Lizzo has never been the kind of artist to do anything halfway, so naturally, her new Chili’s collaboration comes with a little nostalgia, a lot of personality, and, of course, a flute shaped like a baby back rib.

But the fun of the campaign is only part of the story. In conversation with BET Current, Lizzo moved from food memories to fame to her next album, and she made it clear that she is still thinking about the long game — in music, in life, and in how she wants to be remembered.

For Lizzo, her new partnership was personal before it was playful. She said Chili’s was “a big part of my childhood,” recalling family trips for her faves: “Southwest egg rolls and molten lava cake.” Later, when she was in college at the University of Houston (she bragged about them having a Chili’s on campus), she would head to Chili’s when she felt homesick. “This, for me, is just full circle,” she said. 

Lizzo raved about their attention to detail, recalling a shoot day when she was presented with a flute-sized rib. “I have played a lot of flutes for my day,” she joked. “Never [had] a baby back rib flute.”

Lizzo is intentional about everything, even this partnership. She treats it like part of the same creative instinct that fuels her music. “I think everywhere I go, it’s just a reflection of who I am,” she said. “I’m authentically myself.” That authenticity is exactly why the collaboration is an extension of the larger universe she has been building for years.

That universe includes her upcoming album, “Bitch,” due June 5, a project she says is about something bigger. “I think about my career and I think about it as a legacy,” she said. “I’m a rule- breaker.” She also compared her approach to artists who have pushed boundaries before her, naming Missy Elliott and Meredith Brooks as examples of women who took that very word (bitch) and shifted it from controversial into cultural proclamations. 

“I think about myself positioning myself, naming my album that, which nobody has ever done before in my position…in my place, in my career. When you look back at that, what kind of boundaries is that going to open? What kind of conversations is that going to start?” Lizzo pondered before answering her own question. “I think it's going to do a lot, but you got to be patient and just see how your legacy plays out.”

Lizzo also got candid about the way people read her body and her confidence. “I feel like what I am doing is brave,” she said, “but I don’t think it’s more brave than someone else because I’m in a bigger body.” That answer feels like the heart of our chat: she is not asking to be turned into a symbol. Lizzo is simply insisting on being herself, fully and loudly. “I’m a world-class musician,” she said, with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what she brings to the table.

And if the Chili’s collab is any indication, she is still having fun while doing it. “If this is spectacle, it’s a spectacle,” she said. “Enjoy the show, b****!”