Kelis fans call Pharrell Williams a ‘thief’ who cheated her out of royalties amid legal battle with Chad Hugo over ownership of ‘Neptunes’

Kelis might not be as problematic as music lovers once painted her. At least not now, with the recent publicity of a lawsuit alleging that Pharrell Williams attempted to defraud his partner, producer and songwriter, Chad Hugo, with the intention to take advantage of the copyright to their group’s name, The Neptunes.

Williams is accused of fraudulently filing multiple applications with his company PW IP Holdings LLC in 2022, naming him as the only owner of The Neptunes. He wants to make use of the name to stream music, music videos, live performances and other content. Billboard first reported that the duo was in the center of a legal battle on April 1.

The application for audio recordings has already been approved, while the appliance for clothing and goods is pending. PW IP Holdings LLC also owns the trademarks of creative director Louis Vuitton’s NERD team, Goodtime Hotel and various other business ventures.

Hugo’s legal team argues that the longtime friends have all the time shared property and profits 50/50. In the criticism, attorney Kenneth D. Freundlich wrote that “over the course of their more than three-decade history, (Hugo) and Williams have agreed to and in fact divided their entire estate” and that “by ignoring and excluding (Hugo) from any and all reports filed by the declarant “The Neptunes” mark, the applicant committed fraud in securing trademarks and acted in bad faith.

The two men have known each other since childhood growing up in Virginia Beach, Virginia. They formally founded The Neptunes in the early 1990s.

Their production credits include Kelis’ first two albums: “Kaleidoskop” (1999) and “Wanderland” (2001), “Grindin'” by The Clipse, “SuperThug” by NORE, “Drop It Like It’s Hot” by Snoop Dogg, “Jay-Z Records “I Just Wanna Love You (Give It 2 ​​Me)”, Usher’s “U Don’t Have To Call” and tons of other chart hits from Justin Timberlake, Brittney Spears, Nelly, Ludacris and Omarion to call just a few several .

Hugo’s team further alleges that “Skateboard P” “consciously and intentionally” neglected to list its partner as a co-owner in its applications and didn’t make the most of Hugo’s comments regarding its plans.

“Nothing, either written or oral, gave Williams or (PW IP Holdings) unilateral authority to register the trademarks,” Freundlich wrote.

They further stated that the mega-producer’s team admitted that The Neptunes was jointly owned by the lads and guaranteed Hugo that it might be trademarked. Although that hasn’t happened yet.

The “Happy” artist’s legal team addressed the claims in a statement to Billboard, which read: “Pharrell is surprised by this. We have been contacted numerous times regarding an interest in the ownership and administration of the trademark and will continue to make this offer. The goal was to ensure that a third party would not hijack the trademark and to ensure that Chad and Pharrell had an ownership and administration share.”

The split has renewed interest in Kelis’ claims that the duo has bad practices, especially her former friend Williams. She said that in 2020, when she was speculated to rejoice the twentieth anniversary of the discharge of her debut album Guardian that the lads involved her in a bad deal that resulted in her signing with The Neptunes as an artist.

– Kelis tried to inform you all. Now Chad goes through the identical thing.” he tweeted someone with X. Another person commented“Now I wonder if Kelis was just Pharrell and if Chad could have shared the heat for it.” Third perspective on this case we read: ‘tldr; Pharrell the thief. he didn’t just rob Kelis. He also tries to rob Chad Hugo.

The “I Hate You So Much Right Now” singer stated, “I was told we would split the whole thing into 33/33/33, which we didn’t.” Instead, she stated that The Neptunes, their management and lawyers “blatantly lied” and “deceived” her.

“Their argument is, ‘Well, you signed it,'” Kelis told the British outlet. “I say, ‘Yes, I signed what I was told, but I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.'”

She admitted that she initially didn’t notice the dearth of payments for publications because she earned money from live shows. Kelis’ criticism against Williams got here into the highlight again in 2022 when she discovered that Beyoncé’s song “Energy” used an interpolation from “Milkshake.”

“Pharrell knows higher. This is a direct blow to me. He keeps doing it, he’s very petty,” she said in a video in which she sharply criticizes the artist.

Kelis added that the right thing for Williams to do would be to ask for permission to sample the song.

The interpolation was later removed by Beyoncé’s team during the drama. Williams has never made a public statement regarding Kelis.