Lizzo Is Asking a Judge To Dismiss Songwriters’ ’Truth Hurts’ Lawsuit

Lizzo is looking to have the claims dismissed in the lawsuit over her smash single, ‘Truth Hurts.’

In October, Lizzo initially asked the court for a declaration that Justin Raisen, Jeremiah Raisen, and Justin “Yves” Rothman have no ownership rights in the record or its most famous line “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch.” The trio filed a separate suit, claiming that Lizzo completely ripped them off by using key elements of their 2017 songwriting session for an unreleased demo, called “Healthy,” in her hit single. The Grammy award winner is now asking the court to dismiss their request for a declaration that claimed they jointly authored and jointly own the song and a series of related claims.

“Defendants are wrong that they can co-own ‘Truth Hurts’ because (1) Defendants allegedly co-own the unreleased demo and (2) ‘Truth Hurts’ contains the same DNA test line and melody as contained in that unreleased work,” Lizzo’s attorney Cynthia Arato said in the new motion. “As both the Ninth and Second Circuits have recognized, it would ‘eviscerate’ fundamental copyright law if new works based upon jointly authored works could be transformed into joint works, regardless of whether there had been any joint labor on the subsequent version.”

Arato also highlighted the fact the two parties still disagree on whether the Raisens and Rothman actually co-own the unreleased demo, which will be addressed in a later legal battle. In addition to whether the similarities between the two works are limited to the famous line, and whether or not the defendants initially waived their rights to own claim ownership at all.

“Truth Hurts” has achieved platinum status and won a Grammy award for Best Pop Solo Performance at this year’s ceremony.