Earlier today Glamour reported that Sean “Diddy” Combs hosted a dance-a-thon via Instagram Live on Sunday, April 12, to raise money for coronavirus relief efforts. Artists like Lizzo, Drake and even his ex Jennifer Lopez took part. It was a pretty adorable idea for an Easter Sunday, seeing as how many people around the country are self-isolating amid the coronavirus pandemic. But the nice sentiment was overshadowed by some controversy.
Twitter users were up in arms on Monday, April 13, after noticing the difference between Diddy’s apparent treatment of Lizzo and former Basketball Wives star Draya Michele.
When Lizzo joined the Instagram Live, she showed off a thank-you card for health workers before dancing to Moneybagg Yo’s “1 2 3.” But once she started twerking, Diddy—who was dancing with his sons, Justin, Quincy, and Christian—brought the whole thing to a halt. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Diddy said after turning the song off. “It’s Easter Sunday…. Let’s play something a little bit family-friendly,” he told the “Truth Hurts” artist.
Lizzo immediately apologized. “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” she said repeatedly, with her hand on her head. “Let’s do something fun…play something I can bop to.” Personally, I think she was bopping just fine!
Then, later in the broadcast, Draya twerked to her heart’s content (as she should!) to Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up.” ”Yo, Draya, we’re proud of that. You killed that,” Diddy told her once the song ended. “I think that was one of the top performances.”
Many fans weren’t amused by what seemed to be Diddy’s wildly different reactions to the same behavior (twerking) from Lizzo and Draya. “Lizzo started twerking on Diddy’s IG live & Diddy talking bout stop it’s Easter Sunday but Draya twerks on that same live & there are no issues,” one person tweeted. “Y’all can’t even hide y’all disdain for fat women & I hate it.”
Another Twitter user wrote, “Lizzo vs. Draya sooo Lizzo was stopped in mid twerk by Diddy due to it being ‘Sunday’ and not family friendly yet Draya can finish a whole twerk session due to it being ‘Sunday and family friendly?’ and ‘the best performance all day?’ What y’all think?” Though likely not the tweeter’s intent, I would like to point out that neither Lizzo nor Draya were in the wrong here, and we should not make this a competition between the two women.
Still, the way we treat women and attempt to govern their bodies is a conversation that absolutely needs to happen, and fans on Twitter had a lot to say.
Diddy later took to Instagram Stories to clarify why he stopped Lizzo, citing the language of the song choice. “There’s one thing I want to make clear. My queen, my sister, Lizzo. When I stopped the music, it was ’cause it had a lot of curses in there. Not ’cause she was twerking,” he said. “She’s one of the best twerkers in the world, okay? So, let’s keep that clear. You are allowed to twerk on Easter. There was a lot of cursing in the record and I don’t need child services knocking on my door right now. So, that’s why I stopped the record. Lizzo we love you, and everybody stop looking for the negative! Look for the positive.”
For what it’s worth, the word motherfuckers was said at least twice in the “Back That Azz Up” clip that Draya danced to.
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