Decades later Nelly released his breakthrough to the top Country Grammaris facing a new lawsuit over the album from his St. Lunatics – who claim the star cut them out of credits and royalty payments.
In a complaint filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, attorneys for St. Lunatics claim that Nelly (Cornell Haynes) repeatedly “manipulated” them into falsely thinking they would be paid for their work on the 2000 album, which spent five weeks at the top of the Billboard 200.
“Each time plaintiffs confronted defendant Haynes [he] would assure them as 'friends' that he would never stop them from receiving the financial success they were entitled to,” the lawsuit states. “Unfortunately, the plaintiffs, reasonably believing that their friend and former band member would never take credit for writing the original compositions, did not initially pursue any legal remedies.”
The case was filed by members of the St. Lunatics Ali (Ali Jones), Murphy Lee (Tohri Harper), Kyjuan (Robert Kyjuan) and City Spud (Lavell Webb). Slow Down (Corey Edwards), another former team member, is not named as a plaintiff.
A representative for Nelly did not immediately return a request for comment.
A group of high school friends from St. Louis, the St. Lunatics rose to prominence in the late 1990s with 'Gimme What U Got' and their debut album Free City – released a year later Country Grammar – was a hit in its own right, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
The various members of the group are repeatedly listed as co-writers in the public works for several songs in the Country Grammarmost notably with City Spud who was credited as a co-writer and co-performer on the single “Ride Wit Me”, which spent 29 weeks on the Hot 100.
In the new lawsuit, the group members say they were involved with more songs than were credited, including “Steal the Show,” “Thicky Thick Girl,” “Batter Up” and “Wrap Sumden.” Most notably the title track “Country Grammar”, which peaked at No. 7 on the singles chart. in public databases, the song credits only Nelly and producer Jason Epperson.
Teammates say that during and after Country Grammar Nelly “privately and publicly acknowledged that the plaintiffs were the lyricists” and “promised to see that the plaintiffs would receive the writing and publication.” But decades later, in 2020, members of St. Lunatics say they “discovered that Defendant Haynes was lying to them the entire time.”
“Despite repeated promises to plaintiffs that they would receive full credit and credit … it eventually became clear that defendant Haynes had no intention of providing plaintiffs with such credit or recognition,” the class's attorneys wrote.
When the group members realized that Nelly had “failed to provide proper credit and publishing revenue,” they said they hired a lawyer who was targeting Universal Music Publishing Group. The letter was forwarded to Nelly's lawyers, who say they have “expressly rejected” their claims for credit in 2021.
“The plaintiffs had no alternative but to initiate legal proceedings against the defendants,” the suit states.
The case could face a major procedural hurdle. Although copyright infringement lawsuits can be filed decades after an infringing song is released, copyright disputes property face a stricter three-year statute of limitations.
The current lawsuit is being characterized as an infringement case, with St. Lunatics to claim that Nelly unfairly used their songs without permission. But the first argument from Nelly's lawyers will likely be that the case is really a property dispute – and so it was filed too late.
An attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately return a request for comment.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/nelly-sued-st-lunatics-copyright-lawsuit-country-grammar-credits-royalties/
