Missy Elliot has reached a settlement with a music producer who claims to have co-written several of her songs from the 1990s, resolving the nearly seven-year-old dispute just as a trial was about to begin.
Law360 and Courthouse News Service both reported on Friday (Aug. 22) that Elliott’s lawyers and Terry Williams, who’s representing himself, arrived at a settlement in a Philadelphia federal courtroom just minutes before they were set to start selecting a jury for their copyright trial.
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Details of the settlement were not immediately available, and neither Elliott’s attorneys nor Williams returned Billboard’s request for comment on Friday.
The lawsuit, which has been making its way through the court system since 2018, centers on the R&B girl group Sista, where Elliott got her start before breaking out as a solo artist in the late ’90s.
Williams, a music producer who once owned a Philadelphia recording studio, claims he and Elliott co-wrote four songs off Sista’s 1994 album 4 All the Sistas Around da World: “Sweat You Down,” “Secret Admirer,” “I Wanna Know” and “I Wanna Be with U.” He alleged that Elliott unfairly left him off the songwriting credits, and was seeking through the lawsuit to get royalties dating back to the 1994 album release.
Elliott, meanwhile, maintained throughout the case that Williams “did not write a single lyric or in any manner contribute to any of the songs” off 4 All the Sistas Around da World. Elliott said she did not even meet Williams until after she’d delivered the album to Elektra Records.
Judge Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro ruled last year that due to these conflicting narratives, the lawsuit could only be resolved by a jury weighing the evidence and deciding who to believe. But the judge threw out an additional claim from Williams that alleged he and Elliott also co-wrote the 1996 Aaliyah song “Heartbroken,” saying this part of the case was barred by the statute of limitations.
Williams’ lawsuit also targeted Timbaland, who produced 4 All the Sistas Around da World, as well as Elektra, Atlantic Records, Warner Music Group and Reservoir Media. Those claims were all paused until the outcome of the Elliott trial, and they still remain pending.
