Lizzo is not playing with people who seek to profit from her success as a singer/songwriter. The 31-year-old Detroit native filed legal action against two songwriters who claimed she stole the lyrics to her No. 1 hit “Truth Hurts”.
Songwriting team Justin and Jeremiah Raisen accused the “Juice” singer of stealing the line “I just took a DNA test and found out I’m 100% that bitch”. They later confessed they stole the lyric from Black British rapper, Mina Lioness, for a song called “Healthy”.
Lizzo took offense to the claims that she stole the lyrics from them. “There was no one in the room when I wrote ‘Truth Hurts,’ except me, Ricky Reed, and my tears,” she wrote on Instagram. “That song is my life, and its words are my truth.”
Lizzo added that the line in question was inspired by a meme she spotted on social media that was in turn inspired by a Twitter post by singer Mina Lioness that read, “I did a DNA test and found out I’m 100% that bitch.”
Lizzo said she added Mina’s name to the song credits as co-songwriter so she can get paid.
Lizzo’s attorney, Cynthia Arato, confirmed to Pitchfork that she filed a lawsuit this week on the singer’s behalf.
“Today we filed a lawsuit on Lizzo’s behalf 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. 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.”
’90s singer CeCe Peniston also accused the morbidly obese singer of plagiarizing her “Ya ya ee” ad-libs from her house music hit “Finally”.
