Twitter Accused Lizzo of Stealing Her Famous DNA Test “Truth Hurts” Lyric, and It’s a Big Mess
Twitter users accused Lizzo of stealing her popular “Truth Hurts” lyric.
Her critics claimed she lifted the line “I just took a DNA test, turns out, I’m 100% that bitch” from a 2017 tweet.
Lizzo recently responded to allegations on Instagram herself, admitting she did use a meme line in “Truth Hurts.”
Update, 10/23:
It took her a couple of months, but Lizzo has finally responded to some of the lyric-stealing allegations against her.
In an Instagram captioned, “Truth Hurts...but the truth shall set you free,” Lizzo admitted that she did see a meme (written by Mina Lioness) that inspired her hit song. But! She totally denies newer allegations from a pair of brothers who argue they deserve credit for being at the writing session where parts of “Truth Hurts” was written.
Here’s Lizzo's take:
“Hey y’all...as I’ve shared before, in 2017, while working on a demo, I saw a meme that resonated with me, a meme that made me feel like 100% that bitch. I sang that line in the demo, and I later used the line in Truth Hurts.
The men who now claim a piece of Truth Hurts did not help me write any part of the song. They had nothing to do with the line or how I chose to sing it. There was no one in the room when I wrote Truth Hurts, except me, Ricky Reed [a music producer], and my tears. That song is my life, and its words are my truth.
I later learned that a tweet inspired the meme. The creator of the tweet is the person I am sharing my success with...not these men. Period. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and my song. Xoxo."
Truth Hurts... but the truth shall set you free.
A post shared by Lizzo (@lizzobeeating) on Oct 23, 2019 at 10:19am PDT
Mina also commented on the situation and tweeted, "I just took a DNA Test, turns out I’m a credited writer for the number one song on Billboard," referring to how Lizzo ultimately gave credit where credit was due.
I want to publicly thank @Lizzo and her entire managment team for embracing me and reaching out.
— Mina (@MinaLioness) October 23, 2019
Original story, 8/29:
It’s finally fall, but Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” was undoubtedly one of the biggest hits that played everywhere this summer—in H&M, in da clerb, and probably even in your mom’s car, TBH. Ever since the song shot to the top of the charts, people have been shouting, “I just took a DNA test, turns out, I’m 100% that bitch” whenever they get the chance. 23andMe commercial comes on? Yeah, I’m 100% that bitch! Got beef with someone? Yeah, I’m 100% that bitch! Popeyes employee finally calls your name to get your chicken sandwich? Yeah, I’m 100% that bitch! You get the point. You can’t escape it! Even Hillary Clinton tweeted about it! But now that Lizzo is trying to trademark the phrase that’s been memed a thousand times over, people are calling her out for allegedly taking it from a 2017 tweet.
Earlier today, The Blast reported that Lizzo was trying to trademark the lyric to use on merchandise like shirts, jackets, hats, wristbands, everything. Most times, these things go off without a hitch, but some old tweets just resurfaced on Twitter and it looks like there’s some drama about where the lyric originally came from.
When the news broke, one user wrote, “Lizzo has literally built her whole brand off of some stolen words and now her whole shit is unraveling because she point-blank refused to cite a Black woman. On Beyoncé’s internet, the receipts last forever.” The tea was scalding.
Then, in the same thread, someone linked to the 2017 tweet in question, one that straight-up said, “I did a DNA test and found out I’m 100% that bitch.” The old tweet, which is from @MinaLioness, now has more than 36,ooo Likes.
A year after the tweet, Mina tweeted at Lizzo and wrote, “Now everyone believes those were your words, when in fact they were mine. My creativity, my wit, and my comedy.” (Mina tweeted that she got the idea for the joke from Demi Lovato, who once tweeted about how her DNA test results said she was 1 percent African.)
The story of the “100% that Bitch tweet” came from me making jokes about Demi Lovato saying she took a DNA test and found out she’s 1% African. pic.twitter.com/DvQIoJeCzA
— Mina (@MinaLioness) August 11, 2019
In February 2018, Lizzo told Mina via Twitter, “‘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.”
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.
— Feelin Good As Hell (@lizzo) February 9, 2018
Now that Lizzo filed to trademark it, Mina decided to speak up again and tweet, “What I cannot get over is how brazen Lizzo and her team have been in ignoring my whole presence. They’re doing it because they know I have no capital to address her.”
Mina also said that if Lizzo had just acknowledged that the lyric was inspired by her tweet, she would’ve “supported through and through.”
If she thought I had the autonomy to truly challenge her and assert my rights.. She would have been given me my writers credit. She could of rode this tweet till the wheels fell off. I would have supported through and through as long as I was credited.
— Mina (@MinaLioness) August 28, 2019
It seems like Mina thinks she can’t really do anything about the trademark, judging by her statement about her tweets being in the public domain.
All in all, it’s a big, unfortunate mess and it’s hard to tell if it’ll ever get resolved, since Lizzo insists she never saw Mina’s original tweet from two years ago.
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