Lizzo Credits British Song Writer Amidst Plagiarism Feud

Lizzo finally credits the line “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100% that bitch” from her famous song, “Truth hurts” after several allegations of plagiarism.

As reported by HuffPost, last year, Lizzo, whose real name is Melissa Jefferson, tweeted that she saw a meme on Instagram that said “I’m 100% that bitch” while she was working on her 2017 demo.

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.

— #STREAMTRUTHHURTS (@lizzo) February 9, 2018

In her statement, she explained that the meme “resonated” with her, and she wrote, then sang, the now-famous line on her demo.

These tweets were in reaction to the tweets by Mina Lioness, a British singer, who accused Lizzo of copying words from her tweets.

Representatives for Atlantic Records, Lizzo’s label, says Lioness will receive credit for the song. They did not say whether she will be compensated.

In the same vein, a producer Justin Raisen, a producer and songwriter who came forward with another plagiarism allegation last week on Instagram.

In Raisen’s post, he says that he, his brother Jeremiah Raisen, and other songwriters not only contributed to the famous lyric in Truth Hurts but also helped with the melody during a collaborative studio session in April 2017.

According to Raisen’s post, his creative claim to the lyric is that the meme “came up” during their session.

View this post on Instagram

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

Lizzo has taken to the internet to also credit the producer for the lyrics and his help through the recording.

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Whoa. Thank you to an anonymous someone who felt bad for us & just dmd this to me. The “other song” #lizzo is referring to in her congratulations tweet to @jessesaintjohn is “healthy” – this post is for songwriters & producers who understand co-writing & what we’re going through. the other co-writers of #healthy are @jeremiahraisen @yvesrothman and myself. Hence this whole sad saga 😞♥️ #truthhurts #healthy

A post shared by Justin Raisen (@justinraisen) on Oct 23, 2019 at 11:27pm PDT