Lizzo, Grrrls: inside the lyrics and their meaning

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On Jun 10th Lizzo published a new song, Grrrls, (urban slang for Girls, you know) and, as it already happened for About Damn Time, it’s the usual general excitement on social networks and music communities: we all play the song, enjoy the cheerful mood, read the lyrics and investigate what the real meaning could be. In this article we will provide all the answers you need.

Below you can find the official streaming of the song.

Lizzo - Grrrls (Official Audio)

Lizzo, Grrrls: what’s the meaning of the lyrics?

We know it: Lizzo is a girl with a temper. She has her own personal growth (that was the main topic behind About Damn Time) and now she just wants to live her life at best, and be respected. If the latter doesn’t happen, Lizzo won’t have a light reaction, and that becomes clear in this last song. Grrrls is a song about how we team up against people who bother us and get angry, giving them the reaction they deserve.

Hold my bag, b***h, hold my bag
Do you see this s**t? Hold me back
I’m about to knock somebody out
Yo, where my best friend?

This is the beginning of the song. Lizzo is furious with someone, and we’ll know soon who that is. RIght now she’s focusing on what she feels. And on what she needs: when she’s out of control, she needs her best girlfriend next to her. Because, eventually, they could calm her down. Or if that’s not possible, they will just stay next to her in her battle.

She the only one I know to talk me off the deep end

The two friends are so close that Lizzo mentions co-dependence, a form of mutual addiction between two people. It’s probably a metaphorical image, but it helps to understand the deep connection between the two: they are even partners in crime for their businesses, Lizzo says that they are CEOs (she may refer to Kristen Dykstra, the president of the shapewear brand Lizzo founded years ago).

‘Cause that’s my girl, we codependent
If she with it, then I’m with it
Yeah, we tussle, mind your business
Zu, zu, zu, zu, zu-su-lu
That’s my girl, we CEOs
And dancin’ like a C-E-ho
We about to throw them bows
Let’s f**k it up

So who made Lizzo angry? We find that out in last verse of the song:

Let me takе these earrings off
And hit the boosie ratchet with my friends
Woah-oh, woah-oh (Whoop that ho)
Woah-oh, woah-oh
I’ma go Lorena Bobbitt on him, so he never f**k again
No-oh, now you can’t f**k again, bro

A guy did something bad. And Lizzo is going to pay him back. Quoting Lorena Bobbitt, a case that made scandal in the 90s and maybe is not fully known to young generation.

Who is Lorena Bobbitt and why Lizzo mentions her?

Lorena Bobbitt is a girl who, in 1993, cut off her husband’s penis with a knife, while he was sleeping. The reason why she did that were not fully clear: when she was arrested, she said that her husband is a selfish man, while during the trial she claimed that he raped her. After what she did, she drove away with her car, threw her husband’s penis out and then called the police, that ultimately found it back. The man got it back in his body after a complex surgery. Lorena Bobbitt was declared insane and out of control, so not fully responsible for her actions.

“Going Lorena Bobbitt”, as Lizzo says in her song Grrrl, metaphorically means going crazy and doing something violent and persistent against a man. In other words, if Lizzo wants to give an idea of how bad she can be when she’s angry, and if she wants to scare a man about the possible consequences of messing up with her, Lorena Bobbitt is the right image to bring in.

The real meaning of the song Grrrls by Lizzo is therefore this one: don’t mess with me, or you could get in serious troubles. Even because, I have my BFF always next to me.

“Spazz”: was there a slur in Lizzo Grrrls?

Surprisingly, people on social media reacted vigorously against the first lyrics of Lizzo’s Grrrls. The reason is the usage of the words “I’m a spazz”, that originally were in the place of “hold me back”. The word “spazz” has been interpreted by many as a ableist slur. Spazz is short for spastic, but in the urban slang it means being moody and overdramatic. And Lizzo says this about herself, not about somebody else.

It’s obvious that Lizzo didn’t want to insult anyone using that term, and the meaning of that expression is a metaphorical description of being out of control by anger. Nevertheless, some days later Lizzo announced in this tweet that she officially changed the lyrics, in order to be “part of the change we all want to see in the world”.

Read other popular song lyrics and their meaning on Auralcrave

Lizzo, Grrrls: the complete lyrics

(Girls) B***hes, uh
B***hes, uh, uh-huh

Hold my bag, b***h, hold my bag
Do you see this s**t? Hold me back
I’m about to knock somebody out
Yo, where my best friend?
She the only one I know to talk me off the deep end

‘Cause that’s my girl, we codependent
If she with it, then I’m with it
Yeah, we tussle, mind your business
Zu, zu, zu, zu, zu-su-lu
That’s my girl, we CEOs
And dancin’ like a C-E-ho
We about to throw them bows
Let’s f**k it up

Where my girls, where my girls at? (Woo-hoo)
Where my girls, where my girls at? (Woo-hoo)
Yeah, this the type of fight I’m lookin’ for
Where my girls, whеre my girls at? (Woo-hoo, woo-hoo)

Let me takе these earrings off
And hit the boosie ratchet with my friends
Woah-oh, woah-oh (Whoop that ho)
Woah-oh, woah-oh
I’ma go Lorena Bobbitt on him, so he never f**k again
No-oh, now you can’t f**k again, bro

That’s my girl, we codependent
If she with it, then I’m with it
Yeah, we tussle, mind your business
Zu, zu, zu, zu, zu-su-lu
That’s my girl, we CEOs
And dancin’ like a C-E-ho
We about to throw them bows
Let’s f**k it up

Where my girls, where my girls at? (Woo-hoo)
Where my girls, where my girls at? (Woo-hoo)
Yeah, this the type of fight I’m lookin’ for
Where my girls, where my girls at? (Woo-hoo)
Where my girls, where my girls at? (Woo-hoo)
Where my girls, where my girls at? (Woo-hoo)
Yeah, this the type of fight I’m lookin’ for
Where my girls, where my girls at? (Woo-hoo)

Uh-huh, okay, where my ladies at?
Uh-huh, okay, where my ladies at?
Uh, hold me down (Down)
Uh, hold me back (Back)
Uh-huh, okay, where my ladies at?