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 he and Nelly were childhood friends growing up in St. Louis in the 1990s and formed St. Lunatics together with the other plaintiffs, Murphy Lee, Torhi Harper, Robert Kyjuan, and Lavell Webb. Nelly in 2000 put out his solo record for Universal Music Group using songs the group had written together, including “Batter Up” and the eponymous “Country Grammar,” the complaint says.

“Haynes would assure them as ‘friends’ he would never prevent them from receiving the financial success they were entitled to as writers,” the complaint says. “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.”

Nelly and Universal didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The complaint brings claims of copyright infringement and unjust enrichment. The former groupmates are seeking a court declaration crediting them for the songs, damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs.

Gail M. Walton, of Bronx, N.Y., represents the plaintiffs.

The case is Jones v. Universal Music Grp., S.D.N.Y., No. 1:24-cv-07098, complaint filed 9/18/24.