Jermaine Dupri is taking legal action against Sony Music Entertainment in a major new lawsuit, claiming the music giant owes him and his label, So-So Def Recordings, more than $18 million in unpaid royalties.
In the filing obtained by Billboard this Tuesday, the legendary producer alleges a “systemic pattern” of “contemptuous accounting practices” used to underpay him for over three decades of work. “So-So Def had a 32-year contractual and business relationship with SME,” Dupri’s lawyers write. “As it turns out, many of SME’s dealings with So-So Def have not been lawful and have harmed So-So Def in its business.”
The lawsuit highlights a long list of hits involving stars like Mariah Carey, Usher, Kris Kross, Xscape, Bow Wow, and Da Brat, as well as Dupri’s own solo projects. Specifically, Dupri claims Sony never reported producer royalties for Kris Kross’s first two albums—including their iconic smash “Jump”—alleging he is owed over $2 million for those tracks alone. Dupri further accuses the label of using “bookkeeping trickery,” such as improperly “cross-collateralizing unrecouped account balances” to avoid payouts.
He points to the group Xscape as a prime example, noting that despite their albums going platinum, Sony still claims they have over $1.5 million in unrecouped advances decades later. “It is unfathomable that Xscape’s royalties were insufficient to recoup the entirety of Xscape’s advances on [their early albums] — both albums were certified platinum by the RIAA — let alone to leave such a staggering unrecouped balance 25-30 years later,” the legal docs state.
The producer also alleges that the label attempted to hide its actions by “deceptively” moving royalties into separate accounting systems and amending statements to mask past underpayments. The lawsuit concludes that Sony “knew that it was violating the contracts with the plaintiffs and never attempted to disclose its contemptuous accounting practices to the plaintiffs,” and that on top of the owed royalties, the label potentially owes more than $10 million in interest.