Nelly has been hit with a new lawsuit from his former group, the St. Lunatics.
According to reports, the group is suing the rapper over royalties from his debut album. The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court, claiming that the St. Lunatics were “cut out of production credits and royalties for their contributions to Nelly’s 2000 album, Country Grammar.”
The group argues that Nelly made them believe they were being paid for their contributions to the album but were not. “Every time plaintiffs confronted defendant Haynes [he] would assure them as ‘friends’ he would never prevent them from receiving the financial success they were entitled to,” the lawsuit reads. “Unfortunately, plaintiffs, reasonably believing that their friend and former band member would never steal credit for writing the original compositions, did not initially pursue any legal remedies.”
The group members, Murphy Lee, Ali Jones, City Spud, and Robert Kyjuan claim that they wrote several songs on the album including, “Batter Up,” “Wrap Sumden,” “Steal The Show,” “Thicky Thick Girl,” and “Country Grammar,” which they were not properly credited for. They also said that Nelly “privately and publicly acknowledged that they were lyric writers during and after the recording sessions for Country Grammar.
The St. Lunatics discovered that Nelly was lying to them two decades after the album was released. “Despite repeatedly promising plaintiffs that they would receive full recognition and credit… it eventually became clear that defendant Haynes had no intention of providing the plaintiffs with any such credit or recognition,” the group’s attorneys said in the complaint.
The lawsuit was filed as a copyright infringement case, which claims that Nelly used the St. Lunatics songs without permission.