July 8, 2026
Along with the alleged unpaid royalties, Dupri is looking for curiosity, attorneys’ charges, and different damages.
Jermaine Dupri is taking Sony Music Leisure to court docket, alleging the music big didn’t pay hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in royalties tied to a number of the largest names in R&B and hip-hop.
In keeping with a lawsuit filed July 6, the Grammy-winning producer, songwriter, and founding father of So So Def Recordings is looking for greater than $18 million in damages, claiming Sony engaged in a decades-long sample of underreporting and withholding royalty funds linked to recordings by artists together with Mariah Carey, Usher, Kris Kross, Xscape, Da Brat, and Bow Wow, experiences Selection.
The criticism alleges Sony’s actions amounted to a “systemic sample” of failing to correctly account for royalties earned beneath agreements courting again to 1992. In keeping with the submitting, Sony’s “deceitful actions” included “underreporting royalties, failing to report earnings, and retroactively altering royalty statements,” experiences Individuals. The lawsuit claims Sony withheld roughly $960,000 in royalties from Xscape’s 1993 debut album Hummin’ Comin’ at ‘Cha. It additionally alleges the corporate didn’t report producer and override royalties for Kris Kross’ blockbuster albums Completely Krossed Out and Da Bomb, leading to greater than $2.2 million in unpaid royalties. Moreover, the go well with accuses Sony of failing “to account to Plaintiffs to keep away from paying hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to the Plaintiffs,” regardless of Dupri’s productions and So So Def catalog producing greater than $200 million in gross income over their decades-long enterprise relationship.
Along with the alleged unpaid royalties, Dupri is looking for curiosity, attorneys’ charges, and different damages.
Dupri claims he and So So Def first grew to become suspicious in 2023 after reviewing royalty statements and discovering alleged discrepancies spanning a number of releases over a number of a long time.
Dupri, a 12-time Grammy nominee and winner of Greatest R&B Track for co-writing Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Collectively,” has lengthy been one of the vital influential producers in modern music. His So So Def label helped launch the careers of Kris Kross, Xscape, Da Brat, Bow Wow, and Jagged Edge, whereas his manufacturing credit embrace chart-topping information for Janet Jackson, TLC, and Ludacris.
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