\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJermaine Dupri performs at the 2023 ESSENCE Festival of Culture at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome in June 2023. (Photo: Josh Brasted\/WireImage)<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby Selena Hill <\/p>\n
July 8, 2026<\/p>\n
In addition to the alleged unpaid royalties, Dupri is seeking interest, attorneys’ fees, and other damages.<\/p>\n
Jermaine Dupri is taking Sony Music Entertainment to court, alleging the music giant failed to pay millions of dollars in royalties tied to some of the biggest names in R&B and hip-hop.<\/p>\n
According to a lawsuit filed July 6, the Grammy-winning producer, songwriter, and founder of So So Def Recordings is seeking more than $18 million in damages, claiming Sony engaged in a decades-long pattern of underreporting and withholding royalty payments connected to recordings by artists including Mariah Carey, Usher, Kris Kross, Xscape, Da Brat, and Bow Wow, reports Variety<\/em>.<\/p>\n The complaint alleges Sony\u2019s actions amounted to a \u201csystemic pattern\u201d of failing to properly account for royalties earned under agreements dating back to 1992<\/a>. According to the filing, Sony\u2019s \u201cdeceitful actions\u201d included \u201cunderreporting royalties, failing to report income, and retroactively altering royalty statements,\u201d reports People<\/em>. The lawsuit claims Sony withheld approximately $960,000 in royalties<\/a> from Xscape\u2019s 1993 debut album Hummin\u2019 Comin\u2019 at \u2018Cha<\/em>. It also alleges the company failed to report producer and override royalties for Kris Kross\u2019 blockbuster albums Totally Krossed Out<\/em> and Da Bomb<\/em>, resulting in more than $2.2 million in unpaid royalties. Furthermore, the suit accuses Sony of failing \u201cto account to Plaintiffs to avoid paying millions of dollars to the Plaintiffs,\u201d despite Dupri\u2019s productions and So So Def catalog generating more than $200 million in gross revenue over their decades-long business relationship.<\/p>\n In addition to the alleged unpaid royalties, Dupri is seeking interest, attorneys\u2019 fees, and other damages.<\/p>\n Dupri claims he and So So Def first became suspicious in 2023 after reviewing royalty statements and discovering alleged discrepancies spanning multiple releases over several decades. <\/p>\n Dupri, a 12-time Grammy nominee and winner of Best R&B Song for co-writing Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cWe Belong Together,\u201d has long been one of the most influential producers in contemporary music. His So So Def label helped launch the careers of Kris Kross, Xscape, Da Brat, Bow Wow, and Jagged Edge, while his production credits include chart-topping records for Janet Jackson, TLC, and Ludacris. <\/p>\n RELATED CONTENT: Jermaine Dupri Says He Created \u2018Make It Rain\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jermaine Dupri performs at the 2023 ESSENCE Festival of Culture at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome in June 2023. (Photo: Josh Brasted\/WireImage) by Selena Hill July 8, 2026 In addition to the alleged unpaid royalties, Dupri is seeking interest, attorneys’ fees, and other damages. Jermaine Dupri is taking Sony Music Entertainment to court, alleging the music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10666],"tags":[22570,7493,7492,24572,24573,45,24337,9610,24575,24574,3629,23331],"class_list":["post-34523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reparations","tag-18m","tag-dupri","tag-jermaine","tag-jermaine-dupri","tag-mariah-carey","tag-music","tag-royalties","tag-sony","tag-sony-music-entertainment","tag-sony-music-group","tag-sues","tag-unpaid"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/blackenterprise-prod.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-1508999838-scaled-e1692719326991.jpg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"REPARATIONS NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Jermaine Dupri performs at the 2023 ESSENCE Festival of Culture at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome in June 2023. (Photo: Josh Brasted\/WireImage) by Selena Hill July 8, 2026 In addition to the alleged unpaid royalties, Dupri is seeking interest, attorneys’ fees, and other damages. Jermaine Dupri is taking Sony Music Entertainment to court, alleging the music…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34525,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34523\/revisions\/34525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}