"The Truth About 'Truth Hurts'."
This is the title Justin and Jeremiah Raisen gave the video they posted to their Instagram in an effort to raise awareness to the plagiarism they claim rising star Lizzo committed by excluding them out of the credits to her biggest hit.
They posted:
This is all an especially tricky matter in the sense that Lizzo is selling T-Shirts on her site that read "100% That Bitch" after trademarking the phrase, but if the line came from the session this may even make it all a stickier situation. To add to the drama, both parties agree that the origin of the line was a meme they all saw on Twitter and now the British singer that posted the meme, Mina Lioness, wants her cut.
As reported by The New York Times, the brothers may come out on top of this one:
But the law may favor the Raisens on this point, said Don Gorder, the chairman of the music business and management department of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. “Copyright law says that if a work is created and it’s clearly the intention of all the people who contributed that it’s merged into a whole,” Professor Gorder said, “that they are all equal owners of the song unless they agree otherwise.”
And even though they've been seeking reparations quietly behind-the-scenes this year (up until this week, when news broke publicly) the brothers have actually shown Lizzo and the song love, maybe in a matter-of-factly type of fashion:
The brothers are seeking 5% each.
Lizzo's "Truth Hurts" is being considered for Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the GRAMMYs and the body-positive diva is said to be among top candidates for Best New Artist, as well. We can expect the official nominees November 20th.