Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash
The long-simmering feud between former St. Lunatics member Ali and hip-hop star Nelly has taken a new turn. A $50 million lawsuit filed by Ali against Nelly has officially been dropped, ending a major chapter in one of hip-hop’s more contentious internal group disputes. However, Nelly’s legal team is pushing for the court to retain jurisdiction, signaling that the legal battle may not be entirely over.
Originally filed in 2023, the lawsuit alleged that Nelly had failed to pay royalties owed to his fellow St. Lunatics members for their contributions to his 2000 breakout album Country Grammar. The album, which was a massive commercial success, catapulted Nelly into global fame and solidified his position as a mainstream hip-hop artist. It sold over 10 million copies in the United States alone and remains one of the highest-selling rap albums in history.
Ali, who claimed to be the founding member of the group, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the St. Lunatics, asserting that their work on the album went unrecognized and uncompensated. The suit requested a staggering $50 million in damages.
But the lawsuit soon started to unravel. Key members of the group, including Murphy Lee, City Spud, and Kyjuan, distanced themselves from the legal action shortly after it was filed. They asserted that they had not given Ali consent to sue on their behalf, creating a rift not just between Nelly and Ali, but also within the group itself.
According to Billboard, Ali voluntarily dropped the case on April 10, 2024. This might have seemed like the end of the story — but Nelly’s legal team isn’t letting the matter go without a response. In their court filing, Nelly’s attorneys called the lawsuit “frivolous” and time-barred, arguing that the case was baseless and aimed more at creating financial and legal burdens for Nelly than seeking justice.
Nelly’s lawyers urged the court to keep jurisdiction over the matter in order to possibly impose sanctions on Ali and his legal team. “Plaintiff’s counsel succeeded in its frivolous campaign aimed at forcing [Nelly] to spend money defending Plaintiff’s ridiculous time-barred claim,” they stated. “The Court is respectfully requested to retain jurisdiction and set a briefing and hearing schedule for [potential sanctions].”
Essentially, while Nelly is no longer under legal fire from Ali, he and his team want to ensure that those responsible for initiating what they view as a baseless lawsuit are held accountable. The aim? Possibly to deter similar legal actions in the future — and to regain some of the money and time lost in court proceedings.
Ali’s grievances with Nelly aren’t new. The conflict appears to be deeply personal, rooted in years of unspoken frustrations and perceived betrayals. Back in a 2023 interview with VladTV, Ali made strong statements against Nelly, expressing his bitterness over what he sees as decades of disrespect and broken trust.
“A tiger ain’t never gonna change his stripes,” Ali said. “I watched it for 20 years and I’m the butt of the joke because it took me 20 years to realize it.” He added that he would “never, ever” perform with Nelly again, citing the emotional and financial toll of their past.
Ali didn’t mince words when discussing Nelly’s intentions either. “He has no real, raw good intentions for others,” he claimed. “Not for us… He got $50 million, I’m happy for him. That’s what he wants. He wants a billion.”
These are the words not just of a disgruntled former collaborator, but of someone who feels deeply betrayed — not just professionally, but personally. For Ali, the issue isn’t just about royalties or fame; it’s about loyalty, friendship, and the meaning of brotherhood in the music business.
To understand how things got this messy, one needs to look back to the early days of the St. Lunatics. Ali has long maintained that he was the driving force behind the formation of the group, which began in 1993 in their hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. In a lengthy Instagram post from 2021, Ali laid out his version of the group’s origins and eventual dissolution.
He claimed that he not only founded the group but also mentored its members — including Nelly — in the art of rapping. Ali said that when he was offered a solo deal early in their career, he declined it out of loyalty to the group, choosing instead to focus on their collective success. But when the tables turned and Nelly was offered a similar opportunity, Ali alleged that Nelly took the deal and left the group behind.
“Fast forward to 1999,” Ali wrote. “Ma$e’s manager at the time, Cudda, was introduced to us… and he immediately started separating the group. He wanted Nelly and City Spud. They left with Cudda and went to Harlem. The separation became the reality. They had left.”
Ali’s message was tinged with both pain and resentment. “We — the rest of the group — felt hustled,” he wrote. “We were *1 until the opportunity was presented to be *2… They hustled us.”
At its core, this feud between Ali and Nelly speaks to a larger issue in the music industry: the tension between individual ambition and group loyalty. Many hip-hop groups have struggled to maintain unity once fame and money enter the picture. Creative visions diverge, egos inflate, and loyalty is tested — often with devastating results.
In the case of the St. Lunatics, what began as a tight-knit group of friends with dreams of making it big eventually splintered under the pressure of success. And while Nelly went on to become a household name, the rest of the group never reached the same level of acclaim — a dynamic that likely fueled long-standing resentments.
Ali’s lawsuit may have been an attempt to reclaim a sense of justice or recognition. But the lack of support from his fellow group members and the harsh response from Nelly’s legal team show that not everyone agreed with his approach.
With the lawsuit now withdrawn, the question is: what happens next?
For Nelly, the immediate concern is whether the court will move forward with considering sanctions against Ali for what his lawyers call a misuse of the legal system. If granted, it could mean that Ali faces financial penalties for filing the suit — and it could set a precedent for how similar disputes are handled in the future.
For Ali, the decision to drop the lawsuit might close one door, but the larger conversation about fairness, credit, and compensation in the music industry remains wide open. Whether or not he pursues other legal or public avenues for his grievances is yet to be seen.
One thing is clear, though: the wounds between Nelly and Ali — and perhaps the entire St. Lunatics legacy — are far from healed. What began as a shared dream of putting St. Louis on the map has now turned into a cautionary tale of how success can divide, rather than unite.
This case serves as a reminder that behind the hits, the fame, and the flashy public personas, the music industry is often riddled with complex personal histories and unresolved conflicts. The Nelly vs. Ali dispute may be legally cooling down, but emotionally, it still burns hot.
For fans of the St. Lunatics, the saga is a bittersweet one. While Country Grammar continues to play in clubs and on nostalgic playlists, its backstory — now clouded by lawsuits and accusations — is a reminder that even the brightest moments in music can be rooted in darkness.
