere. When it comes to “I Love You B*tch” from Lizzo’s new album Special, it came directly from a Cardi B tweet.

Lizzo explained to Apple Music:

“‘I Love You B*tch’ came from a tweet, and it’s not the same as ‘Truth Hurts,’ so don’t come at me for royalties, Twitter. Shortly after ‘Rumors’ with Cardi B dropped, Cardi tweeted that she wanted to hear a love song from me next. And I was like, ‘OK, if Lizzo did a love song, what would it be? ‘I love you, b*tch?” It was one of those rare times where I had the title before the song. I got in the studio with Omer Fedi and Blake Slatkin and told them about my idea. Omer started playing the guitar, and I started freestyling to it. I’m from Houston, and there’s this Houston rapper named Z-Ro who has a song called ‘I Hate U B*tch.’ Suddenly I was like, hold up, what if I sang the ‘I Hate U B*tch’ melody but said ‘I love you, b*tch’ instead? It just came out, and it might be the greatest thing we’ve ever done. As I was writing the lyrics, I realized that I wanted to write a universal love song — one you could sing to the person you’re f*cking and your best friend, to your family or to someone you just met at a bar.”

As for the tweet Lizzo’s talking about, it’s as she described it: On October 19, 2021, Cardi tweeted, “I want a love song from Lizzo next.”