“Tempo” [ft. Missy Elliott]

Before 2019 is through, Lizzo wants to ensure that each and every person on God’s green earth can picture her body jiggling resplendently. The real thing is not hard to track down, but “Tempo” is a sexy reminder of all that she’s working with. Lizzo starts with the chorus (“Slow songs, they for skinny hoes”), and then proceeds to lay out a succinct theory of momentum: “I'm a thick bitch, I need tempo.” That the trap-tinged track doesn’t even have that high a BPM, save for the brief breakdown just after that part, is immaterial. She’ll twerk to just about anything, especially when Missy Elliott’s her hypeman.

“Tempo” joins a long line of Lizzo bops fueled by fire Instagram captions, but the mood is slightly darker here—less of a feel-good moment of empowerment, more of a straight-up come n get it banger. Lizzo has mentioned in songs and interviews often the all-too-common hurdle facing plus-size women in the love and lust space, which is one of private adoration and public shame; here she nods to her line in “Juice” about your man sliding into her IG DMs with, “Boyfriend watchin’, oh now he wanna knuckle up.” Maybe it’s this running subtext—and the radical relief of just watching Lizzo live—that takes a fun, doing-the-most rap song with a slight Missy vibe (catch Lizzo’s flow on the second verse) to the next level. That’s how I know Lizzo is one of a kind: Everything she touches is improved by her mere presence.

Homepage Lizzo photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images