Nelly Hit With $50 Million Lawsuit From St. Lunatics Members

Nelly just sold his catalog for $50 million and it’s looking like The St. Lunatics Ali, Murphy Lee, Kyjuan and City Spud wants the money. They have filed a lawsuit on September 18th against Nelly accusing him of manipulating them.

The St. Lunatics are suing Nelly for copyright infringement and unjust enrichment. According to court documents, the St. Lunatics said they never received proper credit or payment for their work on Nelly’s 2000 debut Country Grammar album that sold over 10 million.

Ali, Murphy Lee, Kyjuan and City Spud accused Nelly of falsely and fraudulently claiming to be the sole author of tracks “Batter Up,” “Thicky Thick Girl” and “Steal the Show” he created with the St. Lunatics.

The group claimed Nelly promised they would receive rightful compensation for their contributions. However, he denied their claims of authorship in 2021.

“Despite repeated assurances by defendant Haynes that plaintiffs would receive their writing credit and publishing income for creating the Original Compositions, plaintiffs, sometime in 2020, eventually discovered that defendant Haynes had been lying to them the entire time,” the St. Lunatics explained. “Plaintiffs eventually discovered that not only did they not receive any credit as authors and/or creators of the Original Compositions, but that defendant Haynes, and others, took full credit for creating the Original Compositions contained in the Infringing Album.”

“Every time plaintiffs confronted defendant Haynes about their publishing credit and income for creating and authoring the Original Compositions, defendant Haynes would assure them as ‘friends’ he would never prevent them from receiving the financial success they were entitled to as writers of the Original Composition,” the lawsuit contended. “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 and believed defendant Haynes would make good on his promise to ensure plaintiffs received: (i) recognition as writers and authors of the Original Compositions contained in the Infringing Album; and (ii) the publishing income from the exploitation of the Infringing Album.”

Ali, Murphy Lee, Kyjuan and City sought at least $50 million in damages. The lawsuit named Universal Music Group, BMG Songs, Kobalt Music Group and Hipgnosis as Nelly’s co-defendants.