News : Pharrell Williams sued by ex Neptunes collaborator Chad Hugo

Chad Hugo of The Neptunes has filed a lawsuit against his former creative partner Pharrell Williams, seeking $1 million over what he alleges are unpaid royalty earnings.

Court documents were submitted on Friday January 23 by Hugo’s legal team, who argue that he has faced a “systematic denial” of royalties and associated rights tied to his work as part of The Neptunes and N.E.R.D.. The filing specifically points to the group’s 2017 album ‘No One Ever Really Dies’.

“Williams engaged in self dealing, concealed material information, and diverted revenues owed to plaintiff,” wrote Hugo’s attorney Brent J. Lehman in the filing, as reported by Rolling Stone. “This willful, fraudulent, and malicious behaviour justifies the awarding of punitive damages.”

NME has reached out to Williams’ representatives for a response.

This is not the first time the former collaborators have found themselves in a legal dispute. In 2024, Hugo brought forward another lawsuit alleging that Williams was attempting to take sole control of trademarks linked to the Neptunes name without his involvement.

At the time, a spokesperson for Williams said the artist was “surprised” by the action and denied any wrongdoing, insisting there was no hostile intent behind the trademark applications. “We have contacted Chad multiple times to share ownership and management of the trademark and will continue to do so,” the representative said. “The intention was to prevent a third party from obtaining the trademark and to ensure Chad and Pharrell both retain shared ownership and administration.

The 2024 case has yet to be publicly settled.

Asked about his relationship with Hugo in 2024, Williams said: “I always wish him the absolute best.”

When questioned further about whether they were still in contact, he responded: “No. But I love him, and I always wish him the absolute best, and I’m very grateful for our time together.”

Hugo and Williams formed The Neptunes in 1992 and went on to become one of the most influential production teams of their era, crafting hits for major artists such as Snoop Dogg with ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s ‘Got Your Money’, Britney Spears’ ‘I’m A Slave 4 U’, Kelis’ ‘Milkshake’, Nelly’s ‘Hot In Herre’ and Justin Timberlake’s ‘Rock Your Body’.

N.E.R.D. followed in 1994, bringing the duo together with Teddy Riley as a full band that blended rock, funk and hip hop. Across their career, they released five studio albums, with ‘No One Ever Really Dies’ arriving as their most recent project in 2017.

Elsewhere, Pharrell’s LEGO biopic ‘Piece By Piece’ arrived in 2024, chronicling his journey through animated LEGO visuals. Speaking to NME at the time, he explained: “I was like, ‘I want to do it in Lego’.”

Reflecting on working with director Morgan Neville, he added: “This is an amazing experience of history for me. I can’t tell you how humbled I am to have this masterful storyteller really make sense of my life. It has always been all over the place and made sense to me but not to most. He was able to do it in colour vividly brick by brick piece by piece.”