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Nelly and the St. Lunatics are reuniting for their first new album in 25 years.
On Sunday, December 14, the Jingle Ball Tour performer and his wife, Ashanti, hosted his Black and White Ball in St. Louis, Mo. A slew of celebrities flocked to Nelly's hometown for the annual fundraiser, including Busta Rhymes, Jermaine Dupri, Doug E. Fresh and more. During the black-tie affair, the Country Grammar rapper addressed the crowd and announced that the St. Lunatics will return to the studio to cook up a new album executive-produced by fellow St. Louis native Metro Boomin.
"St. Lunatics 2026 executive produced by Metro Boomin," Nelly told the crowd. "St. Louis, we in the building, we turning up 2026 one time!"
Nelly, Ali (Ali Jones), City Spud (Lavell Webb), Kyjuan (Robert Kyjuan), Slo Down (Corey Edwards) and Murphy Lee (Tohri Harper) started their music careers together after they formed the St. Lunatics while they were in high school. After they failed to gain traction outside of their hometown, the group agreed to let Nelly go solo. After he was signed to Universal Music Group in 1999, Nelly enlisted the St. Lunatics to contribute to his debut album Country Grammar, which dropped in 2000. A year later, St. Lunatics dropped their debut album, Free City, and launched solo careers for Ali and Murphy Lee.
The group's reunion comes a year after Ali Jones of the St. Lunatics led the effort to sue Nelly for copyright infringement. Jones claimed Nelly "manipulated" the group into believing that he would give them writing credits and pay them for their work on his debut album. Although several members of the group were included in the original lawsuit, City Spud, Kyjuan, and Murphy Lee requested to be excluded from the suit after they never consented to being involved in the first place. Jones eventually dropped the lawsuit earlier this year.
Look out for Nelly and the St. Lunatics' new album coming in 2026. Nelly is performing during this year’s iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour presented by Capital One. Tickets are still on sale for tour stops in Atlanta and Miami. The CW Network will broadcast the event as an exclusive nationwide television special on December 17th at 8 p.m. ET/PT.