Lizzo: Singer Fires Back at ‘Truth Hurts’ Plagiarism Accusations

*Lizzo has responded to the accusations of plagiarism connected to her hit single “Truth Hurts.”

We previously reported…songwriter and producer Justin Raisen is one of three men accusing the singer of lifting the famous opening line from her “Truth Hurts” track: “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch.”

Raisen alleges the line comes from a song he wrote called “Healthy” with Lizzo back in 2017. British singer Mina Lioness is also claiming rights to the opening line.

Peep Justin’s full post below.

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The Truth about “Truth Hurts” On April 11th, 2017, we wrote a song called “Healthy” w/ Lizzo, Jesse St John, and Yves Rothman at our studio. “I just took a DNA test turns out I’m 100% that bitch” was taken from “Healthy” and used in “Truth Hurts”. We were never contacted about being credited for the use of the parts of “Healthy” (melody, lyrics, and chords) that appear in “Truth Hurts”. After reaching out to Ricky Reed and Lizzo’s team about fixing it, we put the song in dispute in 2017 when it came out. We’ve tried to sort this out quietly for the last two years, only asking for 5% each but were shutdown every time. Coming forward publicly to family, friends, artists, and colleagues seems to be the only way at this point in relieving some of our emotional distress caused by this. The last thing we want to do is throw any negativity toward Lizzo’s momentum and movement as a cultural figure. If we believe in what she’s preaching, believing in ourselves & our own voices is something we thought she’d understand. Shout out to the singer Mina Lioness ( @minalioness ) for tweeting “I just did a DNA test turns out I’m 100% that bitch”. A meme of that came up in our writing session & inspired the lyric and melody we wrote together. If Ricky and Lizzo’s team decide to settle this dispute with us, we would like to share some of the proceeds with Mina for her influence on Healthy. The clip below shows a video & photos from the day we wrote “Healthy” along with the comparisons between the two works. All the Love, Justin & Jeremiah Raisen #lizzo #truthhurts #healthy #billboard

A post shared by Justin Raisen (@justinraisen) on Oct 14, 2019 at 11:50pm PDT

In a lengthy statement posted on social, Lizzo addressed the accusations, noting that anyone making such claims “had nothing to do with the line or how I chose to sing it.”

The singer filed legal docs Wednesday in federal court “asking a judge to declare the 3 men have no copyright on “Truth Hurts,” and no right to share in the song’s immense profits,” per TMZ.

According to the docs, obtained by the outlet, Lizzo says that line is actually from a 2017 meme — and that producer Ricky Reed was the only other person in the room when she wrote “Truth Hurts.”

Lizzo said “That song is my life, and its words are my truth” — see her tweet below.

pic.twitter.com/Q4AKIPhMiE

— #STREAMTRUTHHURTS (@lizzo) October 23, 2019

In related news, 90s singer CeCe Peniston took to Instagram recently to bring attention to Lizzo’s hit track “Juice” and how it takes ad-libs from her 1992 song, “Finally.”

Peniston shared a video of the two songs side-by-side, writing: “this is a clear example of #copyrightinfringement. Cece Peniston versus @lizzobeeating, y’all check this out and btw I love her music.”

CeCe is specifically referencing the “ya ya ee” ad-lib Lizzo uses in her song: “Gotta blame it on my juice/Ya-ya-ee, ya-ya-ee, ya-ya-ee, ya-ya-ee.”

“This is a really a sensitive issue ..I love #lizzos music and artistry , my concern is that lyrics and melody that I wrote in my song #finally are now a part of her song “ juice “ and I would like for us to resolve this in a positive manner,” she wrote on IG.

Lizzo’s lawyer, Cynthia Arato, has denied the plagiarism allegations, BBC reports.

“Although it has become all too commonplace for successful artists to be subjected to these type of opportunistic claims, it is nevertheless disappointing that after all of her hard work, Lizzo has to respond to this specious claim,” she said.

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