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Lizzo Files Lawsuit Against Songwriters Who Claim They Helped Write ‘Truth Hurts’

This article is more than 4 years old.

(Updated 10/24 at 4:00 p.m. PST)

Lizzo filed a lawsuit Wednesday against two brothers and another producer who say they helped write “Truth Hurts” and haven’t gotten credit. Lizzo’s lawyer, Cynthia Arato, said in a statement the legal action is intended “to put an end to their false claims and their campaign of harassment” after songwriters Justin and Jeremiah Raisen went public with their plagiarism allegations last week.

In the lawsuit, Lizzo, whose real name is Melissa Jefferson, asks a judge to rule that her accusers “have no ownership rights or rights to any money earned in connection with “Truth Hurts.”

Lizzo also announced on Wednesday that the author of the original tweet that inspired the song’s famous line will be credited as a writer.

In an interview with Forbes, Justin Raisen stood by his claim that he and his brother helped come up with opening line of “Truth Hurts.” He denied that they harassed Lizzo, adding that going public with the allegations is “about protecting the producers and the music community going forward.”

Topline: Lizzo is facing a plagiarism claim from two songwriters who say they helped come up with the melody and lyrics to the famous line in “Truth Hurts”: “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch.”

  • Producers Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, who have previously worked with artists such as Charli XCX and Kim Gordon, said in an Instagram post last week they were present during a joint songwriting in April 2017 with Lizzo and producers Saint John and Yves Rothman.
  • The group was working on a song called “Healthy,” and it eventually included the lyric “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch” along with a melody that Jeremiah says he wrote. 
  • The Raisens acknowledge that the line came from a meme on Instagram that included a tweet reading: “I did a DNA test and found out I’m 100% that bitch.” The meme inspired Jeremiah to suggest they include the lyric in the song.
  • “Healthy” was never released, but “Truth Hurts” was five months later. The Raisens say “Truth Hurts” lifts the opening line and melody (in a different key) from “Healthy” without giving them credit. 
  • The brothers say they have been trying to sort out the issue out quietly over the last two years, but have been “shut down” each time. They came forward publicly to relieve “some of our emotional distress caused by this,” the Instagram post reads.
  • The Raisens are asking for 5% of the royalties from “Truth Hurts” for each brother. They said they will give some of the proceeds to Lioness. 

In a statement on Twitter released after the lawsuit was filed, Lizzo said the Raisens “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,” she wrote. “I later learned that a tweet inspired the meme. The creator of the tweet is the person I am sharing my success with.... not these men. Period.”

The lawsuit alleges that the Raisens sought to revisit their claims after “Truth Hurts” vaulted to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Then, the suit says, the brothers “embarked on an escalating campaign of harassment against Lizzo and others involved in ‘Truth Hurts,’ threatening to ‘go public’ unless they receive an unwarranted share of this work.”

According to the lawsuit, Rothman, who was also allegedly in the room during the original “Healthy” session, has made his own plagiarism claim and is seeking part of the royalties

Key background: The author of the original tweet, a British singer named Mina Lioness, has been accusing Lizzo of plagiarism since February 2018. “What I cannot get over is how brazen Lizzo and her team have been in ignoring my whole presence. They’re doing it because they know I have no capital to address her,” she tweeted in August. “I’m just the poor Black girl from London that don’t have a dog in the fight.”

After the issue got attention following the Raisen’s claims, Lizzo announced Wednesday that Lioness would be credited as a writer and get a cut of the song’s royalties.

“I just took a DNA Test, turns out I’m a credited writer for the number one song on Billboard,” Lioness wrote on Twitter Wednesday.

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