Even the perfect musical partnerships can die: Chad Hugo has filed a lawsuit towards former Neptunes accomplice Pharrell Williams for misplaced wages and different points stemming from their multi-decade relationship.
“Williams engaged in self-dealing, hid materials data, and…diverted revenues owed to plaintiff,” wrote Hugo’s lawyer, Brent J. Lehman, within the swimsuit. “Such willful, fraudulent, and malicious conduct warrants the imposition of punitive damages.” In a subsequent e-mail to Billboard, Lehman claims that “Mr. Hugo had no selection however to hunt substantial compensation and accountability in courtroom.”
Hugo’s swimsuit is in search of as a lot as $1 million as a part of the discharge of N.E.R.D.’s last report, 2017’s No One Ever Actually Dies. Hugo’s attorneys say he additionally hasn’t acquired cash from the N.E.R.D. merchandising association since fall 2023, and is owned upwards of $575,000 for that “phase” alone.
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This lawsuit follows a separate legal dispute in 2024, the place Hugo accused Williams of “fraudulently” attempting to acquire authorized management over the Neptunes title and trademark. (That dispute continues to be working its means by a federal trademark tribunal.) This new submitting “broadens” the scope of that authentic declare, with Hugo now saying that Williams is “withholding royalties and refusing handy over paperwork that will assist Hugo work out how a lot he’s owed.”
Wrote Lehman within the swimsuit, “Plaintiff has not acquired his acceptable share of royalties in reference to The Neptunes and N.E.R.D.’s album gross sales and launched music, in addition to distributions from touring earnings, and varied merchandising offers.”
Per his attorneys, Hugo really started attempting to kind out these monetary points as early as 2021 (when The Neptunes have been nonetheless working collectively, and as they have been set to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June 2022). On the time, Hugo was attempting to acquire “month-to-month statements, books and information, and royalty statements,” together with sending demand letters that have been met with “restricted” and/or “incomplete” paperwork.
Added Lehman, “Defendant Williams’ persistent failure to supply [financial records] constitutes a breach of the working settlement. Plaintiff [Hugo] has been disadvantaged of the transparency mandatory to judge buyout proposals, affirm the calculation and categorization of distributions owed to him…and assess revenues.”
For his half, Williams hasn’t mentioned all that a lot in regards to the proceedings. When the primary dispute went public in 2024, Williams’ reps downplayed the method, claiming (per Billboard) that they have been involving Hugo in addressing the “share in possession” of the Neptunes title. Then, in September 2024, Williams claimed that the duo have been no longer on speaking terms, including, “I really like him, and I at all times want him the best possible, and I’m very grateful for our time collectively.”
The swimsuit additionally notes that as of December 2025, Williams’ authorized crew had “promised to supply paperwork” outlining the monetary standing of the corporate established across the Neptunes title. No paperwork have been ever produced, and Williams personal illustration later claimed that they have been “having problem accessing the paperwork however acknowledged that such paperwork exist.”
It’s a tragic improvement for one in all in style music’s most dynamic manufacturing duos. The duo of Williams and Hugo started working collectively within the early ’90s, garnering speedy consideration for his or her infectious and creative fashion (and establishing Virginia as a musical hub for the brand new millennium). They’re greatest recognized for working with everybody from Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake to Nelly and Gwen Stefani, and performed a serious half in breaking acts like Clipse. Alongside Shay Haley, Hugo and Williams’ N.E.R.D. band launched 5 studio albums to various ranges of acclaim.
