Members of Nelly’s St. Lunatics crew have filed a lawsuit against the rapper that claims they never received proper credit or royalties from his 2000 album Country Grammar.
Attorneys for St. Lunatics members Ali, Murphy Lee, Kyjuan, and City Spud — all of whom appear on Country Grammar — filed the complaint Wednesday at a Manhattan federal court, Billboard reports.
While the St. Lunatics are credited with both performing and songwriting on some tracks—notably, Ali and Murphy Lee appear and co-wrote the hit “Batter Up” and Citi Spud on the hit “Ride Wit Me”—the lawsuit against Nelly (real name Cornell Haynes) claims that the final credits undersold their actual contributions to the album and thus deprived them of royalties.
For instance, Nelly’s breakthrough single “Country Grammar (Hot Shit)” is credited to only the rapper and producer Jason Epperson, but the St. Lunatics members claim they were “lyric writers” on the track. Nelly allegedly promised to give them “writing and publishing credit” on multiple Country Grammar tracks but never did.
“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 states. “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.”
Formed in the early Nineties, the St. Lunatics — which included Nelly before he embarked on his solo career — were childhood friends in St. Louis that released their debut single “Gimme What U Got” in 1996. Nelly signed his own record contract a few years later and, following the success of Country Grammar and the St. Lunatics’ contributions, the group (with Nelly) released their own LP, 2001’s Free City.
In the quarter-century that followed, however, Nelly allegedly never made good on his promise to properly credit the St. Lunatics, leading to the lawsuit. “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 lawsuit states.
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As Billboard notes, the lawsuit is framed as a copyright infringement lawsuit — claiming Nelly used St. Lunatics songs — and not a legal fight over song ownership, as that is only protected by a three-year statute of limitations, and Country Grammar was released 24 years ago.
A representative for Nelly did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
