Lizzo accused of plagiarism for song 'Truth Hurts' by producer Justin Raisen

Singer, rapper and flautist Lizzo is facing her second plagiarism claim for her number one single Truth Hurts.

“I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that b*tch” might be the line she’s most famous for, but now she’s being accused of taking it from another song that she wrote with producer Justin Raisen in 2017.

Raisen posted about it on his Instagram, showcasing a video of the song they co-wrote with Jesse St John and Yves Rothman, called Healthy alongside Truth Hurts. Both have the same first line - her famous DNA test lyric. They also have the same melody, although they are sung in a different key.

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The Truth about “Truth Hurts” 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. Coming forward publicly to family, friends, artists, and colleagues seems to be the only way at this point in relieving some of our emotional distress caused by this. The last thing we want to do is throw any negativity toward Lizzo’s momentum and movement as a cultural figure. If we believe in what she’s preaching, believing in ourselves & our own voices is something we thought she’d understand. Shout out to the singer Mina Lioness ( @minalioness ) for tweeting “I just did a DNA test turns out I’m 100% that bitch”. A meme of that came up in our writing session & inspired the lyric and melody we wrote together. If Ricky and Lizzo’s team decide to settle this dispute with us, we would like to share some of the proceeds with Mina for her influence on Healthy. The clip below shows a video & photos from the day we wrote “Healthy” along with the comparisons between the two works. All the Love, Justin & Jeremiah Raisen #lizzo #truthhurts #healthy #billboard

A post shared by Justin Raisen (@justinraisen) on Oct 14, 2019 at 11:50pm PDT

“We were never contacted about being credited for the use of the parts of Healthy (melody, lyrics, and chords) that appear in Truth Hurts. We’ve tried to sort this out quietly for the last two years, only asking for 5% [songwriting royalties] each, but were shut down every time,” Raisen wrote on Instagram.

Raisen is a popular producer who has also worked with Sky Ferreira, Charli XCX, Santigold, Billy Corgan and more.

He goes on to say that he’s going public with the information because of “emotional distress,” adding “The last thing we want to do is throw any negativity toward Lizzo’s momentum and movement as a cultural figure.”

I’ve never seen this before in my life. That’s crazy 😳.

But u know, there’s 10 BILLION ppl on the planet. The odds of multiple people having the same idea are VERY high.

The odds of multiple ppl putting it in song w/ millions of streams are low tho.

Nothin new under the sun. https://t.co/M7fH2ZVXho

— #STREAMTRUTHHURTS (@lizzo)

February 9, 2018

She was previously accused of plagiarizing the “100%” lyric in February 2018, as British singer Mina Lioness originally tweeted the phrase in February of 2017. Lizzo responded to the original accusations on Twitter.

Now, Raisen is saying that he will share some of the proceeds with Mina if Lizzo’s team decides to “settle this dispute.”