{"id":11104,"date":"2026-07-07T18:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T18:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/jermaine-dupri-sues-sony-music-over-mariah-carey-usher-royalties\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T18:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T18:18:15","slug":"jermaine-dupri-sues-sony-music-over-mariah-carey-usher-royalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/jermaine-dupri-sues-sony-music-over-mariah-carey-usher-royalties\/","title":{"rendered":"Jermaine Dupri Sues Sony Music Over Mariah Carey & Usher Royalties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tJermaine Dupri is suing Sony Music Entertainment over accusations that the music giant owes him and his label more than $18 million in unpaid royalties tied to albums from Mariah Carey, Usher and others.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a lawsuit filed on Tuesday (July 7) and obtained by Billboard<\/em>, the legendary hip-hop producer and his So-So Def Recordings accused Sony of a \u201csystemic pattern\u201d of using \u201ccontemptuous accounting practices\u201d to underpay royalties for many years.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cSo-So Def had a 32-year contractual and business relationship with SME,\u201d Dupri\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cAs it turns out, many of SME\u2019s dealings with So-So Def have not been lawful and have harmed So-So Def in its business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to songs by Carey and Usher, the lawsuit claims Sony owes Dupri and his label royalties for music by Kris Kross, Xscape, Bow Wow, Da Brat, J-Kwon, and Bone Crusher, in addition to Dupri\u2019s own music as an artist.<\/p>\n

\n\tDupri, who wrote and produced Kris Kross\u2019s 1992 all-timer \u201cJump,\u201d had a long career as a hit-making producer, helping Carey, Usher, Nelly and others create chart-topping tracks. He also released a pair of studio albums himself, featuring high-profile collab tracks with Jay-Z and Ludacris.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe son of former Columbia Records executive Michael Mauldin<\/strong>, Dupri founded So-So Def in 1993 as a joint venture with Columbia and Sony, where he later signed Xscape, Bow Wow, Da Brat and others. That partnership ended in 2002 and, after several more years at Sony imprints, So-So Def hopped from EMI to UMG to several other distributors.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Tuesday\u2019s lawsuit, Dupri says Sony repeatedly failed to pay proper royalties to him and his company, both during their partnership and after. For instance, he says the label never reported producer royalties from Kris Kross\u2019s first two albums, including their smash Totally Krossed Out<\/em>, which featured \u201cJump,\u201d and that he\u2019s owed more than $2 million as a result.<\/p>\n

\n\tDupri also accuses Sony of improperly \u201ccross-collateralizing unrecouped account balances\u201d to avoid paying and using other bookkeeping trickery. For instance, he claims the company still insists that the girl group Xscape has more than $1.5 million in unrecouped advances decades after their albums were released.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is unfathomable that Xscape\u2019s royalties were insufficient to recoup the entirety of Xscape\u2019s advances on [their early albums] \u2014 both albums were certified platinum by the RIAA \u2014 let alone to leave such a staggering unrecouped balance 25-30 years later,\u201d his lawyers write.<\/p>\n

\n\tDupri says Sony also tried to hide its actions, including \u201cdeceptively\u201d placing Kris Kross royalties in a separate accounting system and amending royalty statements for Jagged Edge to cover past underpayments.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSME knew that it was violating the contracts with the plaintiffs and never attempted to disclose its contemptuous accounting practices to the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit claims that royalties for music by Carey, Usher, Bow Wow and others have been \u201cunderstated\u201d to an unknown extent, and that more than $10 million in interest is owed for various unpaid royalties.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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