The truth hurts, but a lawsuit stings.
The saga around Lizzo’s hot single, “Truth Hurts” continues. Songwriting brothers Justin and Jeremiah Raisen accused the chart-topping artist of plagiarizing the heavily popular line, “I just took a DNA test, turns out, I’m 100% that bitch” from her song the three wrote in collaboration titled, “Healthy.” However, Lizzo’s team ain’t having it and have filed a suit against the brother duo, alleging their claims are unwarranted.
“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,” Lizzo’s lawyer Cynthia Arato told Page Six in a statement. Along with the Raisens, the suit, filed in California, claims another collaborator Justin “Yves” Rothman doesn’t have rights to the song, either.
“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,” Arato added.
Lizzo recently took to social media to confirm support of the original Tweeter of the “100% that bitch” phrase, @MinaLioness, who secured an official writing credit of the song.
And turns out, the Raisens are totally cool with that credit. What they’re not cool with, though, is the dismissal of their claim.
According to CBS News:
In a statement, the Raisens said they are “beyond happy” that Lioness will receive writing credit. But they said they “find it unsettling that they believe our claim is ‘unwarranted,’ considering the receipts we have which include a musicology report for the song ‘Healthy,’ which predates ‘Truth Hurts.’”
The song is prepped to break the record for the longest-standing No. 1 song by a female rapper, overtaking Iggy Azalea. The two are currently tied.
And I’m calling this a saga because that’s what it really is! The plagiarism scandal is racking up as many episodes as a Star Wars franchise because CeCe Peniston also joined the fray, recently posting an ad-lib theft accusation on Instagram.
Peniston, who sung the 1992 hit “Finally” shared a spliced video, saying the ad-libs in Lizzo’s “Juice” were suspiciously similar to hers. “There’s no substantial similarity between ‘Juice’ and ‘Finally’, and there’s no valid claim there,” a spokesperson from Warner/Chappell, the music label behind Lizzo, told Page Six.
Either way, CeCe “loves [Lizzo’s] music,” though.