Lizzo and Missy Elliott just released a music video for their 2019 collaboration, “Tempo.” The Minneapolis singer parties with her crew in a diner parking lot, and the surreal visual features a semicircle of hydraulic-bound cars rearing upwards as women bounce on top of them.
Lizzo sports a sparkly blue bikini and a red cowboy hat. Naturally, she complements her body-positive lyrics with plenty of twerking, as she speak-sings on the second verse:
Thick thighs save lives, call me little buttercup
All means necessary (Ayy)
My ass is not an accessorary (What?)
Yeah, I said it, accessorary (What?)
Twerk skills up on legendary
Then Missy emerges out of the hood of a vehicle to spit her verse, filled with rolled Rs:
Kitty cat, kitty cat, prrr
All the thick girls down on the flrrr (On the floor)
Ice on my neck like brrr (Like brrr)
I’m big-boned with nice curves (Nice curves)
Look at me, I know I look grrrd (Good)
The collab was a natural fit for the Atlantic labelmates, as Lizzo detailed how Missy inspired her career in a Breakfast Club interview. “Musically Missy Elliott was huge for me,” Lizzo said. “When I was little and I was watching Missy Elliott do her thing and win Grammys. Not only be a writer and producer and performer and style icon, but she was winning Grammys and at the top of the charts. And for me, that gave me the belief in myself. I was like, ‘She can do it. She’s a weird black girl, I’m a weird black girl.’”
The track appeared on Lizzo’s latest album, Cuz I Love You, which reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200.
Recently, Lizzo hopped on “Blame It on Your Love” with Charli XCX, and she’s set to appear in the upcoming Hustlers film alongside Cardi B, Jennifer Lopez, and Constance Wu.
Watch the music video for “Tempo” above, and read all the lyrics on Genius now.
