Though Lizzo has herself been spreading rumours – namely that she was giving birth to Chris Evans’ child – the singer’s first single in two years dropped today (August 13), which takes direct aim at the online gossip mill. With Cardi B on the track, “Rumors” is an embattled, puff-chested anthem made to hush keyboard critics and Twitter trolls. After all, Lizzo has never been one to let criticism slide – tweeting in 2019 that “people who review albums and don’t make music themselves should be unemployed.”

With the duo dressed as gold plated Greek muses, Cardi and Lizzo launch themselves from whirling vases and coiling temple steps, to that great pop pantheon in the sky. Backdropped by a chorus of togas, laurels, and hefty gladiator boots, the performers conjure the image of all those gospel singers in Hercules. Cardi, sat atop an illuminated penis throne, reads from an infinite scroll of tittle-tattle, dressed in a loincloth and a custom, golden breastplate. The cast, commissioned by Cardi’s stylist Kollin Carter, was sculpted by Misha Japanwala, who was also the artist behind the rapper’s pregnancy reveal. 

While we have been tracking the ascendancy of the breastplate for some time, the look shows no signs of slowing down. Daniel Roseberry can shoulder much of that responsibility, frequently showing custom moulded pieces at Schiaparelli – including toe-boots, body jewellery, and full face creations. On the celeb circuit, Kim Kardashian wore a Schiaparelli, hulk-like six pack to Christmas dinner, while Zendaya appeared at the Critics Choice Awards in 2020 in a Tom Ford creation. And while YSL, Thierry Mugler, Issey Miyake, and Alexander McQueen delivered their own iterations of glamorous fashion armoury, new blood designers like Sinead O’Dwyer are now using the technique to confront whitebread beauty standards and subvert dysmoprhic body ideals.

Check out the video for “Rumours” below.