Nelly, Universal Hit With Copyright Suit Over ‘Country Grammar’

Nelly is facing a lawsuit from alleged childhood friends and former collaborators who say they were cut out of writing credits and payments on the rapper’s hit 2000 album “Country Grammar.”

Ali Jones and other members of Nelly’s 1990s hip hop group St. Lunatics filed a complaint Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against Cornell “Nelly” Haynes and Universal Music Group. The former St. Lunatics for years relied on Nelly’s word that they’d get paid for their contributions to “Country Grammar,” but that never came to fruition, the complaint claims.

Jones said ...