MY FACE HURTS FROM SMILING

Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2025

Lizzo

The singing, rapping, flute-playing polymath spent the three years since 2022’s Special courting unexpected controversy and flirting in social media posts with quitting music entirely. After mostly laying low throughout the turbulence, Lizzo emerged in February 2025 with a rock-inspired new single and an announcement of her fifth album, both titled Love in Real Life. But first, a bit of raucous, freewheeling fun: With three days’ notice in late June, she revealed a surprise 13-track mixtape whose artwork shows the singer grinning from ear to ear and flipping the double bird. The project came together just as spontaneously. “I did this shit in three motherfucking days, bitch!” she crows on “DITTO,” before adding: “You’re welcome!”

From the jump, MY FACE HURTS FROM SMILING stands in stark contrast to the posi-vibes-only pop-rap that skyrocketed the 37-year-old singer into the mainstream circa 2019. “Bitch, I’m mad! Bitch, I’m pissed off!” she bellows on intro “CRASHOUT” before letting loose a 35-minute barrage of blistering, boisterous trap music. But her formidable Southern rap skills come as no surprise to those who heard her unofficial TikTok remix of PLUTO and YKNIECE’s 2025 viral hit “WHIM WHAMIEE,” which appears here as the rowdy “YITTY ON YO TITTYS (FREESTYLE).”

Over grimy, bouncy beats from the likes of Zaytoven and Tay Keith, Lizzo sounds like she’s having more fun than she’s had in years: firing shots at the haters, turning up with her girls, and interpolating trap throwbacks. (“NEW MISTAKES” is likely the only song of 2025 to interpolate both Boosie Badazz and “Für Elise.”) She’s joined by Doja Cat on “STILL CAN’T FUH” and SZA on “IRL” for a pair of bratty bad-bitch symposiums. “I can’t let no comment section ever fuck with my vibe,” she spits on the latter duet. It’s a lesson to take heed of for 2025: Why be mad when you can throw ass and touch grass instead?