Lizzo's September 2017 song "Truth Hurts" endures as a classic, thanks to its reappearance in the Netflix film Someone Great and as a bonus track on her most recent album Cuz I Love You. And, of course, thanks to the unforgettable lyric: "I just took a DNA test / Turns out I'm 100% that bitch."
The meme-inspired lyric actually came from a tweet by British artist Mina Lioness. In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Lizzo acknowledged her contribution and Lioness tweeted that she has been officially credited as a writer on the track. However, Lizzo's post also disputed a claim of plagiarism from songwriters Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, who worked with Lizzo on a demo titled "Healthy" in April of 2017.
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Both "Healthy" and "Truth Hurts" contain the lyrics and, in an Instagram post of their own, the songwriters play the offending segments side-by-side. The Raisens say they have not been properly credited for the parts of "Healthy" they believe appear in "Truth Hurts." Refinery29 has reached out to Justin Raisen for comment.
However, Lizzo is adamant that the credit they demand is not deserved.
"The creator of the tweet is the person I am sharing my success with...not these men," she wrote on Instagram. "Period."
Her team has filed a lawsuit in hopes of a judicial declaration that puts these accusations to bed.
"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," her attorney wrote in a statement to Variety. "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."