Chad Hugo Sues Pharrell For Allegedly Withholding Money From Him

Pharrell Williams has been fairly busy for the previous yr with new Clipse music, in addition to his Louis Vuitton fashion ventures. But his 2026 simply took a wild flip as he faces a brand new lawsuit from Chad Hugo, his accomplice in The Neptunes and his colleague alongside Shay Haley within the band N.E.R.D.

According to Complex, Hugo’s accusing Williams of economic impropriety, particularly unpaid royalties and failing to correctly account for his or her firm’s funds. The Friday (January 23) submitting in federal California courtroom claims Skateboard P owes the producer no less than $375K and probably over $1 million for N.E.R.D.’s 2017 No One Ever Really Dies album alone.

Not solely that, however Hugo claims Pharrell owes him royalty cash for many of The Neptunes and N.E.R.D.’s catalog gross sales, together with touring income and merchandising partnerships. He alleges that “a big variety of songs are lacking from [Hugo’s] label portals and SoundExchange portals indicating that Plaintiff has not acquired the royalties he’s entitled to.”

In addition, Chad Hugo claims Williams failed to offer the suitable accounting regarding their N.E.R.D. Music, LLC firm shaped in 2014, as P allegedly had the only real accountability of informing about revenue and bills, royalties, and different monetary issues. The firm’s phrases present Pharrell with a 50 p.c haul from “touring and different revenue” (with Hugo and Haley getting 1 / 4 every), and divide “merchandising and trademark revenue” equally amongst all three members.

Finally, Hugo claims he’s the “principal composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and producer answerable for programming, instrumentation, and general sound design” in The Neptunes, whereas Williams “extra incessantly appeared because the public-facing member of the duo. He alleges that he is been searching for their firm’s monetary information since 2021 to no vital avail. The submitting claims this alleged habits from Pharrell is “willful, fraudulent, and malicious… engaged in self-dealing, hid materials info, and… diverted revenues owed to [Chad Hugo].”