Lizzo has launched legal action against songwriters Justin and Jeremiah Raisen and Justin ‘Yves’ Rothman over recent allegations of plagiarism in regards to her hit single ‘Truth Hurts’.
Last week the Raisen brothers accused the ‘Juice’ pop star of lifting the “melody, lyrics and chords” from a demo titled ‘Healthy’ that they worked on with Lizzo for ‘Truth Hurts’, highlighting the line: “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m a 100% that bitch“.
In a statement released earlier today (October 23) Lizzo hit back at the allegations. “The men who 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, [producer] Ricky Reed, and my tears. That song is my life, and its words are my truth.”
Lizzo has now filed a lawsuit in a California federal court in regards to the plagiarism allegations. She is seeking “a judicial declaration” that the Raisens and Rothman “did not co-author ‘Truth Hurts,’ and have no right to co-own that work or to share in its profits.” (via Pitchfork)
In a statement provided to The LA Times, Lizzo’s attorney Cynthia S. Arato said that they intend to “establish, in a court of law, that the Raisens are not writers of ‘Truth Hurts’ and have no right to profit from the song’s success”.
“The Raisens did not collaborate with Lizzo or anyone else to create the song, and they did not help write any of the material that they now seek to profit from, which is why they expressly renounced any claim to the work, in writing, months ago, as the lawsuit makes abundantly clear,” Arato’s statement continues.
“Although it is all too commonplace for successful artists to be subjected to these type of opportunistic claims, it is nevertheless disappointing that Lizzo had to take this step to put an end to the Raisens’ false claims and their campaign of harassment.”
Speaking to The LA Times today, Justin Raisen said that he and his brother were disappointed with Lizzo’s Instagram statement.
“It’s not in line with what she stands for and preaches for and is preaching about. We’ve said nothing but nice things about her, and now to find out that she’s actually pointing her finger at us, these quote-unquote ‘men,’ is extremely saddening, and it’s painful … because people don’t do this to other people.
“It’s just not fair. I’ve never dealt with anything like this in the music industry.”
Lizzo has, however, now given singer Mina Lioness a co-writing credit on ‘Truth Hurts’ as the latter’s 2017 tweet (“I did a DNA test and found out I’m 100% that bitch”) inspired the lyric.
“The creator of the tweet is the person I am sharing my success with… not these men. Period,” Lizzo explained.
Responding on Twitter this evening, Mina Lioness wrote: “I just took a DNA Test, turns out I’m a credited writer for the number one song on Billboard.”
I just took a DNA Test, turns out I’m a credited writer for the number one song on Billboard.
— chorus championina (@MinaLioness) October 23, 2019
I want to publicly thank @Lizzo and her entire managment team for embracing me and reaching out.
— chorus championina (@MinaLioness) October 23, 2019
Meanwhile, Lizzo has been hit with a separate accusation of plagiarism by singer CeCe Peniston. The US artist claims that ‘Juice”s “YaYa EE” ad-lib originates from her 1992 track ‘Finally’.