Lizzo joined Drink Champs for an interview clip that went live Saturday (June 6), and when asked to choose between two musical greats, the Detroit native refused to do so.

Instead, Lizzo gave the often-compared rivals Michael Jackson and Prince their flowers, and saluted MJ and the Purple One’s iconic legacies that she doesn’t think will be touched by any artists of today.

“How lucky are we to be able to experience or have experienced or witness the kind of artistry that Michael Jackson and Prince gave in real time? This is Mozart-level s–t,” she said. “In 150 years, people are still going to be talking about these artists.”

Lizzo believes there are too many distractions for artists these days muddying the waters to truly be dedicated to their crafts.

“It’s not even possible to be that great anymore,” she added. “We got too many cell phones, too many distractions. What they had was working at home on their craft. Do you know the blisters and the bleeding that you have to have on your fingers to play guitar the way Prince played guitar?

The “Truth Hurts” artist continued: “That comes from hours of sitting and just playing. Like, that’s not going to come to you after going viral on TikTok. Michael Jackson was working on his spins in a dance studio from 7 p.m. to six in the morning.”

Lizzo credited the Jacksons with being the original pop family band and inventing pop stardom. “That’s what I always say about Janet [Jackson]: She’s the queen of pop because they invented pop,” she claimed. “Motown literally invented what modern pop is today.”

“I don’t think there’s ever been a pop star of that magnitude. And it will never happen again, baby,” Lizzo added of Michael Jackson, before crowning Prince as the “greatest guitar player of all-time.”

Over the course of their careers, Michael Jackson placed 52 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and six No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, while Prince landed 47 songs on the Hot 100 and five No. 1s on the Billboard 200.

As far as her own music goes, Lizzo returned with her first album in four years on Friday (June 5), as Bitch arrived on streaming services. 2022’s Special debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 69,000 total album-equivalent units, according to Luminate.

“Reclaiming the word ‘b—h’ is power. It’s taking a label once used to diminish women and turning it into a declaration of confidence and unapologetic self-love,” she said in a statement. “So many incredible women in music have used the word for positivity like Meredith Brooks and Missy Elliott. It was only fitting to name my album Bitch because it has become my favorite word when using it on my own terms, and because I am 100% that b—h!”

Watch the clip of Lizzo on Drink Champs below.

As Omnivore Recordings celebrates its 15^th anniversary, the reissue label has announced it recently acquired the catalog of Baltimore label Chariot Records, which produced regional hits including singles by Bob Brady and the Con Chords back in the mid-‘60s and ‘70s.

Terms of the acquisition were undisclosed, but it marks the third label catalog acquisition Omnivore has made since its inception. ADA-distributed Omnivore previously acquired Ru-Jac Records, a mid-1960s-originated R&B label, and Nighthawk Records, a 1980s-originated roots reggae label. Both labels had ceased operating as ongoing entities. 

Aside from these acquisitions, Omnivore, founded and staffed by four music industry veterans — Cheryl Pawelski, Brad Rosenberger, Dutch Cramblitt and Greg Allen, all holding the title of owner/partner — fields a catalog composed mainly of licensed masters of well-known legacy recording artists including America, The Bangles, The Beach Boys, Kool & The Gang, Peggy Lee, Little Richard, Nina Simone and Woody Guthrie, according to the company’s website.

“People like to pigeonhole us as a reissue company, and we do reissue things, no doubt about it…our primary lane is dealing with historic music,” concedes Rosenberger. “But I would say probably 50% of our releases never even existed before.” By that, he means that those releases are either music recorded but never released back in the day, or music issued in new configurations or as compilations. 

For instance, the first release from the Chariot Records acquisition was a compilation of Bob Brady and the Con Chord singles entitled Love In: The Chariot Records Recordings, which was issued just in time for this year’s Record Store Day in April.  

The Chariot Records deal was brought to Omnivore by music supervisor Alan Mason and a principal of Chariot, Brent Gordon, who himself subsequently had a long career in the music industry at various companies, including WEA, after Chariot ceased operations back in the day. 

In another compilation example, Omnivore packaged four Ru-Jac titles — Something Got A Hold on Me: 1963-1964, Get Right: 1964-1966, Finally Together: 1966-1967 and Changes: 1967-1980 — into a CD box set entitled The Should Of Baltimore: The Ru-Jac Records Story 1963-1980. It also issued compilations of two titles from the label’s bigger artists: Mr. Clean: Winfield Parker At Ru-Jac, and True Enough: Gene and Eddie with Sir Joe at Ru-Jac. 

For Nighthawk Records, Pawelski says Omnivore put together the compilation Send I A Lion: A Nighthawk Reggae Joint, which pulled together songs by the Gladiators, Junior Biles, the Wailing Souls and the Mighty Diamonds, among others. 

In 15 years, Rosenberger says, the label has put out more than 600 releases. According to a Billboard count of the artists listed on the label’s website, its release roster comprises some 250 artists. “Yes, we have been busy,” says partner Pawelski. Currently, the label fields some 300 to 400 active titles, as new titles are added and other titles’ licensing periods end. 

Omnivore will occasionally put out new music from legacy acts, as it did with Jellyfish/Imperial Drag and Beck collaborator Roger Joseph Manning’s Radio Daze & Gaming and his forthcoming Hopium; Game Day and Merry-Go-Round from Peter Holsapple of the dB’s; and solo artist Emitt Rhodes’ Rainbow Ends. The latter release, put out in 2016, was the late Rhodes’ first full-length release of new material in 43 years. 

“We’ve done a lot of releases by key people that we have relationships with, whether it’s Big Star releases, we’ve done a number of Beach Boys-related releases and we’ve put out more Jellyfish records than they did when they were still a band,” Rosenberger says. 

The label has also been issuing music resulting from relationships Rosenberger formed while at Warner Chappell during his time working on a CBGB documentary, whose original soundtrack was subsequently released on Omnivore in 2013.  

Rosenberger took advantage of the knowledge gained from that endeavor to release music from CBGB/Max’s Kansas City bands who weren’t included on the compilation, such as the Mumps and The Miamis.  

Omnivore is still trading on that knowledge. Earlier this year, the label released Completely Necessary (Anthology 1978-1982), a compilation of former Sire recordings from The Necessaries, an alternative rock mainstay from the New York City punk/new wave scene. The Necessaries members included Ed Tomney, an Emmy-nominated musician/composer of music for movies, TV and commercials; former Modern Lovers and sometimes Gods and Monsters member Ernie Brooks; the late Jesse Chamberlain, a former member of Red Crayola and the son of renowned American sculptor John Chamberlain; and the late Arthur Russell, an avant-garde musician/composer of experimental and dance music. In keeping with the premise of issuing music not previously available, the album consisted of 37 tracks, 29 of which had never been released before.  

Omnivore’s partners say they’re still on the prowl for catalog acquisitions — specifically for smaller targets in line with its available capital resources, but also under-exploited repertoire that would benefit from the partners’ expertise in mining and marketing such music to achieve upside economic potential. 

As Pawelski puts it, “We’re certainly looking ahead to find more smaller labels to [acquire] and become the custodian of, in the way that we’ve done in the past.” 

Rosenberger and Pawelski note that there are a lot of new financial entities buying up catalogs, which creates competition for acquisitions. But Pawelski says financial buyers may want to partner with Omnivore “because we have a certain expertise that might be valuable to them… in terms of audio and art restoration, and synch licensing because between [the four label principals]. Our careers cover the gamut, and I think we can be useful to them.” 

Rosenberger notes that the label has also been nominated for three Grammys for its reissues, including two won by Pawelski for best historical album: It’s Such A Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers and the Hank Williams compilation The Garden Spot Programs. Outside Omnivore, Pawelski has won two additional best historical album Grammys, for Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Super Deluxe Edition), released on Nonesuch, and Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos, released by Stax/Craft Recordings.