Hip-hop executive and R&B producer Jermaine Dupri has filed a lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment (SME), accusing the company of underpaying and concealing royalties tied to his work with artists including Mariah Carey, Usher, Kris Kross, Xscape, Bow Wow, Da Brat, and Jagged Edge.
The Atlanta-based producer and songwriter alleges that Sony Music knowingly violated its contracts with him and his influential So So Def label while concealing its royalty accounting practices. Filed in federal court in Manhattan, the lawsuit seeks at least $18 million in damages.
“Given the systemic pattern of underreporting royalties, failure of reporting royalties, and altering and/or updating statements to report previously earned royalties, [Sony Music Entertainment] has engaged in willful deceitful actions designed to harm plaintiffs in their business,” the 13-page lawsuit, obtained by Rolling Stone, states.
According to the complaint, Sony allegedly concealed royalties owed from Kris Kross’ catalog for more than two decades by maintaining the funds in “a separate royalty accounting system unknown to plaintiffs.” Dupri also claims the company knowingly withheld additional royalties from Jagged Edge’s 1997 album, The Jagged Era, and altered royalty statements dating back several years.
Dupri and his attorney, Chris Brown, cite at least seven contracts between the producer and various Sony Music entities spanning more than 25 years. They say an accounting audit conducted last year uncovered millions of dollars in unpaid royalties owed to Dupri and his companies, So So Def Recordings and So So Def Productions.
The lawsuit describes Dupri as a “mastermind” behind the Southern hip-hop and R&B sound. It notes that he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018 and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 2006 for “We Belong Together,” which he co-wrote with Mariah Carey and Johntá Austin. The complaint also references the song’s Spotify performance, noting it had surpassed 942 million streams as of Tuesday.
“Dupri is a musical icon whose recordings on So-So Def and production with other artists have produced over $200,000,000 in gross revenue in the music industry,” the lawsuit states.
While the complaint seeks at least $18 million in damages, Dupri argues that the alleged underpayment extends beyond the contracts already identified.
“Given that the matter of unreported producer royalties is not an isolated issue, evident by the above, it is likely that SME did not report producer royalties to plaintiffs for producer services rendered in connection with other artists associated with the So-So Def/SME deals,” the lawsuit states. “Additional royalties due to plaintiffs have yet to be determined.”
