51ºÚÁÏ

Twin brothers David and Darren Stith’s lawsuit is the third filed in recent months alleging Nelly and his record label owe millions in royalties to his day-one collaborators. Together the suits shed new light who wrote and produced the songs that catapulted Nelly to national fame more than 20 years ago.

And while both suits said the Stiths’ company, D2 Productions, Inc., is owed at least $10 million in unpaid royalties, this week’s filing illustrates that the basis for their allegations come from the St. Lunatics members themselves, in their lawsuit filed last year against Nelly and the music companies.

“Now that the truth has come out, it is time for D2 to recover what they have been entitled to all these years,� Jay Kanzler, D2’s lawyer, told the Post-Dispatch. “D2 was there at the beginning, when Nelly and the St. Lunatics were just starting, and they are finally being recognized for their contributions to the early albums.�

Nelly’s longtime lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, did not immediately comment on the suit.

The relationship between the St. Lunatics, Nelly and D2 dates back to the early 1990s.

Nelly, whose legal name is Cornell Haynes Jr., and five other men formed the rap group St. Lunatics in 1993 and found commercial success about four years later with the song “Gimmie What You Got.�

Between 1997 and 2000, the lawsuits say the St. Lunatics helped create, compose and produce some of the songs that were eventually released as part of Nelly’s 2000 debut album “Country Grammar� and his subsequent 2002 album “Nellyville.�

But two of the suits, including the newest, say D2 was “directly responsible for finding, nurturing, and bringing to the public� the music of Nelly and the St. Lunatics, in part by introducing them to producer Jason Epperson.

The master recordings for “Country Grammar� were recorded at D2’s studio, the Stith brothers said in their lawsuits, and “are the sole property of D2 and have never been sold, transferred or licensed to any third-party.�

In addition, D2 claims that in 1997 it signed separate “exclusive songwriter� contracts with Nelly, producer Jason Epperson and St. Lunatics members Ali Jones, Tori Harper and Robert Kyjuan Cleveland that gave D2 credit for songs the brothers helped write, compose or create, the lawsuit says.

But, in June 2000, the same month “Country Grammar� was released, D2 let Nelly out of his solo contract in exchange for $75,000.

The brothers believed they would still collect royalties and revenues from Nelly’s songs because of D2’s standing contracts with the St. Lunatics members, who D2 said also had production credits for the songs in question, according to the suit.

About two years after that, D2 said it signed a contract with Universal Music Corporation and Songs of Universal Inc. which gave D2 the right to collect a percentage of the royalties from certain St. Lunatics’ songs, according to the suit.

But the brothers said Nelly and the St. Lunatics made a “secret agreement� where Nelly was given sole credit for the songs while promising to give his groupmates their share in royalties.

They did this, the suit says, to avoid paying the Stith brothers royalties on the songs — because they no longer had a contract with Nelly.

It would take about 20 years for both D2 and the St. Lunatics to realize the problems, the suits say.

Then, in 2022, Nelly and St. Lunatics member Ali Jones had a public spat over who formed the music group in the 1990s. During this dispute, the Stith brothers claim, both men “began to air the details� of the agreement during podcasts and other online interviews.

The St. Lunatics’ lawsuit last year in September against Nelly and Universal Music confirmed that D2 had been cut out of royalties rights, Kanzler said.

That suit, filed in federal court in New York, says the rapper had only a verbal agreement with his groupmates that he would credit them and pay royalties on eight tracks. At least five of those were included on the “Country Grammar� album.

The St. Lunatics said they believed him when he promised them he would pay up, their suit says.

But Rosenblum, Nelly’s lawyer, said in October that three of the St. Lunatics told him they did not consent to being named as plaintiffs.

An amended complaint filed in November listed only Jones as a plaintiff.

The same week Jones’ amended complaint was filed, D2 filed a federal suit in California against Universal Music. Nelly was not named as a defendant, but it laid out D2’s history with the rapper and claimed the brothers were owed at least $10 million in unpaid royalties on his songs.

That suit accused Universal Music of making minor changes to song titles to skirt royalty payments to D2.

D2 filed the new suit on Monday in 51ºÚÁÏ County against Nelly, Jones, Harper and Cleveland.