Brothers and songwriting team of Justin and Jeremiah Raisen and another collaborator, Justin “Yves” Rothman, claimed that they had entitled to a writing credit in Lizzo's recent hit Truth Hurts. The brothers who recorded demos with Lizzo in 2017 went public with their claims last week.
Lizzo responded with a lawsuit and a social media post. “The men who now claim a piece of ‘Truth Hurts’ did not help me write any part of the song,” she wrote in the post. “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, and my tears.”
The lawsuit says that the brothers “expressly withdrew any claim to ‘Truth Hurts,’ in writing” last April, that Rothman never previously made any such claim, and that Lizzo requests that the court enter a judgement stating that the Raisens, Rothman and their publisher have no ownership rights or rights to any money earned in connection with “Truth Hurts." It also asserts that “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.”
The lawsuit has still not reached a final conclusion and there are new developments taking place every day.
