Can’t Put a Band-Aid on This One: Nelly Accused of Ripping Off Former St. Lunatics Rappers in $50 Million Lawsuit

Photo Credit: The Come Up Show / CC by 2.0

Rapper Nelly (Cornell Haynes Jr.) is facing a $50 million lawsuit from his former rap group, which accuses him of manipulating them into believing they would have writing credits on his 2000 album, Country Grammar.The St. Lunatics rap group consisted of Nelly and the named plaintiffs, Ali Jones, Lavell Web, Robert Kyjuan, and Tohri Harper. Former member Corey Edwards is not involved in the lawsuit. The group appeared on several hit songs from his debut album and released songs like “Gimme What U Got” before Nelly’s break-out solo career.

During recording sessions for what would become the album Country Grammar, the group claims Nelly manipulated them into believing they would have writing credits on the album. “[Nelly] privately and publicly acknowledged that plaintiffs were the lyric writers for the original compositions and promised to ensure that plaintiffs received writing and publishing credit for the original compositions,” the lawsuit states.

“Plaintiffs, relying on the promises made to them by [Nelly], continued to perform shows with [Nelly] both in his solo performances (as back up performers) and as the group St. Lunatics.”

The lawsuit continues stating that Nelly continually told the plaintiffs that they would receive credits, while both Country Grammar and the St. Lunatics album Free City were performing well commercially. Defendants allege that they did not find out the truth of those promises until 2020.“Despite repeated assurances by [Nelly] that plaintiffs would receive their writing credit and publishing income for creating the original compositions, plaintiffs—sometime in 2020—eventually discovered that [Nelly] had been lying to them the entire time,” the lawsuit continues.

“Plaintiffs eventually discovered that not only did they not receive any credit as authors or creators of the original compositions, but that [Nelly] and others took full credit for creating the original compositions contained in [Country Grammar].”

“Sometime in 2020, plaintiffs became aware of a dispute between an individual named Willie Woods Jr. p/k/a John Long and [Nelly] and/or UMPG regarding the song ‘Ride Wit Me’ which was contained in Country Grammar. Upon information and belief, Mr. Woods claimed to be one of the writers on the song ‘Ride Wit Me’ and was demanding his portion of publishing royalties from the sales, public performance, or exploitation of ‘Ride Wit Me.’”“Realizing that they were not the only writers on [Country Grammar] that [Nelly] had failed to provide proper credit and publishing income, plaintiffs decided to seek legal advice regarding their copyrights in and to [Country Grammar].”

The St. Lunatics are suing for copyright infringement with UMG, UMPG, BMG, Kobalt, and Hipgnosis named as defendants alongside Nelly.