In September, several members of the Nelly-affiliated St. Lunatics hip-hop group filed a lawsuit against Cornell Hayes, AKA Nelly, accusing the hitmaker of not paying royalties for their debut album, “Free City.” Now, three of the four members named in the litigation have requested their names removed from the lawsuit against the St. Louis artist.
According to Billboard, former St. Lunatics members Murphy
Lee (Tohri Harper), Kyjuan (Robert Kyjuan), and City Spud (Lavell Webb) have demanded to be excluded from the lawsuit as they never authorized the attorney who filed the suit to include them in the action. The initial filing was done at a federal court in Manhattan on Sept. 18. The lawsuit alleges that after being assured by Nelly that they would be properly compensated and credited for their work, it wasn’t an issue at the time. Yet, they felt “manipulated” as the artist had them thinking they would be paid for the work done on the album.Nearly a week later, on Sept. 24, an attorney for the “Hot in Here” rapper, N. Scott Rosenblum, sent a letter to the attorney who filed the suit stating that he is now representing Murphy Lee, Kyjuan, and City Spud and the trio had informed him “that they did not authorize” the lawyer, Gail M. Walton to “include them as plaintiffs.”
“They are hereby demanding you remove their names forthwith. Failure to do so will cause them to explore any and all legal remedies available to them.”
With the recent development, the litigation appears to be between Nelly and Ali (Ali Jones).
The other three members were recently seen performing with Nelly at the American Music Award on Oct. 6.
Another St. Lunatics member, Slo Down (Corey Edwards), was part of the group but was not named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
RELATED CONTENT: Ashanti Shares Postpartum Body After Welcoming Baby Boy With Nelly