Bandmates say they did not agree to the lawsuit

Weeks after Nelly's former St. Lunatics group members sued him for allegedly depriving them of royalties from his chart-topping breakout album Country grammarThree of the ex-bandmates now say they never wanted to take part in the lawsuit and should be removed immediately.

In a letter sent last month, Nelly's attorney warned the attorney who filed the case last month that Murphy Lee (Tohri Harper), Kyjuan (Robert Kyjuan) and City Spud (Lavell Webb) had recently used his services and “meet me about it.” “Informed you that you did not authorize you to include you as a plaintiff.”

“They hereby demand that you immediately remove their names” N Scott Rosenblum wrote in the September 24 letter obtained by billboard. “If they fail to do so, they will explore all legal remedies available to them.”

The move is a major twist just weeks after Harper, Kyjuan and Webb, along with their St. Lunatics colleague Ali (Ali Jones), filed the lawsuit against Nelly (Cornell Haynes). But it also makes sense after Nelly's performance at the American Music Awards on Sunday (October 6), where all three men joined him on stage and appeared to get along well.

The withdrawal of Harper, Kyjuan and Webb means that the case is now essentially a dispute between Nelly and Ali. Ali's lawyer who filed the case, Gail M. Waltondid not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The St. Lunatics, a group of high school friends from St. Louis, rose to prominence in the late 1990s with “Gimme What U Got” and their debut album Free city – published a year later Country grammar – was a hit in its own right, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200.

In their Sept. 18 complaint, the bandmates alleged that Nelly repeatedly “manipulated” them into falsely believing they were being paid for their work on the 2000 album, which spent five weeks at the top of the Billboard 200. But they said he never lived up to the promises.

“Each time plaintiffs were confronted by defendant Haynes, he assured them as 'friends' that he would never prevent them from achieving the financial success to which they were entitled,” the lawsuit states. “Unfortunately, the plaintiffs did not initially take legal action because they assumed that their friend and former band member would never take credit for writing the original compositions.”

During and after Country grammar During the recording session, the lawsuit says, Nelly “privately and publicly admitted that Plaintiffs were the authors of the lyrics” and “promised to ensure that Plaintiffs received authorship and publication credits.” But decades later, in 2020, the lawsuit said the St. Lunatics “discovered that defendant Haynes had been lying to them all along.”

“Although Plaintiffs had repeatedly promised that they would receive full credit and recognition, it eventually became clear that Defendant Haynes had no intention of providing such credit or recognition to Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit states.