Lizzo has shared an extended message responding to plagiarism claims connected to her hit single "Truth Hurts."
In her statement, Lizzo begins by addressing "the men who now claim a piece of 'Truth Hurts.'" According to Lizzo, anyone making such claims "had nothing to do with the line or how I chose to sing it."
She went on to say that, when the song was written, she was in the room with Ricky Reed, "my tears," and no one else. "That song is my life, and its words are my truth."
The bulk of the controversy centers on the track's opening line "I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch." As Lizzo hinted at in Wednesday's statement, the line was brought on by a meme that she later learned was inspired by a @MinaLioness tweet.
After Lizzo gave Mina a writing credit, she took to Twitter to show her appreciation.
Songwriter and producer Justin Raisen, however, has also claimed some credit for the track. In an Instagram note earlier this month, Raisen said the line originated from a song he wrote with Lizzo, Jesse St. John, and Yves Rothman in April 2017 titled "Healthy." According to Raisen, a meme incorporating Mina's tweet was stumbled upon during those sessions:
Later on Wednesday, Lizzo filed a lawsuit disputing the claims of plagiarism. “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," Lizzo's attorney, Cynthia Arato, said in a statement to Complex. "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."
Arato adds that, "Although it is all too commonplace for successful artists to be subjected to these type of opportunistic claims, it is nevertheless disappointing that Lizzo had to take this step to put an end to the Raisens’ false claims and their campaign of harassment.”
Per the most recent charts update, "Truth Hurts" is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 ahead of recent hits from Camila Cabello, Lewis Capaldi, Post Malone, and Chris Brown.
