Two St. Louis brothers, David and Darren Stith, have sued rapper Nelly’s record label, Universal Music Group, claiming that they are owed millions in royalties from songs that appeared on Nelly’s first two albums.
The duo, who own D2 record label, which started in a local community skating rink, filed the federal suit Friday, November 22, in the Central District of California. According to them in their court filings, they were “directly responsible for finding, nurturing, and bringing to the public the music of” Nelly and the St. Lunatics by introducing them to producer Jason Epperson, Florida Courier reported.
The St. Lunatics, a rap group, was formed in 1993 by Nelly and five other men.
Twin brothers David and Darren Stith added that they signed contracts that gave them the right to collect royalties from the albums Country Grammar and Nellyville. They further claimed that they signed an agreement granting them royalties from some songs recorded by the St. Lunatics.
The brothers argue that they are owed up to $10 million.
“What (Universal) is doing is they’re taking the same song and just changing the title,” said Jay Kanzler Jr., one of the attorneys representing the Stiths. “And so, when you talk about duplicate titles, they are collecting all that money, keeping it, and only paying us for the one song.”
According to Kanzler, the title changes can be minor, such as changing “Ride Wit Me” to “Ride With Me,” but this leaves D2 paid for one, but not the other.
Aside from asking for $10 million in the suit, the brothers also want Universal Music to provide information on other songs they have royalty rights to.
“So that we can do the analysis to determine whether or not we’ve been properly paid,” Kanzler said. “Because at this point, you’ve given us nothing.”
This suit comes nearly two months after Nelly was sued by four of his former St. Lunatics group mates, who argued that they had been denied writing credit and royalties for eight songs.
