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
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.
Photos courtesy of WENN, videos courtesy of IG.
I love Lizzo but this truth HURTS ; (
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sigh … this is a reach, a long reach around a dumb conner. Can you even own a noise? To be perfectly honest I hear two different sounds, Ya yah (CeCe), then ya ya eeee (Lizo)!
Yes, you can own a noise, if the noise is uiquely arranged by your own talents.
More importantly, whether you own the noise or not, you own the right to citations if your work is used in someone else’s work.
That is what plagiarism is.
Knowing what plagiarism is and questioning if that’s the case with “Juice” is what’s happening here. Ok so you own a noise now you have to get everyone in agreement that the sounds are the same. It’s too. Nit-picky for these two songs, this is coming from a CeCe Penistan fan. As for truth hurts if the guys did sign something stating that they have no rights then it shouldn’t get far , sounds like regret and using the public to pressure Lizzo. Always Get it in writing.
Lol, thats what I sometimes think about music lawsuits/fights too. There are only so many original noises. But they are right about Truth Hurts.
I think that one is a little tough to prove, but the first one, with the Raisen claim…yeah that’s totally lifted from the song they all did together.
And the line wasn’t ANY of theirs, they saw it online. I hope Mina does get something from all this.
There is so little respect for people’s creative work and intellectual property out there, it’s very frustrating.
Damn. I love Lizzo. Love. Her. But it was foolish not to deal with it privately, right away. Perhaps her management team was giving her bad advice on the lyric boost. She might have written it, not realizing where/that she’d heard it before.
As far as Cece, I would have to hear the clips next to each other. As my musician friends say, there are only so many chord progressions. So, who knows?
Edit: Got to hear it, and unless she’s claiming lyrics violation for “ya ya” I can’t see it. The chord progressions are not the same.
But Lizzo got it going on, so she should be fair to other artists, if her songs incorporate their works. Sampling is a thing, but it doesn’t sound like either of these cases are about sampling.
I hope she does the right thing, and that this doesn’t make folks fall out of love with her. We need her positivity and joy SO MUCH right now.
No one is giving her bad advice. This is the girl that doxed a food delivery person and claimed she stole food when she just failed to answer the door. She’s awful.
Very true.
Yes. She is a bad businesswoman and probably just simply a bad person. Doesn’t mean her message isn’t good, but the message is dulled by these stains on her credibility and integrity.
Oof.
Dude, I love that Cece Penistan song!
I love Lizzo. I’m really bummed if this is true.
Sheesh, someone dropped the ball on this. That’s a great line and credit should have been given a long time ago.
This sucks, I love Lizzo
The Juice one is a total reach. There’s nothing similar about the songs besides the “ya ya”.
The other one is inexcusable, especially if Lizzo was involved herself in the composition of “Healthy” and is well aware of who should be credited for the song.
Song writing on this level can be touchy. This could be a dispute about who saw the meme first and copied it into Healthy. The songwriter who did that would be credited, and the only people who know are the people who were in the room. They recorded her singing Healthy, but the lyric was lifted from social media and added during the writing process, not in the clip shown.
As for Cece, she may have a case, too. It depends on what their union says and the arbitrator or judge who eventually gets this. They were/are both big enough to be in the songwriter’s union. It was still stupid to fight it, but she may be trying to do this on principle. In the world of public perception that Lizzo now lives in, she will need to pay now to be free going forward. Her former collaborators haven’t struck it rich, and neither has she until she pays off the distribution money artists are loaned by record companies to launch their careers.
The only way to prove that she can write is to pay these folks off and not end up here again, but pop borrows from everything. Look at Beyonce.
As a certified old who was going to school dances and jamming to “Finally” when it came out…that’s a reach.
The “Truth Hurts”/”Healthy” comparison is wayyyyy tighter.
I love you, Lizzo! Do the right thing.
People always reaching for money when things are a success but nowhere to be found when it is s fsilure.
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There have been rumblings for a while that Lizzo plagiarized “Truth Hurts.” To me it’s a clear-cut case and she needs to pay them. They are only asking for 5%, nothing outrageous. It should have been settled a long time ago.
The “Juice” one though? Not feeling that one at all. How can you copyright “ya ya”? But we have juries lately that have been ruling in favor of plaintiffs so CeCe probably figures why not give it a shot.
I grew up w/ CeCe Peniston playing at the roller rink and on my mixtapes, and immediately noticed the similarities between Finally and Juice when I first heard it, but I still don’t think it’s enough to sue over. It’s “similar” but not an outright rip-off.
I knew Juice reminded me of a song, but I couldn’t place it! Yeah…CeCe should get credit on that one. Music is a touchy thing…it reminds me of the Blurred Lines vs. Marvin Gay lawsuit years ago. As for the one line from Truth Hurts…it sucks that she used it without credit. That’s my favorite line from the song! She should pay them and use this as a learning experience…
I have thought for awhile that Truth Hurts partly sounds like that song Black Beatles.
She needs to settle out of court today.
I didn’t even know who same this song until today, and I must say, I really like it.
I’m not too happy to hear about her lifting” lyrics, so, in my opinion she needs to fess up and do some damage control ASAP.
Wait, let me get this straight…
they took the lyric from a meme and now they’re trying to use that as some kind of proof that Lizzo plagiarized from them?
lol ok sure sis
right?!
And also: ONE line…?
All this fuzz over ONE sentence that they found on the Internet?
If that’s the case then a whole lot of people should be credited on a whole lot of songs, cause there are sooo many lyrics who say the exact same thing.
This is dumb.
Yup, that’s what they are saying. They want credit for lifting a line from a social media that another rapper wrote. You cannot make this stuff up.
I think that CeCe will get paid. What I think doesn’t matter, though. The copy-write/entertainment lawyers know what is and isn’t provable in court.
Wait, I’m confused: If Mina came up with the phrase that the writing team used, then isn’t *she* the one owed royalties? “Share” for her “influence”? No, if she came up with the phrase, they all owe Mina! Is he trying to say that because he used someone else’s phrase, he is the one owed royalties? Hmmm…