On Oct. 23, 2019, Lizzo (Melissa Jefferson) sued Justin Raisen, Jeremiah Raisen, Justin Yves Rothman, and others in a declaratory judgment action seeking a court’s declaration that the defendants have no rights to her belated runaway hit song “Truth Hurts.” The case was filed in the Central District of California.
Lizzo’s Complaint alleges:
- After years of hard work, she attained breakthrough commercial success earlier this year. Shortly thereafter, during the summer of 2019, her song “Truth Hurts,” first released back in 2017, started to rise in the charts. Last month, just as the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, defendants Justin and Jeremiah Raisen came out of the woodwork with an illegitimate claim to co-own a piece of the work. Defendant Yves Rothman later lodged his own copycat claim. Neither claim has any merit. Lizzo, accordingly, seeks a judicial declaration that the individual defendants Justin and Jeremiah Raisen and Justin “Yves” Rothman did not co-author “Truth Hurts,” and have no right to co- own that work or to share in its profits.
- Lizzo seeks this declaration against the Raisens on two grounds. First, the Raisens did not collaborate with Lizzo or anyone else to create “Truth Hurts” or any of its component parts. Second, the Raisens, acting through their sophisticated music publisher and an experienced music industry lawyer, expressly withdrew any claim to “Truth Hurts,” in writing, in April of this year, and subsequently assured Lizzo, again in writing, that they were making no claims to the work. Despite their clear, unequivocal, and repeated renunciations, this September the Raisens purported to “reinstate” their wholly unfounded claims – after they saw “Truth Hurts” become a hit and in a bad faith effort to capitalize on Lizzo’s success. The Raisens, moreover, embarked on an escalating campaign of harassment against Lizzo and others involved in “Truth Hurts,” threatening to “go public” unless they receive an unwarranted share of this work.
In October 2019, Justin Raisen had reportedly posted an Instagram post with video claiming that “Truth Hurts” copied elements of the lyrics, melody, and chords of their April 11, 2017 collaboration with Lizzo for the song “Healthy.” The Instagram post included a side-by-side video comparison of the two songs, but has since been removed.
Copying a tweet of Mina Lioness?
A fascinating subplot to the case is a tweet by songwriter Mina Lioness on Feb. 24, 2017. Lioness read a tweet by Demi Lovato: “I did a DNA test and found out I’m mainly Spanish, with Native American, SCANDINAVIAN (which I had NO idea), Irish, BRITISH….” she tweeted, before following up with: “And I’m 1% African!!!!” Lioness then tweeted 12 words: “I did a DNA test and found out I’m 100% that bitch.” Lioness’s pithy tweet went viral. It was used as a lyric in both “Healthy” co-produced by the Raisens and Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts.”
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsI did a DNA test and found out I’m 100% that bitch.
— mina (@MinaLioness) February 25, 2017
In 2018, Lizzo denied reading Lioness’s viral tweet, but instead said she learned of the line when it became a meme on the Internet. Nonetheless, Lizzo eventually gave Lioness a songwriting credit in Oct. 2019.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsTruth 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
Documents
Complaint filed by Lizzo (Oct. 29, 2019)
Attorneys
Cynthia S. Arato for Lizzo
Music Infringement 