In a recent interview with VladTV, Murphy Lee opened up about his group St. Lunatics signing to Universal. He explained that the group was advised to sign with them because was the same label the group's frontman, Nelly, was signed to at the time. He revealed that "threats" surrounding the use of Nelly's vocals was a major influence in the group's decision-making process. “That was a major lil moment for us," he explained, "Probably should’ve held out for a second and shopped it."
Murphy Lee continued, “We wasn’t tied into that. I think we got threatened with, ‘You might not be able to get Nelly cleared if y’all go somewhere else’ type of thing." The artist went on to say, “I don’t think they thugged us out. I think it was a natural thing. It was more so with lawyers. I think they was thinking like that. Because the lawyers represented us and Nelly and it was more so like when he was shopping the deal.” According to Murphy Lee, the group was allegedly told that they may have clearance issues with Nelly's contributions if they went with another label.
Murphy Lee Says They "Probably Should’ve Held Out"
“It was like a suggestion, like, ‘Yeah, we can go somewhere else, like at the same time, y’all might not be able to clear it because he’s so big,'” Lee continued. “We probably should’ve made more a demand for two seconds we went right into it we were so happy.” Back in 2021, another former member of St. Lunatics, Ali, accused Nelly of abandoning the group. He took to social media to claim that he fought for Nelly's verse on “Gimme What Ya Got," despite the label wanting it removed. He also went on to claim that he turned down a solo record deal in favor of sticking with St. Lunatics. “Some kind of way I ended up going …I ended up helping him write … but got no credit!! Wow !! I got hustled !!” the artist said.
Nelly later responded to the claims, writing, “There’s three people in this group that’s been a lunatic since day one: Nelly, Kyjuan, and City [Spud]." He explained, “We all went to school together. Alright? Cool. When we first started the Lunatics, Ali was not in this group. Stop me when I’m lying.” Nelly added, “When we was going around town making a name for ourselves, doing the car wash, performing at the talent shows at [colleges], that was us, that wasn’t Ali. Ali did not perform with us. Either he thought he was too good or he didn’t perform with us. Either way, he did not perform with us. Just factuals. Actual factuals.”