Update (October 25, 2019): Lizzo took to Twitter to defend herself Wednesday after news broke that a group of songwriters claimed they didn’t receive proper credit for helping write the signature line in Lizzo’s summer smash, The Los Angeles Times reported.
“Hey y’all… as I’ve shared before, in 2017, while working on a demo, I saw a meme that resonated with me, a meme that made me feel like 100 percent that b—-,” the singer wrote. “I sang that line in the demo, and I later used the line in ‘Truth Hurts.’”
“The men who now 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, Ricky Reed, and my tears. That song is my life, and its words are my truth,” she added.
Lizzo’s legal team filed a lawsuit against the three male songwriters who say they deserve credit for the line “I just took a DNA test / Turns out I’m 100 percent that b—-”, The New York Times reported.
The song debuted in 2017 and has spent several weeks on the Billboard, Blavity reported. Earlier this year, Lizzo attempted to copyright the phrase “100 percent that b—-” for merchandise.
“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,” said Cynthia Arato, Lizzo’s attorney, in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times. “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.
The men Lizzo referenced in her tweets are Justin and Jeremiah Raisen and Yves Rothman, who made his own separate claim for credits for the song, according to the New York Times.
One of the Raisen brothers has already gone to Instagram to note the similarities between the songs “Healthy” and “Truth Hurts.” He accompanied his Instagram caption with a video comparing the two songs.
“It’s not in line with what she stands for and preaches for and is preaching about,” Justin said in a phone interview, with his brother also on the call, the Los Angeles Times reported. “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.”
The Raisens told the Los Angeles Times that they made many attempts to settle the dispute privately by seeking 5 percent each in royalties. They allege the hit phrase because Jeremiah suggested they use it during a songwriting session.
“I was the one who decided that it would be good to be in the song,” Jeremiah said.
“The creator of the tweet is the person I am sharing my success with … not these men. Period,” Lizzo said Wednesday, referring to the British singer Mina Lioness.
After Lizzo’s tweet, Lioness wrote on Twitter, “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m a credited writer for the number one song on Billboard.”
When asked about the suit, Justin said, “This makes me not want to make music professionally anymore. This is sad.”
Don Gorder, chairman of the music business and management department of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, told the New York Times before the lawsuit was made public that the law may be in the Raisen brother’s favor.
“Copyright law says that if a work is created and it’s clearly the intention of all the people who contributed that it’s merged into a whole that they are all equal owners of the song unless they agree otherwise,” he said.
At the Grammys, “Truth Hurts” is under consideration for both record and song of the year, and Lizzo is considered a leading candidate for the best new artist.
Nominations will be announced November 20, The New York Times reported.
Original: (October 16, 2019): Lizzo may not be 100% that b***h.
Her famous one-liner that opens her hit song “Truth Hurts,” which debuted in 2017 and has recently spent numerous weeks on the U.S. charts, may not be hers to boast. The singer has now been hit a second time with a plagiarism claim regarding the catchphrase.
Songwriter Justin Raisen went to Instagram to declare he wrote the lyric for a different 2017 Lizzo song, “Healthy.” In the lengthy caption, he states he and his fellow songwriters, including his brother Jeremiah Raisen, were never contacted about using what they had created for “Healthy” in “Truth Hurts,” instead. Along with explaining his side of the story, he accompanied the caption with a video comparing the two songs. The unreleased song has a similar melody and is sung in a different key.
In February 2018, Lioness stated she originally tweeted out what would become famous lyrics back in 2017. “I did a DNA test and found out I’, 100 percent that b—-.”
“Everyone believes those were your words, when in fact they were mine. My creativity, my wit and my comedy,” she tweeted at the “Good as Hell” singer. The 31-year-old tweeted back to Lioness stating she had never seen the original tweet before and was inspired by a meme.
She has yet to comment on the newest claims.
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