Another day, another lawsuit and this time, Lizzo is at the center of it after teasing a new track that never even officially dropped. The Grammy-winning artist recently previewed an unreleased song on socials that playfully name-dropped Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney and her American Eagle “good jeans” campaign. Lizzo rapped, “Fat a**, pretty face with the titties / I got good genes like I’m Sydney,” a line that instantly caught fans’ attention for its humor and pop culture flair.
However, the excitement turned legal after GRC Trust filed a lawsuit on October 21, accusing Lizzo of using an unlicensed sample from Sam Dees’s 1970s soul track “Win or Lose (We Tried).” Lizzo’s representatives responded by clarifying that the song has not been released or monetized and that discussions about its official rollout remain ongoing.
The timing of the lawsuit is notable, given Lizzo’s recent comments about sampling and ownership in hip-hop. During her appearance on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, she spoke candidly about how sampling has often been misunderstood in the modern music industry. “The first time people started sampling was who? It was rappers in the 80s and 90s,” she said, emphasizing how the practice shaped hip-hop’s foundation.
Lizzo went deeper, addressing what she sees as a double standard in how sampling is policed. “I just feel like the theft of it all, putting theft on Black culture—that’s the part that turns me off,” she explained. “Sampling is a Black art that bred hip-hop. Hip-hop was born from sampling. And now sampling is synonymous with theft.”
While the case unfolds, the situation highlights a familiar tension in music: the line between inspiration and infringement. For Lizzo, the controversy over an unreleased song underscores a larger question artists continue to wrestle with how to honor the past without getting caught in its legal loops.