Chad Hugo is pushing back against an effort by his estranged production partner, Pharrell Williams, to dismiss his copyright infringement lawsuit. Hugo accuses Williams of trying to erase his contributions to The Neptunes, one of hip-hop’s most influential duos.
In a new court filing, Hugo and his lawyer, Brent Lehman, dispute Williams’ contention that the lawsuit identifies only one song. Hugo says the case covers a much broader body of work stemming from compositions the two created during nearly 50 studio sessions between 2019 and 2021. He argues that Williams and his affiliated companies, record labels and publishers control the records needed to identify how those compositions were released.
Hugo says he singled out EarthGang’s “U Gotta” as one example because he was allegedly removed from the track’s credits despite the recording artists acknowledging his contributions. He also says he sought royalty statements, financial records and other documents between 2021 and 2024 but received “almost nothing.”
In his motion to dismiss, Williams argued that Hugo’s original complaint named only the N.E.R.D. album No One Ever Really Dies. An amended complaint then listed eight songs that were not on the album, and Hugo dropped all eight from his second amended complaint. Williams said the current version names only “U Gotta” without specifying whether Hugo claims rights to the musical composition, the sound recording or both. Williams also argued that without a viable federal copyright claim, Hugo’s state-law claims should be dismissed.
Lawyers for Williams did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment. Hugo’s second amended complaint continues to identify No One Ever Really Dies as a source of alleged damages that could exceed $1 million.
Source: Rolling Stone Music
