Pharrell has issued a response to a new lawsuit from his former Neptunes partner Chad Hugo over allegations that he’s owed up to $1 million in unpaid royalties.

Filed in federal court in California on Friday (January 23), Hugo’s suit claims that Pharrell has withheld substantial amounts of money from him for his work with The Neptunes and N.E.R.D., while also not providing proper accounting for their company, N.E.R.D. Music, LLC, which they formed in 2014.

Hugo, who in the complaint refers to himself as the “principal composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and producer responsible for programming, instrumentation and overall sound design” in The Neptunes, claims that it was Pharrell’s sole responsibility to handle the company’s income, expenses, royalties and other financial matters, but he failed to do so.

Hugo claims that since 2021 he has been trying to get access to the company’s financial records with little success. The suit says he “has not received his appropriate share of royalties in connection with The Neptunes and N.E.R.D.’s album sales and released music, as well as distributions from touring income and various merchandising deals.”

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