Lizzo clears air on ‘Truth Hurts’ controversy
Lizzo has given a songwriting credit on her back-from-2017 hit “Truth Hurts” to a singer who originally came up with — and tweeted out — the tune’s most iconic line. But two other songwriters are still saying they deserve credit for the much-cited lyric, “I did a DNA test and found out I’m 100% that bitch.”
“As I’ve shared before, in 2017, while working on a demo, I saw a meme that resonated with me, a meme that me feel like 100% that bitch. I sang that line in the demo, and I later used the line in Truth Hurts,” Lizzo wrote on social media Wednesday.
“The men who now claim a piece of Truth Hurts did not help 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.
“I later learned that a tweet inspired the meme. The creator of the tweet is the person I am sharing my success with … not these men. Period.”
“These men” are producers Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, who accused Lizzo of taking the line in question.
“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,'” Justin wrote on Instagram on Oct. 15. “We were never contacted about being credited for the use of the parts of ‘Healthy’ (melody, lyrics, and chords) that appear in ‘Truth Hurts.'”
The pair concede that singer Mina Lioness originally tweeted the disputed line, “a meme of [which] came up in our writing session & inspired the lyric and melody we wrote together.”
“We’ve tried to sort this out quietly for the last two years,” the Raisens write, “only asking for 5% each but were shut down every time.” Monday, they published the results of a “musicology report” from Donato Music Services on Perez Hilton that claims “Truth Hurts” “clearly contains lyrics and musical material contained in the song ‘Healthy,'” with a detailed musical transcription of the two songs.
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Meanwhile, Mina Lioness has been tweeting about her new credit on “Truth Hurts.”
“I just took a DNA Test, turns out I’m a credited writer for the number one song on Billboard,” she wrote, following it up with “I want to publicly thank Lizzo and her entire management team for embracing me and reaching out.”