C.L. Smooth Sues Longtime Associate Over Alleged $132,000 Royalty Diversion

Cover art for Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth’s 1992 single “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.).” C.L. Smooth, whose legal name is Corey Penn, alleges in a new federal lawsuit that about $132,000 in SoundExchange royalties was diverted without his knowledge. (Elektra Records/Handout)

C.L. Smooth says he discovered this spring that someone else had been collecting digital royalties in his name for years.

Now the rapper is asking a federal court to make them give the money back.

Smooth, whose legal name is Corey Penn, filed a lawsuit Sept. 13 accusing a longtime associate, the associate’s wife and two companies of diverting approximately $132,000 in SoundExchange royalty payments that Penn says belonged to him.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in White Plains, names Nickolas Taylor, Nichelle Taylor, St. Nick Entertainment Inc. and Prosper Software Solutions Inc., doing business as Taylor Your Care.

Penn has demanded a jury trial.

The federal docket also shows that he filed copies of checks and a 1099 as an exhibit to the complaint.

According to Westfair Business Journal, which reviewed the complaint, Penn says his relationship with Nickolas Taylor stretches back to 1989, when the two were part of the same New York music and social circles.

Taylor began helping Penn book performances around 2001, according to the lawsuit.

There was no written management agreement.

Instead, Penn alleges, the arrangement operated on their longstanding personal relationship and trust. He says he provided Taylor with sensitive information, including passport details needed for international performances.

The relationship eventually deteriorated amid disputes over money and business matters involving St. Nick Entertainment and some of Penn’s independent music projects.

Penn says he stopped doing business with Taylor around 2007.

Around that period, according to the complaint, a SoundExchange account existed in Penn’s name while royalty payments belonging to him were being sent to addresses associated with the Taylors.

Penn says he did not learn that the account already existed until March, when he attempted to establish his own SoundExchange account.

According to the complaint, a subsequent SoundExchange investigation identified approximately $132,000 in royalty payments dating as far back as early 2006.

Penn alleges royalty checks and federal tax forms were sent to the Taylors’ home in Elmsford and other addresses associated with them in Pleasantville and Yonkers.

He further alleges that checks made payable to him were endorsed by Nichelle Taylor before being deposited by the Taylors.

Those allegations have not been proven in court.

SoundExchange occupies a specific part of the music royalty system.

It collects statutory digital performance royalties for sound recordings played through noninteractive services such as SiriusXM, Pandora and internet radio and distributes that money to featured artists and sound-recording rights owners.

Those are different from the songwriting and publishing royalties generated by the underlying composition.

Penn says he has since regained control of the SoundExchange account and received about $30,000 in accumulated royalties covering 2023 through 2026.

He accuses the defendants of fraud, conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment.

Penn is seeking the return of money he alleges was wrongfully obtained as well as unspecified punitive damages.

That does not mean he is simply “suing for $132,000.”

In fact, the federal docket contains an unusual correction that could otherwise create confusion about how much money is at stake.

When the case was opened, the court’s statistical information listed a $132 million demand. The clerk corrected that entry the following day, stating that the figure had been entered erroneously and changing the dollar demand to none.

The roughly $132,000 figure instead represents the amount Penn alleges SoundExchange identified as having been diverted.

No response from the defendants was available in the publicly accessible docket reviewed for this story. That docket was last retrieved Sept. 14 and notes that a more recent listing may be available through PACER.

Westfair reported that efforts to locate the Taylors for comment were unsuccessful.

The dispute reaches into a catalog that has been part of hip-hop for more than three decades.

Penn rose to prominence alongside producer Pete Rock as Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. The duo released “All Souled Out” in 1991, followed by the albums “Mecca and the Soul Brother” in 1992 and “The Main Ingredient” in 1994.

“Mecca and the Soul Brother” included “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.),” the duo’s enduring tribute to Troy “Trouble T Roy” Dixon of Heavy D & The Boyz.

C.L. Smooth’s official biography still describes “T.R.O.Y.” as the record most closely associated with his career more than three decades later.

The music has kept playing.

Penn’s lawsuit now asks who was getting paid when it did.

Memphis Honors Tay Keith With Music Lab, Key to City and Day of His Own

Grammy-nominated producer Tay Keith is shown in an undated promotional portrait. Memphis Public Libraries dedicated the Tay Keith Music Lab on Monday, creating a music production space for young people in honor of the late Memphis hitmaker, whose credits included Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode,” Drake’s “Nonstop” and Beyoncé’s “Before I Let Go.”

Before Tay Keith was producing No. 1 records with some of hip-hop's biggest stars, his sister remembers the work beginning in a little blue, yellow and white house on Bruton Street in Memphis.

On Monday, his hometown put his name on a room where somebody else's career might begin.

Memphis Public Libraries formally dedicated its music production room inside Cloud901 at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library as the Tay Keith Music Lab, honoring the late Grammy-nominated producer while expanding an initiative aimed at giving young people access to music-production tools and instruction.

Keith's older sister, Lisa Austin, told those gathered for the dedication that the family's Raleigh home was where her brother discovered his love of music, started making beats and built the foundation for what the world would eventually know as Tay Keith.

But Austin made clear that the family did not want the room to function simply as a memorial.

“This lab is more than just putting Tay's name on a room,” Austin said. “It's about access and opportunity.”

Cloud901 is Memphis Public Libraries' free technology and production center for teenagers ages 13 to 18. The Tay Keith Legacy Foundation donated to the project, which is being developed into a broader initiative around Keith's life, career and commitment to young people.

Plans include hands-on beat-making and music-production instruction, a permanent archival collection and oral histories with Keith's relatives, friends and associates.

Library officials said they hope to collect photographs, handwritten notes, studio material, correspondence, memorabilia and other pieces of Keith's history. Family members and others who knew him will also be invited to record their memories through the library's 901Voices oral-history project.

At Monday's ceremony, library officials said the collection is intended to preserve not only Keith's career but the stories behind it for people who may encounter his work generations from now.

The project also extends work Keith had begun before his death.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young said Keith and his team contacted him shortly after Young became mayor because the producer wanted to discuss how he could make deeper investments in Memphis.

One conversation turned into a standing habit.

Keith told Young he planned to call him every Monday.

Tay Keith's family and Memphis officials dedicate the Tay Keith Music Lab at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library on Sept. 21, 2026.

“And he called me literally every Monday,” Young said.

Young said that even after becoming a successful producer, Keith was routinely checking in with the mayor because he wanted to figure out how to make a larger impact on the city that raised him.

Keith also worked with the city's Office of Youth Services on the My Memphis Poetry Challenge, which encouraged young Memphians to use writing to express their creativity and connection to the city. Young cited the project Monday as another example of Keith's interest in creating opportunities for young people. The competition itself was also documented by the Memphis City Council and local reporting.

Memphis added two other honors around what would have been Keith's 30th birthday.

Young proclaimed Sept. 20 Tay Keith Day in Memphis and presented Keith's family with a key to the city during Monday's dedication.

The mayor said young Memphians entering the lab will be able to see Keith's name, use the equipment and recognize that someone from their city reached the highest levels of the music business.

“Somebody from Memphis did it, and they can too,” Young said.

Keith, born Brytavious Lakeith Chambers, developed from a young Memphis producer into one of the most successful hitmakers of his generation. His credits include Travis Scott's “Sicko Mode,” Drake's “Nonstop” and “First Person Shooter,” along with work for artists including Beyoncé, Eminem, Cardi B, 21 Savage and Sexyy Red. BMI honored him three times as its R&B/Hip-Hop Producer of the Year.

He died June 18 at his Nashville apartment at 29.

Days before the Memphis ceremony, the Nashville medical examiner disclosed that Keith's death had been ruled accidental. The cause was toxicity involving ketamine and several mitragynine-related compounds associated with kratom. Police had said no foul play was suspected.

Monday's dedication, however, was centered less on how Keith died than on what his family and hometown want to continue in his name.

Austin said the hope is that a young person walks into the Tay Keith Music Lab, creates a first beat and eventually becomes the next major producer or creative to come out of Memphis.

Then she distilled the purpose of the room into two sentences.

“Tay's legacy lives on,” Austin said. “And now he gets to help build someone else's.”

Sean 'Diddy' Combs Lawsuit: Ariel Mitchell Challenges Jurisdiction as Combs' Lawyers Seek to Quit

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ $100 million defamation lawsuit survived a major attempt to dismiss it less than two weeks ago.

Now one of the defendants is trying a different route — arguing Combs’ own previous representations about his Florida ties could knock the case out of federal court.

Attorney Ariel Mitchell asked a federal judge Thursday for permission to challenge the court’s jurisdiction, arguing that she and Combs were both Florida citizens when he filed the lawsuit in January 2025.

The filing came the same day three of Combs’ attorneys appeared before U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan seeking to leave the case amid a dispute over unpaid legal bills.

Together, the developments create new uncertainty around Combs’ lawsuit against Mitchell, Courtney Burgess and Nexstar Media Inc. over allegations aired on NewsNation in 2024.

Cronan on Sept. 4 rejected Mitchell’s previous attempt to dismiss the lawsuit and allowed part of Combs’ claim against Nexstar to continue.

Mitchell’s new argument is different.

Combs’ amended complaint says he “presently resides in Brooklyn, New York,” while identifying Mitchell as a Miami resident. The lawsuit relies on diversity jurisdiction, which generally requires opposing parties to be citizens of different states.

COURT FILING

The new challenge to Diddy's $100 million lawsuit

Combs v. Burgess, Mitchell & Nexstar Media Inc. • U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York • Sept. 17, 2026

Ariel Mitchell argues that Sean “Diddy” Combs remained domiciled in Florida while detained in Brooklyn — and that if both were Florida citizens when the lawsuit was filed, the federal court lacked the required diversity of citizenship.

Page 3 of Ariel Mitchell's Sept. 17, 2026, federal court filing. Tap or click the document to enlarge.

“Plaintiff cannot have it both ways.” — Steven A. Metcalf II, attorney for Ariel Mitchell

WHY IT MATTERS

Mitchell says Combs relied on his Florida domicile while challenging jurisdiction in separate California litigation. She now argues that the same Florida domicile would undermine the diversity jurisdiction supporting this New York federal case.

The argument is Mitchell's. The court has not ruled that jurisdiction is lacking.

DOCUMENT 127 CASE NO. 25-CV-650 (JPC)

But Combs was in Brooklyn while being held in federal detention.

Mitchell’s attorney, Steven A. Metcalf II, argues that incarceration did not make Combs a New York domiciliary and that he remained domiciled in Florida, where he maintained a home before his arrest.

If Combs and Mitchell were both Florida citizens when the lawsuit was filed, Mitchell argues, the required diversity did not exist.

Her filing also points to separate litigation in California in which, according to Mitchell, Combs successfully relied on evidence establishing his Florida domicile while challenging that court’s jurisdiction over him.

“Plaintiff cannot have it both ways,” Metcalf wrote.

Cronan has not ruled on the argument, and Thursday’s filing is not another motion to dismiss. Mitchell is asking for permission to make the jurisdictional challenge.

It arrived as Combs faces a separate problem with his own legal team.

Attorneys Michael Tremonte, Erica Wolff and Katie Renzler of Sher Tremonte LLP have asked to withdraw, saying Combs is in “substantial arrears” on his legal bills and has not made himself available for substantive communication for months.

Combs disputes their account. He says he decided to replace the firm because it overcharged him and billed for work he had not authorized. The firm denies that allegation.

During Thursday’s conference, Wolff told Cronan that the firm still had not spoken with Combs despite another attempt to reach him. Cronan did not immediately grant the attorneys’ request to withdraw and directed them to continue attempting to reach Combs.

The jurisdiction issue also surfaced during the conference. Wolff offered a preliminary response that Combs had come to New York intending to remain there.

Mitchell, meanwhile, is asking the court to suspend her deadline to answer the lawsuit and her discovery obligations while the jurisdiction question is considered.

Her new challenge does not undo Combs’ Sept. 4 victory. Instead, it raises a more fundamental question about the surviving lawsuit: whether Combs had the legal standing to bring it in federal court in New York in the first place.