Lizzo adds songwriting credit to Truth Hurts amid public battle over song

Lizzo will add a songwriting credit to her self-love anthem, Truth Hurts, for the London-based singer Mina Lioness, amid a public battle with two male producers over recognition and royalties on the hit song.

The 31-year-old singer, who achieved commercial success this year through her body positive lyrics, explained the new credit in a statement on Twitter. “I saw a meme that resonated with me, a meme that made me feel like 100% that bitch. I sang that line in the demo, and I later used the line in Truth Hurts,” she wrote.

She added, “The men who now claim a piece of Truth Hurts did not help me write any part of the song. They had nothing to do with the line or how I chose to sing it. There was no one in the room when I wrote Truth Hurts, except me, Ricky Reed, and my tears. That song is my life, and its words are my truth.”

Brothers Justin and Jeremy Raisen have argued they were involved in including the “DNA” lyric in Healthy, a 2017 demo they created with Lizzo before the recording of Truth Hurts. The Raisen brothers admit the lyric was lifted from a meme, but say they were part of the decision to include it in the demo, sparking a debate about the blurred lines of intellectual property law on social media.

“We were never contacted about being credited for the use of the parts of Healthy (melody, lyrics, and chords) that appear in Truth Hurts,” Justin Raisen wrote on Instagram, sharing a snippet of the Healthy demo they created with Lizzo.

After the release of her statement, Lizzo’s team announced they had filed a lawsuit against the Raisen brothers, citing harassment.

It has not been disclosed what kind of payments or royalties Lioness will receive from her credit.

Lioness did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but addressed the news on Twitter.

“I just took a DNA Test, turns out I’m a credited writer for the number one song on Billboard,” Lioness wrote after learning of Lizzo’s decision.