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Lizzo Reveals She Almost Quit Music After Releasing 'Truth Hurts' In 2017

'Now the song that made me want to quit is the song that everyone's falling in love with me for'

Lizzo may be on top of her game right now, but in the new issue of People, she described her come-up as "a long road." Despite what might have appeared like a sudden rise to fame, the rapper's actually been working on her craft for a painstaking 10 years. And after releasing "Truth Hurts" in 2017 — a song that's currently sitting pretty at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 — she almost put down her microphone (and flute) for good.

"The day I released 'Truth Hurts' was probably one of the darkest days I've had ever in my career," she told the magazine. "I remember thinking, 'If I quit music now, nobody would notice. This is my best song ever, and nobody cares. I was like, 'Fuck it, I'm done.' And a lot of people rallied; my producer, my publicist and my family, they were like, 'Just keep going because this is the darkest before the dawn.'"

Turns out, they were right. After feeling like nobody was interested in the self-love anthem, the song experienced a sort of resurgence almost two years later when it was featured in the popular Netflix rom-com Something Great. "Who would have thunk?" Lizzo said. "What a moment in a movie can do for an artist is crazy. I had everything else: the hard work, the good music, touring — but then there's that extra-special magic that nobody really knows what it is that can really change your life."

Now, the attention that Lizzo's been getting for the empowering track only proves what we've already known to be true — that real success doesn't just happen overnight. However, if you believe in yourself and what you're doing, you'll eventually get there. Despite its 2017 release, it was recently confirmed that "Truth Hurts" will be eligible for Grammys — further evidence of her hard work and patience. "Now the song that made me want to quit is the song that everyone's falling in love with me for, which is such a testament to journeys: Your darkest day turns into your brightest triumph," she explained.

Still, Lizzo is very open with her fans about the fact that depression is an ongoing struggle, explaining that it's something she's constantly working on. "Reaching out to people when you're depressed is really hard," she told People. "I would shut myself away from friends and family. So I've been working on communicating with the people who love me." Back in June, the rapper took to Instagram to say that she feels 'hopeless' and like there's 'nothing anyone can do about it.'

Fortunately, one of the singer's best coping mechanisms has become daily affirmations, and they've been instrumental in her journey to self-love. "I look in the mirror and say, 'I love you. You're beautiful. You can do anything,' she said. "Tell yourself that on your happy days so that you have the strength to tell yourself that on your darker days."

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