Chad Hugo is suing Pharrell Williams, his production partner in the Neptunes, over claims that Williams owes Hugo up to $1m from their final album as NERD, 2017’s No One Ever Really Dies.
The Neptunes defined the sound of pop music in the late 90s and early 00s, producing for artists including Kelis, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Clipse and Justin Timberlake. As NERD, they released five albums.
Lawyers for Hugo allege that Williams, in his own right a producer for artists including Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran and the Weeknd, has withheld royalties and shares from touring income and merchandising, and that he refused to share documents that would clarify Hugo’s earnings despite repeat demands for financial disclosure. Hugo’s lawyers say the demands were ignored or met only with “limited” and “incomplete” documentation in “a breach of the operating agreement”.
They estimate that the earnings due to Hugo from No One Ever Really Dies could exceed “$750k-$1m”.
They claim Williams perpetuated a “systematic denial” of Hugo’s rights, alleging that he engaged in “self-dealing, concealed material information and … diverted revenues owed to plaintiff. Such wilful, fraudulent and malicious conduct warrants the imposition of punitive damages.”
A representative for Williams told Billboard magazine that a standard accounting review was under way. “The lawsuit filed is premature as there may not even be a dispute between the parties.
“If the accounting review determines that money is owed, the appropriate party will pay it. Pharrell has consistently acted in good faith. He has great respect for Chad and looks forward to resolving this in a way that honours their shared history.”
It is the second lawsuit that Hugo has filed against Williams. In 2024, he accused him of “fraudulently” attempting to control the Neptunes name. The matter is still the subject of a federal trademark tribunal.
At the time, representatives for Pharrell told Billboard that he was “surprised” by the filing. “We have reached out on multiple occasions to share in the ownership and administration of the trademark and will continue to make that offer,” they said. “The goal here was to make sure a third party doesn’t get a hold of the trademark and to guarantee Chad and Pharrell share in ownership and administration.” Hugo’s lawyers disputed their claims.
Kelis has previously claimed that she was “blatantly lied to and tricked” by the Neptunes over the royalties for her 1999 debut album, Kaleidoscope. “Their argument is: ‘Well, you signed it,’” she told the Guardian in 2000. “I’m like: ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.’” Representatives for Williams and Hugo did not respond to her widely publicised comments.
In 2022, Beyoncé removed an interpolation of the Kelis song Milkshake from her Renaissance album track Energy after Kelis called it an act of “thievery”. She clarified that she took no issue with Beyoncé: “It’s beyond this song at this point.”
