Chad Hugo to Pharrell: 'The Neptunes Were Two People.' Inside the Fight to Keep His Lawsuit Alive.

The Neptunes made some of the most important rap and R&B records of the last 30 years. Right now the two men behind that name are arguing in federal court over whether one of them gets to be written out of it.

Chad Hugo has asked a federal judge in Los Angeles to reject Pharrell Williams' bid to throw out his lawsuit over The Neptunes' songs, credits and royalties, Music Business Worldwide reported. The filing, dated Oct. 16 and submitted in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, does not hold back. "Defendants ask the Court to write Chad Hugo out of The Neptunes on the pleadings, before a single document has been produced," it says. "But The Neptunes were two people."

It goes on: "Over the past few years, Williams has sought to erase Hugo from one of the greatest hip-hip duos of all time." Yes, "hip-hip." The typo is in the filing. The point still lands.

Quick history. Hugo and Williams formed The Neptunes in the early 1990s and later founded N.E.R.D. Hugo filed his original complaint on Jan. 23 of this year. He claims he's a co-author and co-owner of songs they made together, that Williams kept the credit and the income, and he wants the court to declare him a joint copyright owner and order an accounting. Williams and Talamasca, Inc., a company Hugo alleges Williams controls, moved to dismiss.

Williams' side has a real argument, and it's worth laying out straight. According to Rolling Stone, the motion says that after three versions of the complaint, Hugo still hasn't clearly identified a copyright claim that belongs in federal court. The original complaint named only the N.E.R.D. album No One Ever Really Dies. An amended complaint listed eight songs that weren't on the album. Hugo dropped all eight from the second amended complaint, which names one song: EarthGang's "U Gotta," without saying whether he claims the composition, the recording or both. "As incomprehensible as it is, it appears that Hugo has no idea which compositions or sound recordings he supposedly authored - even though he claims to have been there, right by defendants' side, the whole time," Williams' motion said.

Williams also argues that if the copyright claims go, the judge should drop the state-law claims too, including breach of fiduciary duty, which would push Hugo into state court for those.

Hugo's answer: "U Gotta" is one example, not the whole case. His lawyers say the suit covers songs and recordings from nearly 50 studio sessions he says the duo held as The Neptunes between 2019 and 2021. "On U Gotta, Hugo was removed as an artist from a track that the recording artists themselves say he helped create," the filing claims, adding that EarthGang confirmed his contribution on The Breakfast Club.

Then there's the deal. Hugo says that in February 2019, Williams told him he "never wanted to work without [him] again" and asked him to come to Miami to make music as The Neptunes. Hugo says they agreed to a 50/50 production split and equal publishing on every song, the same terms they'd always used. "Williams then kept the credit, the publishing, and the royalties, and he denied that Hugo co-authored anything," the filing alleges. Hugo argues that an even publishing split is itself proof the two meant to be co-authors.

He also says the paperwork problem is Williams' fault. "Hugo repeatedly sought the relevant royalty statements, books, and records from 2021 through 2024, but received almost nothing, despite counsel's acknowledgment that additional documents exist," the filing says.

Credit where it's due: Hugo's team admits a mistake. The filing concedes the latest complaint left out a definition of which works are covered, calling it "the one genuine drafting gap." If the judge finds gaps, Hugo wants 21 days to file a revised complaint describing his contributions track by track, including melodies, chord progressions, drum programming, instrumentation and arrangement. He also offers to limit his claim to Williams' share, so other co-writers on those tracks wouldn't lose anything.

On timing, the filing says Williams' lawyers hinted the claims came too late, noting Hugo has had "six separate lawyers." Hugo's side says Williams' own exhibits show the legal clock was paused from Jan. 3, 2023, to Jan. 24, 2026, MBW reported.

Dez's take: I've said it before, credits are money and money is credits. Hugo's team has been sloppy on the pleadings, and Williams is right to hit them on it. But if a judge tosses a 30-year partnership over a drafting gap before anybody turns over a single royalty statement, that's a bad look for how this industry settles who made what. Let the man list the tracks. Then argue about them.

What we still don't know: which of the roughly 50 session songs were released and under whose credits; whether written split sheets from 2019 exist; and how Judge André Birotte Jr. will rule. He has not ruled yet. Lawyers for Williams did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone's request for comment.