Oh Lawd, The St. Lunatics Are Suing Nelly [VIDEO]

Back in the Summer of 2000 Nelly’s debut album ‘Country Grammar’ dropped and took the country by storm selling more than 10 million copies as of date, topping Billboard 200 chart for five consecutive weeks, and the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for six consecutive weeks, earning Nelly Grammy nominations for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Solo Performance.

24 years later Nelly is facing a lawsuit by his childhood friends/fellow group members, the St. Lunatics, Ali, Murphy Lee, Kyjuan, and City Spud, who all appeared on ‘Country Grammar.’

Billboard is reporting that the St. Lunatics are claiming that Nelly cut them out of the credits and the royalty payments. In a complaint filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, attorneys for the St. Lunatics allege that Cornell Haynes AKA Nelly repeatedly “manipulated” them into falsely thinking they’d be paid for their work on ‘Country Grammar’.

According to the lawsuit:

“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,”

“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.”

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 claims that the final credits undersold their actual contributions to the album and thus deprived them of royalties.

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