{"id":9490,"date":"2026-01-12T15:14:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/salt-n-pepas-master-recording-lawsuit-against-umg-dismissed-by-judge\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:14:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:14:28","slug":"salt-n-pepas-master-recording-lawsuit-against-umg-dismissed-by-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/salt-n-pepas-master-recording-lawsuit-against-umg-dismissed-by-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt-N-Pepa\u2019s Master Recording Lawsuit Against UMG Dismissed by Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tA judge has thrown out Salt-N-Pepa\u2019s lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) that sought to retake control of the iconic hip-hop duo\u2019s master recordings.<\/p>\n

\n\tCheryl \u201cSalt\u201d James and Sandra \u201cPepa\u201d Denton have been attempting to exercise their so-called \u201ctermination rights\u201d under Section 203 of the Copyright Act, under which artists can claw back their masters decades after signing away the copyrights. The duo sued UMG in May after the company refused the request.<\/p>\n

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\n\tUMG maintains that Salt-N-Pepa do not have any termination rights because they didn\u2019t actually sign their 1986 record deal with imprint Next Plateau Records. Judge Denise Cote sided with UMG on Thursday (Jan. 8) after finding that the rappers\u2019 contract was solely between Next Plateau and Noise in the Attic (NITA) Productions, an entity controlled by music producer Hurby \u201cLuv Bug\u201d Azor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe only copyright transfer effectuated by these agreements was the one from NITA to Next Plateau Records,\u201d wrote the judge. \u201cAnd the statutory text in Section 203 is clear: plaintiffs can only terminate copyright transfers that they executed. They cannot terminate a copyright grant executed by NITA. As a result, plaintiffs do not plausibly allege a claim for declaratory relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJudge Cote dismissed the claims entirely as a result of these findings. In a statement shared with Billboard<\/em>, a UMG spokesperson said the company is \u201cgratified that the court dismissed this baseless lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPrior to this suit \u2014 and without any legal obligation to do so \u2014 we made multiple attempts to resolve the matter amicably, improve the artists\u2019 compensation and ensure that Salt-N-Pepa\u2019s fans had access to their music,\u201d added the spokesperson. \u201cEven with the court\u2019s complete rejection of their claims, we remain open and willing to find a resolution to the matter and turn the page so we can focus our efforts on working together to amplify Salt-N-Pepa\u2019s legacy for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSalt-N-Pepa, meanwhile, said in their own statement that they will appeal the dismissal ruling.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe respectfully disagree with the court\u2019s decision and fully intend to pursue our rights on appeal,\u201d said the duo in a statement on Friday (Jan. 9). \u201cWe, Cheryl James and Sandra Denton, also known as the hip-hop icons Salt-N-Pepa, are the creative and driving force behind all our sound recordings and have performed these songs over the past 40 years. We remain committed to vindicating and reclaiming our rights as creators under the Copyright Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story was updated on Jan. 9 at 12:04 p.m. ET to add a statement from Salt-N-Pepa.<\/em><\/p>\n


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A judge has thrown out Salt-N-Pepa\u2019s lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) that sought to retake control of the iconic hip-hop duo\u2019s master recordings. Cheryl \u201cSalt\u201d James and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2059,423,303,6157,7016,7302,1109],"class_list":["post-9490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-dismissed","tag-judge","tag-lawsuit","tag-master","tag-recording","tag-saltnpepas","tag-umg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}