Lizzohas been hit with another plagiarism accusation for her Billboard No. 1 song “Truth Hurts.”
On Tuesday, producer Justin Raisen spoke out on Instagram on behalf of himself and his brother Jeremiah Raisen, demanding partial credit for the lyric “I just took a DNA test turns I’m 100% that bitch” — the most celebrated verse on the track.
Raisen shared a video in attempt to back his claim writing, “The Truth about ‘Truth Hurts.'”
The clip shows moments of Lizzo, 31, and Raisen working together in the studio on a song “Healthy” from April 2017. Lizzo croons the exact same hook as “Truth Hurts,” but in a higher pitch and without the piano in the background.
“On April 11th, 2017, we wrote a song called ‘Healthy’ w/Lizzo, Jesse St. John and Yves Rothman at our studio,” Raisen wrote.
He then explained, “‘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.'”
Raisen shared that he reached out to “Ricky Reed and Lizzo’s team about fixing it, we put the song in dispute in 2017 when it came out.”
While Raisen is demanding action, he said, “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.”
“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.'”
Vivien Killilea/Getty
Justin Raisen.Justin Raisen/Twitter
Raisen concluded the post writing, “All the Love,” signing it with his name and his brother Justin’s name.
Both Lizzo’s rep and attorney Cynthia S. Arato did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Arato has since refuted the allegations toThe New York Times.
“The Raisens are not writers of ‘Truth Hurts,'” Arato said in a statement to the publication. “They did not collaborate with Lizzo or anyone else to create this song, and they did not help write any of the material that they now seek profit from, which is why they expressly renounced any claim to the work, in writing, months ago.”
Justin and Jeremiah’s claim comes a little over a year after fans called Lizzo out for plagiarism after discovering Mina’s tweet.
“Truth Hurts @Lizzo and the truth is you’re a thief,” the fan said alongside a grab of Mina’s post. In response, Lizzosaid, “I’ve never seen this before in my life. That’s crazy.”
Lizzo’s Twitter.Lizzo/Twitter
“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. Nothing new under the sun.”
Lizzo even fired back to Mina herself on Twitter, writing, “‘Truth Hurts’ was written in June fyi — someone made a meme on IG that said ‘I’m 100% that bitch’ and we were inspired, I give that meme credit when I talk about making the song. I’ve never seen ur viral tweet but I’m glad it exists.”
Lizzo.Rick Kern/WireImage
In September, after news broke that “Truth Hurts” scored the No. 1 spot, Lizzodeclared it was a winfor “anybody who ever felt like they voice wasn’t heard.”
“WE’RE NUMBER 1,” she captioned a screenshot of the latest Billboard chart. “THIS IS A W FOR ALL OF US. ANYBODY WHO EVER FELT LIKE THEY VOICE WASN’T HEARD. ANYBODY WHO FELT LIKE THEY WEREN’T GOOD ENOUGH. YOU ARE. WE ARE. CHAMPIONS. I LOVE YALL 3 MUCH. LIZZBIANS UNITE 🌈.”
Speaking to PEOPLEin July, Lizzo admitted that she nearly left music after dropping the song.
“The day I released ‘Truth Hurts’ was probably one of the darkest days I’ve had ever in my career. I remember thinking, ‘If I quit music now, nobody would notice. This is my best song ever, and nobody cares,’” Lizzo recalls. “I was like, ‘F— it, I’m done.’ And a lot of people rallied; my producer, my publicist and my family, they were like, ‘Just keep going because this is the darkest recalled the dawn.’”
source: people.com
