Lizzo has reached a settlement to end a years-long lawsuit over her “Truth Hurts,” filed by three songwriters who claimed they helped create her Grammy-winning hit.
In a motion filed Friday (March 18) in Los Angeles federal court, attorneys for both sides said they had reached an agreement for the “dismissal of the entire action.” Both sides agreed to pay their own legal bills, but no other terms of the deal were publicly disclosed.
The agreement will resolve a dispute kicked off in 2019, when Justin Raisen, Jeremiah Raisen and Yves Rothman accused Lizzo of cutting them out after they had made key contributions to “Truth Hurts” – Lizzo’s 2017 viral hit that eventually spent seven weeks atop the Hot 100 in 2019.
A federal judge dismissed much of the case last year, but left open the possibility that the Raisens and Rothman could still win a cut of revenue from “Truth Hurts.” Those claims had been scheduled to go to trial early next year.
Lawrence Y. Iser, the attorney for the accusers, told Billboard that the case was “settled on terms that are confidential” and declined to comment further. Lizzo’s attorney, Cynthia S. Arato, did not immediately return a request for comment.
In October 2019, at the peak of the song’s popularity, the Raisens issued a public statement claiming they were owed credit for “Truth Hurts.” Attorneys for Lizzo quickly filed a preemptive lawsuit, seeking to prove those claims were false.
Among other things, the trio zoned in on Lizzo’s lyric “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100% that bitch” – a famous line from the song that’s derived from a popular internet meme. They said the same line had also been included on an unreleased demo called “Healthy” that they had helped Lizzo create – a song they claimed then evolved into the final version of “Truth Hurts.”
Lizzo has since given the “DNA test” meme’s creator — Mina Lioness — a songwriting credit on “Truth Hurts,” but she said that the Raisens and Rothman were entitle to no such thing.
“The Raisens … 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,” Lizzo wrote at the time.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee dismissed the lawsuit’s core claims. While the Raisens and Rothman wanted to claim co-ownership of “Truth Hurts,” the judge said their lawsuit had only really shown a claim to co-ownership of “Healthy,” the earlier demo.
The ruling left open the possibility that the trio could seek an accounting of the revenues Lizzo had earned from the use of “Healthy” in the creation of “Truth Hurts” with a trial scheduled on those remaining issues for February 2023.
