I’ve said before that I love Lizzo, I love her vibe, I love her voice, I love her music and I love that she’s succeeding. But… is Lizzo not really who she appears to be? Is she actually the kind of artist who takes credit for other people’s work? Plagiarism and copyright infringement issues are all over the place these days in music, and Lizzo is being hit with accusations that several of her songs are not SOLELY hers. Justin Raisen (a songwriter/producer) wrote this on his Instagram:

The Truth about “Truth Hurts”: On April 11th, 2017, we wrote a song called “Healthy” w/ Lizzo, Jesse St John, and Yves Rothman at our studio. “I just took a DNA test turns out I’m 100% that bitch” was taken from “Healthy” and used in “Truth Hurts”. We were never contacted about being credited for the use of the parts of “Healthy” (melody, lyrics, and chords) that appear in “Truth Hurts”. After reaching out to Ricky Reed and Lizzo’s team about fixing it, we put the song in dispute in 2017 when it came out. We’ve tried to sort this out quietly for the last two years, only asking for 5% each but were shutdown every time.

Coming forward publicly to family, friends, artists, and colleagues seems to be the only way at this point in relieving some of our emotional distress caused by this. The last thing we want to do is throw any negativity toward Lizzo’s momentum and movement as a cultural figure. If we believe in what she’s preaching, believing in ourselves & our own voices is something we thought she’d understand.

Shout out to the singer Mina Lioness ( @minalioness ) for tweeting “I just did a DNA test turns out I’m 100% that bitch”. A meme of that came up in our writing session & inspired the lyric and melody we wrote together. If Ricky and Lizzo’s team decide to settle this dispute with us, we would like to share some of the proceeds with Mina for her influence on Healthy. The clip below shows a video & photos from the day we wrote “Healthy” along with the comparisons between the two works.

All the Love, Justin & Jeremiah Raisen

[From Instagram]

I’m including the Instagram video below. It’s… fairly damning. It’s also damning for Lizzo that the Raisens have apparently been TRYING to handle this quietly for two years and that she refuses to even acknowledge them. In addition to that, CeCe Penistan has also made a claim that Lizzo copied a hook for “Juice.” I’m including that Instagram below as well. I don’t think that is AS strong of a case, but the Raisens’ situation seems pretty clear-cut. Lizzo needs to pay them.

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A post shared by Justin Raisen (@justinraisen) on Oct 14, 2019 at 11:50pm PDT

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@bendaworld sent me this video and this is a clear example of #copyrightinfringement Cece Peniston versus @lizzobeeating y’all check this out and btw I love her music #tbt #juice #absolutvodka #finally #thetea #royalties #atlanticrecords #umpg #lizzo #lizzojuice #intellectualproperty

A post shared by Cece Peniston (@cecepeniston) on Oct 17, 2019 at 10:43am PDT

Photos courtesy of WENN, videos courtesy of IG.