{"id":1920,"date":"2026-07-08T22:06:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1920"},"modified":"2026-07-08T22:06:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:06:48","slug":"jermaine-dupri-files-18-million-lawsuit-against-sony-music-for-unpaid-royalties-on-mariah-carey-usher-albums-hollywood-unlocked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1920","title":{"rendered":"Jermaine Dupri Files $18 Million Lawsuit Against Sony Music For Unpaid Royalties on Mariah Carey &#038; Usher Albums \u2022 Hollywood Unlocked"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" itemprop=\"text\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the filing obtained by Billboard this Tuesday, the legendary producer alleges a \u201csystemic pattern\u201d of \u201ccontemptuous accounting practices\u201d used to underpay him for over three decades of work. \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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hollywoodunlocked.com\/jermaine-dupri-speaks-out-after-clive-davis-passing-and-urges-bet-to-honor-him-during-2026-bet-awards-he-really-understood-what-black-music-meant-to-the-world\/\">RELATED: Jermaine Dupri Speaks Out After Clive Davis\u2019 Passing And Urges BET To Honor Him During 2026 BET Awards<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u2019s own solo projects. Specifically, Dupri claims Sony never reported producer royalties for Kris Kross\u2019s first two albums\u2014including their iconic smash \u201cJump\u201d\u2014alleging he is owed over $2 million for those tracks alone. Dupri further accuses the label of using \u201cbookkeeping trickery,\u201d such as improperly \u201ccross-collateralizing unrecouped account balances\u201d to avoid payouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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. \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 the legal docs state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The producer also alleges that the label attempted to hide its actions by \u201cdeceptively\u201d moving royalties into separate accounting systems and amending statements to mask past underpayments. The lawsuit concludes that Sony \u201cknew that it was violating the contracts with the plaintiffs and never attempted to disclose its contemptuous accounting practices to the plaintiffs,\u201d and that on top of the owed royalties, the label potentially owes more than $10 million in interest.<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 2 --><\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u201csystemic pattern\u201d of \u201ccontemptuous accounting practices\u201d used to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/hollywoodunlocked.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_6066.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}