Brixton Academy, LondonThe cult rapper turned contender for best new artist Grammy woos 5,000 fans with a nimble mix of funk, pop and hip-hop
“Delete, delete, delete!” yells Lizzo, clad in gold corsetry, tossing her long hair. “Block, block, block!” The screaming from the sold-out crowd intensifies. We are between songs on the first night of two at London’s nearly 5,000-capacity Brixton Academy, and this partisan crowd goes from a steady love-bath of affirmative cheering for Lizzo – Melissa Jefferson, the multi-hyphenated US rapper-singer-flautist who has been the talk of 2019 – to a hungry, feral roar.
Lizzo’s gig has so many high points that you could probably see it from space and mistake it for a major geographic feature. She starts the set in a pulpit wearing a gold robe in front of a backdrop of stained glass themed around hearts, launching full pelt into the gospel-house opener Heaven Help Me. At the end, for a huge rendition of Juice, she whips out Sasha Flute – an instrument named after a
Beyoncé alter ego Sasha Fierce – and twerks while playing.