Lizzo knows a thing or two about being “canceled” in the court of public opinion, and now she’s sharing what she’s learned with the rest of the class.

In a Substack essay published Monday (Dec. 1), the hitmaker shared her thoughts on why “everyone should get cancelled at least once,” reflecting on the moments in her career where she faced overwhelming backlash that forced her to grow a thicker skin.

“I was raised in the Pentecostal COGIC church in Detroit, Michigan where the idea of hell was very real,” she began. “If you disobeyed God, or were considered a ‘bad person’ you were on a first class flight to eternal damnation in a lake of fire.”

With her strict religious upbringing as her moral compass, Lizzo explained that she spent most of her life trying to be as good as possible — just for the public to decide that she was anything but in 2019, when she attended a Lakers game wearing pants made to look like her buttocks were exposed. According to the Grammy winner, this was the first of many times she was canceled, with people falsely accusing her of running onto the court unauthorized and bombarding her with offensive memes and death threats.

“All those years of being a good person doesn’t matter to the internet,” she wrote. “The internet doesn’t care about what really happened to someone. It only cares about believing the hype.”

Lizzo went on to make a list of all the reasons she’s been canceled in the years since, including “doing a smoothie detox,” “crying/complaining,” “saying I make music for black women” and “unknowingly using the s*az slur in a song [Grrrls].”

But what has she learned from those experiences? “F–k it,” she wrote.

“You aren’t getting out of this thing without unintentionally hurting someone’s feelings,” she continued. “Sensitivity is at an all time high and because of personalized algorithms, any content you see that doesn’t cater to you personally feels like an attack on your identity.”

“Its left us in a state of paralysis, unable to make mistakes because the court of public opinion is always ready to be judge, jury and executioner,” she continued. “As the qualifications of being deemed a ‘good person’ narrow while the sudden increase in conservative morals skyrocket, who has lived a real life and is still considered ‘good’?”

The essay marks Lizzo’s second post on her Substack account, which she kicked off with a piece on weight loss written through the lens of someone whose own health journey has been very publicly scrutinized. The singer-songwriter has been open in the past about how her tumultuous relationship with fame and haters has affected her mental health over the years, though she’s now doing better than ever following the release of mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling.

“I’m so confident, and I think the thing that I’m most confident in now is me, my vision and my creativity,” she told Billboard in June. “I kind of lost trust in myself for awhile, because when you get in the industry, there’s a lot of people that come in and think they’re the experts … I think when you’re seeing that glow, it’s that confidence that’s truly being proud of who I am and not hiding who I am in all the aspects of it.”

Flea has a simple, come together now message on his first-ever solo single: “live for peace, live for love.” The simple, open-hearted plea comes more than five minutes into the nearly eight-minute song “A Plea,” which dropped on Tuesday morning (Dec. 2).

The free jazz/spoken word jam is the first taste of the hyperkinetic Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist’s upcoming, as yet untitled, debut full-length solo album, which is due out next year on Nonesuch Records. Though best known for his bass-thumping in the Chili Peppers, Flea returns to his first instrument, the trumpet, on the album a release described as filled with a “dream band of modern jazz visionaries.” Additional details about the albums guests and track list will be announced early next year.

In the meantime, Flea dropped the high-energy video for “A Plea,” which was directed by his eldest daughter, 37-year-old photographer Clara Balzary. In the visual, Flea performs a series of modern dance-style moves in a blank space, walking in slow motion, shaking his head and arms, punching the air, flailing his torso, shaking his butt and patting his belly along to the song’s uptempo jazz groove.

The song, written and performed by Flea, features his work on electric bass, trumpet and Gil Scott-Heron-like spoken word-style vocals, including such provocative lyrics as “Who’s your neighbor, who’s your friend?/ Ahh there’s hate all around/ I don’t care about your f–king politics/ I don’t wanna hear about your politics/ Well, he said boo/ She said hooray.”

As the tempo increases to a frantic pace, Flea laments that the “beautiful kids” are scared of the coming “ugly” and of guns, making a plea for “peace and love” while confirming that hate is never the solution. He’s joined on the track by double bassist Anna Butterss (Boygenius), guitarist Jeff Parker (Tortoise), drummer Deantoni Parks (We Are Dark Angels), percussionist Mauro Refosco (David Byrne), alto flutist Rickey Washington and trombonist Vikram Devasthali (Angel Olsen), with additional vocals by Chris Warren (The DX Band) and the song’s producer, Josh Johnson (Leon Bridges), who also plays alto sax. 

In a statement, Flea, 63, described the song’s lyrics as reflective of the divisiveness in our country and world right now and yearning for “a place beyond, a place of love, for me to speak my mind and be myself. I’m always just trying to be myself… I don’t care about the act of politics. I think there is a much more transcendent place above it where there’s discourse to be had that can actually help humanity, and actually help us all to live harmoniously and productively in a way that’s healthy for the world. There’s a place where we meet, and it’s love.”

While Flea has been slappin’ the bass with the Chili Peppers since 1982, he’s also contributed to a number of supergroups, including Radiohead singer Thom Yorke’s Atoms For Peace, as well as sitting in with everyone from the Circle Jerks to Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Alanis Morissette, Nirvana and Jane’s Addiction. He’s also long had a sideline acting and making cameos in films and TV shows, including Back to the Future Pt. II, My Own Private Idaho, Inside Out 2, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Baby Driver, The Big Lebowski and Obi-Wan Kenobi, among many others.

Watch the video for “A Plea” below.

Leon Thomas’ “Mutt” is the most-heard song on United States radio stations, as it jumps to No. 1 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart (dated Dec. 6).

The survey reflects airplay audience on more than 1,000 radio stations covering multiple formats, as monitored by Mediabase, with totals delivered to Billboard by Luminate. The data contributes to the Billboard Hot 100, which also blends streaming and sales figures.

“Mutt” lifts one spot to the Radio Songs summit with 64.4 million in audience Nov. 21-27. Notably, it completes the longest ride to the top of the chart, 35 weeks, for a title by a male soloist. Overall, only Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” took longer, 37 weeks, to lead in 2021, while Gabby Barrett’s “I Hope,” featuring Charlie Puth, now shares second place via its 35-week journey in 2020. (Radio Songs began in December 1990.)

“Mutt” is Thomas’ first Radio Songs leader as a recording artist and second as a co-writer and co-producer; it follows SZA’s “Snooze,” which notched three weeks at No. 1 in 2023.

Plus, “Mutt” is the first Radio Songs No. 1 for an R&B song (defined as those that have hit Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart) since “Snooze.”

“Mutt” racked up 13 weeks at No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, 10 weeks atop Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, three weeks leading Rhythmic Airplay and two weeks in charge of Adult R&B Airplay. It has also crossed to pop radio, ascending to a new No. 4 best on the latest Pop Airplay list.

“Mutt” concurrently leads the multimetric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for a 14th week and Hot R&B Songs for a 31st frame. It has hit a No. 6 high on the Hot 100.

Meanwhile, “Mutt” is the fourth Radio Songs No. 1 of 2025 promoted by Interscope Capitol. It follows Doechii’s “Anxiety” (five weeks at No. 1 in May-June); Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” (six, April-May); and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” (eight, February-April). Interscope Capitol is the only label team with a quartet of Radio Songs No. 1s in a single year this decade.

Sabrina Carpenter is putting as much distance as possible between herself and the Donald Trump administration after the White House shared a video set to her song “Juno.”

On Tuesday (Dec. 2), the pop star slammed the government for posting a compilation of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers chasing, tackling and handcuffing people on the streets while a snippet of the Short n’ Sweet hit plays. “this video is evil and disgusting,” Carpenter wrote on X.

“Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda,” she continued.

Billboard has reached out to the White House for comment.

Carpenter’s reply comes one day after the White House first posted the video, which puts a shocking spin on the Grammy winner’s gag of “arresting” people at her Short n’ Sweet Tour for being too attractive just before performing “Juno” each night. Before the trek wrapped in November after more than a year on the road, Carpenter had distributed fuzzy pink handcuffs to everyone from Millie Bobby Brown, to TWICE, SZA and Miss Piggy of The Muppets.

The Girl Meets World alum would then dive into the song, with fans in the crowd looking forward to the new pose Carpenter would strike at every show after the line, “Have you ever tried this one?”

That same line can now be heard over the arrest footage in the White House’s video, which was posted despite Carpenter being a vocal Trump detractor. After his election win in 2024, the vocalist told fans at a concert, “Sorry about our country, and to the women in here, I love you so so so so so much … I really hope for the rest of this night you can enjoy yourselves, because you absolutely deserve it.”

This is far from the first time the Trump administration has irked musicians and their fans by using music without authorization, nor is it the first time it’s happened in the past few weeks alone. Just last month, Olivia Rodrigo condemned the White House for pairing a video encouraging self-deportations to her song “All-American Bitch.”

“don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda,” she wrote at the time.

Shortly before that, Kenny Loggins slammed the twice-impeached POTUS for using “Danger Zone” in an AI-generated video of himself dumping feces on “No Kings” protestors, and Swifties called out the White House for making a TikTok using Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia.”