Lizzo checked in with Audacy’s Julia to let us know that it’s about damn time we heard her new single “About Damn Time,” and after hearing it we’d have to agree. The track, which debuted less than 24 hours ago, brings us one step closer to Lizzo’s new era.

Having hooked us from the opening line “it’s bad b**** o’clock, yeah it's thick-thirty" - “About Damn Time,” is the perfect bop to listen to when you’re feeling your best, and want to quickly turn that around. Which is the exact reason why the song is so special to Lizzo.

For her, the song is a melodic cure for not just “being down and out about ourselves, but about life,” she tells Julia. "I think life had thrown some major traumas and hard experiences at us, especially globally these last few years. And I wanted to write a song that allowed us to take a moment and celebrate our survival, and celebrate how far we’ve come. And I think ‘About Damn Time’ does just that — it does it for me honey.”

As for how long the track has been percolating, Lizzo revealed that it’s actually the last song to complete her album, and she started working on it “about 2 months ago.” Before that however, as she noted, “my album was done in my eyes, and this was kind of like a Hail Mary song, because I didn’t really have anything on my album yet that felt like ‘Good as Hell’ to me.”

“When I’m on stage or having a bad day, I sing ‘Good as Hell’ and I immediately feel better, I wanted to write a song like that, and that's what ‘About Damn Time' really is.”

Being able to turn a bad situation or day into a good one with a song, is Lizzo’s love language. “Music is therapy for me, for sure,” Lizzo admitted, expressing that she’s always written, whether it be songs, stories, poems, it’s always been her form of escapism since she was a child up until now. Except now, “my escapism makes platinum records,” she added with a braggadocios laugh.

In case you missed it, yes Lizzo did in fact reveal that after having added “About Damn Time” to the tracklist, her album is now officially complete. So does that mean she’s ready to drop it? The answer to that ladies and gents, is a resounding uh-yes!

Answering Julia’s question of whether the album is complete, fully rounded and ready for us to hear, Lizzo responded, “Oh she round… she’s round, she’s think, she’s juicy, she’s curvaceous and she is REATTYY for the world.” Thursday, Lizzo revealed that the world would get to meet her new album on July 15 and her name, is SPECIAL.

Aside from getting her upcoming album ready for our listening pleasure, Lizzo has been staying busy working on her shapewear line Yitty, which she was wearing during the Check In btw, and is now officially available. With sizes ranging from 6X to XS, Lizzo’s curated designs are made to make anyone of any size feel ‘good as hell’ about themselves.

“I wanted to just change the conversation. I made a brand and a product very selfishly, I made something for me.” Which she did with the following questions in mind, “What did I want to see when I went to a website? What do I wan to see as a consumer? What do I want to wear? How do I want to feel when I put a piece of shapewear on or a garment on?” And then “applied them to the Yitty formula.”

"I’m the CEO and founder, I didn’t just slap my name onto this, my DNA is all through this b****… Yitty’s my nickname, my childhood nickname, like this is my s***.”

Explaining how the nickname came about, Lizzo, who’s real name is Melissa Jefferson, would be called Meyitta by her younger brother when he was trying to say her name. After her aunt took notice, she eventually shortened it it Yitty, and from then it stuck. “Even till this day people from Detroit they be like ‘hey Yitty.’”

For Lizzo having a full and vast range of sizing for Yitty was never in question, and as important as inclusivity was and is to the brand, it was just as important to “redefine sizing.”

"Because not only has shapewear been instrumental in making me feel bad about my body, so has sizing," Lizzo admitted. "They have this linear way of talking about size, like small and alllll the way to BIG.” Lizzo would often find herself scrolling, and just hoping she could find her size. Sometimes she did, others she didn’t, but regardless, she added “it still kind of put this feel of shame… and I don’t want anyone to feel ashamed of their size.”

Wanting every to feel that “their size is just their size,” Lizzo invented a "metronome system." Which for y’all non-music heads, a metronome, as Lizzo went on to explain, is a device used by musicians “that tells you the beats per minute and the pitch of a frequency. So you click it around and all of the notes and the scale are in a circle, and all of the BPMs are in a circle. And it just shows, nothing is fast, nothing is slow, nothing is high and nothing is low, it’s just what it is, and that how I feel like sizing should be.”

Intended to blur the lines between innerwear and outerwear, Lizzo, who wore girdles as a young girl and often found herself embarrassed, wants one thing to be very clear — Yitty was consciously made to make you proud.

So when discussing the hypothetical with Julia of sporting Yitty on date that ends up going well (if you know what we mean), Lizzo declared that in that moment the only thing on your mind should be “your place or mine.”

“When y’all in the room and about to smash diddly-doop, you take that shirt off with pride and your Yitty’s are underneath and he’s like ‘Dayyummn,’ or she’ like ‘Dayyummn,’ or their like ‘Dayyummn, I like what I see!' And you’re like ‘I know I’m in my Yitty’s b****!'”

Up next for Lizzo, beside the long awaited album, is Saturday Night Live on April 16, where she’ll be playing host and musical guest. To hear everything Lizzo had to say about the experience of getting prepared for the show, more check out the entire interview above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Julia