Lizzo don’t play tag, bitch, she been “It.” And she’s taking on producer Justin Raisen’s plagiarism claims head-on.
Earlier this month, Raisen accused Lizzo of taking her very popular “Truth Hurts” lyric from his song titled, “Healthy.”
“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,” Raisen wrote at the time.
Welp. All eyes were on Lizzo, awaiting her response to these claims.
Typical press conference? Not in this year of our iLord, where iOS press releases are the move. Lizzo took to Instagram to directly address the situation and captioned the post, “Truth Hurts... but the truth shall set you free.”
“The men who now claim a piece of ‘Truth Hurts’ did not help me write any part of the song,” Lizzo wrote. “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, Ricky Reed and my tears. That song is my life, and its words are my truth.”
“I later learned that a tweet inspired the meme,” Lizzo added, referring to Twitter user @MinaLioness and her February 2017 tweet. “The creator of the tweet is the person I am sharing my success with...not these men. Period.”
When first approached about @MinaLioness’ tweet, Lizzo originally claimed to not be aware of the tweet. That tweet has since been deleted.
Regardless, @MinaLioness has finally gotten her things, announcing on Twitter that she is now officially credited on the song as a writer. “Truth Hurts” recently tied Iggy Azalea’s record for the longest-charting No. 1 song by a female rapper, according to the Fader.