Who Wrote Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts”? Who Knows?

With a spare black-and-white note on October 23, Lizzo struck back in a public dispute over who, exactly, deserves credit for writing “Truth Hurts,” which had just notched its seventh week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “There was no one in the room when I wrote ‘Truth Hurts,’ except me, Ricky Reed, and my tears,” she wrote. “That song is my life and its words are my truth.” She added that she was giving a belated songwriting credit to the British singer Mina Lioness, who’d tweeted an earlier version of what would become the song’s signature line: “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch.” Also on October 23, Lizzo filed a lawsuit against Justin Raisen, Jeremiah Raisen, and Justin “Yves” Rothman, three songwriters who claimed they had contributed to a session that led to the line as it’s delivered in “Truth Hurts.”

In new statement shared with Pitchfork on October 25, the Raisens said, “We were actually threatened that if we talked to The New York Times, [Lizzo’s team would] never credit us. Is the new message not to stand up for yourself? Even when you have the proof to back it up?” A few days later, on October 28, Lizzo’s lawyer Cynthia S. Arato told Pitchfork the Raisens’ statement is untrue.

Allocation of songwriting credits can be surprisingly complicated. With digital technology blurring the distinction between writing and recording, and multiple songwriters often working in sessions together across various locations and days, a typical hit song today takes a village—and who did what can be a matter of debate. (For example, just this year, Frank Ocean and collaborator Om’Mas Keith buried the hatchet in a legal dispute over who deserved credit for much of Blonde, which came out three years ago.) The ongoing saga of “Truth Hurts,” which took nearly two years after its release to top the charts, is also long and winding. What’s more, in a business still reeling from multimillion-dollar jury verdicts over Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” (largely upheld on appeal) and Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” (Perry has appealed), the outcome will be closely watched. In November, the song was nominated for the 2020 Grammy Award for Song of the Year, further raising the stakes. Here’s a breakdown of the events that turned “Truth Hurts” into the latest high-profile songwriting controversy:

February 24, 2017: Mina Lioness tweets, “I did a DNA test and found out I’m 100% that bitch.” Her comment quickly goes viral.

April 11, 2017: Justin Raisen, Jeremiah Raisen, Justin “Yves” Rothman, and Jesse Saint John work with Lizzo in a songwriting session that spawns the “DNA test” line, according to interviews and social media statements by the Raisen brothers. The professed inspiration is an internet meme based on Lioness’ tweet and pulled up by Saint John on his phone. Jeremiah Raisen suggests including the line and helps write the melody for the song, including the “DNA test” part, according to the Raisens’ later comments to The New York Times. The song that emerges from the session is called “Healthy,” according to the Raisens, who provided a demo version of the track to Pitchfork.

Lizzo’s lawsuit later claims that while she worked on a demo at Justin Raisen’s studio in April 2017, “the Raisens did not write any part of the material in question; they did not come up with the idea of including the lyric in the unreleased demo; they did not help Lizzo decide how to sing the lyric in the unreleased demo; and they do not co-own that work.”

June 2017: Lizzo writes “Truth Hurts,” and only producer Ricky Reed is present, according to a statement she later made on social media. (Reps for Reed did not respond to Pitchfork’s requests for comment before this article was published.)

September 19, 2017: Lizzo releases “Truth Hurts.” Officially, the song is credited to Lizzo, Reed, Jesse Saint John, and co-producer Tele. Other than Lizzo, Saint John is the only participant from the “Healthy” sessions who is credited on “Truth Hurts.” Lizzo tweets, “TY @jessesaintjohn for inspiring v1 from a whole otha song we wrote! I JUST TOOK A DNA TEST//IM 100% DAT BITCH is the best gift ever 😘.” Soon after the release, the Raisens begin their push for a share of the credits, according to the brothers’ statements to the Times.

February 9, 2018: Mina Lioness complains that Lizzo used her words without giving her credit. “We didn’t have the same idea, it was my tweet that was taken from Twitter and put into a song,” Lioness tweets. “Now everyone believes those were your words, when in fact they were mine. My creativity, my wit and my comedy.” Lizzo responds that the line was inspired by an Instagram meme, saying, “I’ve never seen ur viral tweet but I’m glad it exists.”

February 14, 2019: One of the first in a viral succession of TikTok videos featuring the “DNA test” line is uploaded.

April 2, 2019: The Raisens “expressly” withdraw any claims to “Truth Hurts,” in writing, according to Lizzo’s subsequent lawsuit. The lawsuit quotes an email sent by Kobalt Music Publishing, Heavy Duty’s administrative partner. (The Raisens later deny signing any paperwork to withdraw their claims.)

April 19, 2019: Lizzo releases her major-label debut album, Cuz I Love You. “Truth Hurts” is not on it. That same day, Netflix releases the rom-com Someone Great, which features “Truth Hurts.”

May 3, 2019: Lizzo releases a deluxe edition of Cuz I Love You, adding “Truth Hurts.”

June 14, 2019: The Blast reports that Lizzo has filed to trademark the phrase “100% That Bitch.”

“Several days” after August 1, 2019: The Raisens’ publisher writes in an email to “all interested participants” that “Kobalt is making no claims to this work [on behalf of] either Jeremiah or Justin Raisen,” as quoted by Lizzo’s lawsuit.

August 21, 2019: Hillary Clinton quotes the “DNA test” line on social media.

September 3, 2019: Justin Raisen writes on Instagram, “WE WENT #1!! SO PSYCHED TO BE A COWRITER ON “Truth Hurts” W @jeremiahraisen @billboard #1 #billboard #lizzo #truthhurts #kro #dramaclub”

September 4, 2019: The Raisens attempt to “reinstate” their claims to 20 percent of the credit for “Truth Hurts,” according to Lizzo’s lawsuit.

September 10, 2019: The Twitter account for the Sesame Street character Cookie Monster says, “Me just took a DNA test turns out me 100% cookies....”

September 11, 2019: Justin Raisen writes on Instagram that “#truthhurts by @lizzobeeating all began in my studio.” He adds, “Congrats to everyone on a cultural #1 #lizzo.”

October 14, 2019: Justin “Yves” Rothman makes a “formal demand” claiming five percent of the songwriting credit on “Truth Hurts,” citing his work on “Healthy,” according to Lizzo’s later lawsuit. The lawsuit asserts that Rothman “is not a co-author of the unreleased demo.” (Rothman’s lawyer, Stacy Fass, later tells Pitchfork in a statement: “It is well documented that Yves Rothman was in the April 2017 writing session for ‘Healthy.’ He is unequivocally a writer on that song. Further Yves co-produced the demo recording of ‘Healthy.’ We believe the song ‘Truth Hurts’ infringes ‘Healthy.’”)

October 15, 2019: The New York Times reports that the Raisen brothers are seeking partial credit for “Truth Hurts.” By this time, Lizzo is selling “100% That Bitch” T-shirt bundles. (According to Lizzo’s lawsuit, the Raisens previously “threatened” to go to media outlets such as the Times as part of a “campaign of harassment” against Lizzo, an allegation that the Raisens deny.)

October 23, 2019: The Washington Post reports that Justin Raisen said that with “Truth Hurts,” the song’s “melody was written over the beat that we came up with.” Lizzo posts that she’s awarding a share of the royalties for the song to Mina Lioness. She says in a statement via social media, “The creator of the tweet is the person I am sharing my success with... not these men. Period.” Justin Raisen writes on Instagram: “Being able to finally make this happen for @minalioness w/ @jeremiahraisen has literally made my year. Culture can actually shift & things can change when you fight for what’s right. Like #lizzo says..believe in yourself. Thank you, God. I’m grateful.”

Lizzo also files the lawsuit, which requests that a judge rule that the Raisens and Rothman had no part in writing “Truth Hurts.” “They commenced an intentionally misleading social media campaign where they falsely claimed to be writers of the song,” the complaint reads. Lizzo’s lawsuit also asserts that the Raisens’ and Rothman’s claims to “Truth Hurts” have “caused and [are] causing irreparable injury” because the claims are holding up any further licensing opportunities for the song.

The lawsuit asks for a court to declare that the Raisens and Rothman have no ownership rights to “Truth Hurts,” that they have “no right to any sums of money earned by Lizzo or anyone else in connection with ‘Truth Hurts,’” and that the song “does not infringe any copyright interest purportedly held by Rothman in any unreleased demo song.”

October 25, 2019: Justin and Jeremiah Raisen tell Pitchfork in a statement: “After two years of essentially being ignored, with writing credit being offered and then taken away, we were actually threatened that if we talked to The New York Times, they’d never credit us. Is the new message not to stand up for yourself? Even when you have the proof to back it up?” Their response in court has not yet been filed and they did not elaborate.

October 28, 2019: Cynthia S. Arato, Lizzo’s lawyer, responds to the Raisens’ latest comments in a statement provided to Pitchfork: “This just isn’t true. But we aren’t going to comment on every new statement. That’s why we filed a lawsuit, so this matter will be settled once and for all.”

November 20, 2019: Lizzo is nominated for 8 awards at the 2020 Grammy Awards. “Truth Hurts” is nominated for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year, with Ricky Reed, Tele, Lizzo, and Jesse Saint John listed as the songwriters up for the Song of the Year award. Reed is also nominated for Producer of the Year.

Originally Appeared on Pitchfork