Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst Tuesday sued Universal Music Group in Los Angeles, alleging in federal court that the company has withheld over $200 million in royalty payments from the rap-metal band.
The suit alleges that UMG utilized an accounting and payment system that hid royalties from Limp Bizkit and other artists in order to keep profits for itself.
Durst contends that Limp Bizkit never received royalties from UMG, despite the Florida band’s success in the late 1990s.
A UMG spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.
Attorneys for the band allege that UMG had told Durst that royalties were not being paid because the band had not repaid advances taken by the group to pay for various expenses.
The lawsuit said the band’s albums have sold millions of copies, and that Limp Bizkit continues to have “millions of streaming users per month on Spotify alone.”
According to the complaint, filed in Los Angeles federal court, UMG’s “failure to issue royalty statements in particular from 1997-2004 — the height of the band’s fame and during periods in which they made record-breaking sales — with respect to its most popular albums suggests that UMG was intentionally concealing the true amount of sales, and therefore royalties, due and owing to Limp Bizkit in order to unfairly keep those profits for itself.”
The band has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, and had hit singles with “Nookie,” “Re-Arranged” and other songs. The group’s “Significant Other” album went to No. 1 on the Billboard album charts in 1999.