{"id":436954,"date":"2026-01-25T17:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436954\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T17:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:50:10","slug":"pharrell-is-getting-sued-by-former-neptunes-and-n-e-r-d-partner-chad-hugo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436954\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharrell is getting sued by former Neptunes and N.E.R.D. partner Chad Hugo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pharrell Williams is the subject of a new lawsuit this week, having been freshly sued by Chad Hugo, his long-time partner in both their band N.E.R.D., and the pair\u2019s former production duo, The Neptunes. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.complex.com\/music\/a\/shawn-setaro\/pharrell-sued-by-chad-hugo-allegedly-withholding-neptunes-money\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Per Complex<\/a>, Hugo\u2014who met Williams when the pair were both teens, and who collaborated with him on hits for Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, and many other high-profile artists before their collaboration eventually broke down\u2014claims in the suit that Williams failed to pay royalties or provide financial information on the pair\u2019s collaborations through their N.E.R.D. Music, LLC company.<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time that Hugo has taken legal action against Williams. Back in 2024\u2014oddly, right around the time Hugo was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/music\/music-news\/pharrell-williams-interview-lego-documentary-piece-by-piece-collaborations-1235996237\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">apparently lending his voice<\/a> to the Williams Lego biopic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/piece-by-piece-review\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Piece By Piece<\/a>\u2014he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/business\/legal\/pharrell-williams-chad-hugo-legal-dispute-neptunes-name-rights-1235645985\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">initiated legal action against his former partner<\/a> over claims that he was trying to get a trademark for The Neptunes solely under his own name, cutting Hugo out of the equation. At the time, Williams confirmed that while \u201cI always wish him the absolute best,\u201d the two men weren\u2019t on speaking terms.<\/p>\n<p>Filed in California courts on Friday, the new suit puts some of its focus on N.E.R.D.\u2019s 2017 album No One Ever Really Dies, which the suit claims could, all on its own, account for unpaid royalties as high as $1 million.\u00a0Hugo\u2014whose role in The Neptunes is described in the lawsuit as \u201cprincipal composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and producer responsible for programming, instrumentation, and overall sound design\u201d\u2014says he\u2019s been trying to get financial information on N.E.R.D. Music\u2019s financials from Williams since 2021. The suit claims that the company\u2019s profits are supposed to be split between Williams, Hugo, and third N.E.R.D. member Shay Haley, with Williams receiving half of \u201ctouring and other income,\u201d while merchandising and trademark money is supposed to be split equally between the three men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pharrell Williams is the subject of a new lawsuit this week, having been freshly sued by Chad Hugo,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-436954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}