{"id":2492509,"date":"2026-07-07T21:01:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T21:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2492509"},"modified":"2026-07-07T21:01:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T21:01:37","slug":"jermaine-dupri-sues-sony-for-18m-unpaid-mariah-carey-usher-royalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/jermaine-dupri-sues-sony-for-18m-unpaid-mariah-carey-usher-royalties\/","title":{"rendered":"Jermaine Dupri sues Sony for $18M unpaid Mariah Carey, Usher royalties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div id=\"videoWrap\" class=\"spacer-large videoWrap\" style=\"position:relative\">\n<div id=\"uwVideoPlaceholder\" slot=\"placeholder\" style=\"z-index:19;width:100%;padding-bottom:56.25%;position:relative\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;right:0;bottom:0;width:100%;height:100%;z-index:2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2025\/09\/08\/USAT\/86035365007-20250907-et-vm-as-jermaine-dupri-thumb.jpg?crop=1078,606,x0,y434\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"vidplaybtn\" style=\"display:-moz-box;display:-ms-flexbox;display:-webkit-flex;display:flex;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,.4);border:2px solid #fff;border-radius:80px;cursor:pointer;height:80px;width:80px;position:absolute;top:50%;left:50%;transform:translate(-50%,-50%);z-index:10\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidplayicon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\" alt=\"play\" style=\"height:40px;margin:auto 18px auto 27px;width:40px\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div slot=\"videoDetails\" id=\"videoDetails\" class=\"videoDetails\" style=\"padding-top:8px;padding-bottom:8px\">\n<div id=\"videoDetailsContainer\" class=\"videoDetailsContainer\" hidden=\"\">\n<p>Jermaine Dupri praises Mariah Carey at 2025 MTV VMAs red carpet<\/p>\n<p>At the 2025 MTV VMAs red carpet, Jermaine Dupri reflects on Mariah Carey\u2019s legacy and what drives him as a producer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Music producer <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/06\/06\/jermaine-dupri-quincy-jones-black-music-essence-festival\/84024884007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jermaine Dupri<\/a> is suing Sony for $18 million in alleged unpaid royalties.<\/p>\n<p>The Grammy-winner, 53, and his label So So Def Recordings filed a breach of contract lawsuit in New York federal court July 6, accusing <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2025\/11\/30\/supreme-court-case-music-piracy-cox-sony\/87481019007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sony Music Entertainment<\/a> of underpaying and withholding earnings in connection with Dupri&#8217;s work for <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/life\/people\/2018\/09\/12\/rapper-bow-wow-reveals-he-almost-died-addiction-cough-syrup\/1285371002\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bow Wow<\/a>, Xscape, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2025\/09\/23\/mariah-carey-here-for-it-all-album-review\/86303246007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mariah Carey<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2024\/08\/20\/usher-inside-look-tour-family-life-future\/74734355007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Usher<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/life\/people\/2013\/05\/01\/chris-kelly-kriss-kross-dies\/2128291\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kris Kross<\/a> and more, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY.<\/p>\n<p>Dupri and his label entered into a contract with Sony in 1992, but the filing says it wasn&#8217;t until 2023 that they &#8220;began to suspect&#8221; the company owed millions in royalties &#8220;for multiple releases over a substantial period of time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>USA TODAY reached out to a representative for Sony for comment.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"presto-h2 wp-block-heading\">Jermaine Dupri alleges Sony &#8216;intentionally&#8217; withheld royalty payments<\/h2>\n<p>Throughout their decades-long partnership with Sony, Dupri says he and So So Def Recordings have brought in more than $200 million in revenue.<\/p>\n<p>However, the filing alleges a 2025 audit revealed Sony has shown a &#8220;systemic pattern of underreporting royalties,&#8221; &#8220;failure of reporting royalties&#8221; and &#8220;altering and\/or updating statements to report previously earned royalties.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This includes $960,000 for Xscape&#8217;s 1993 album\u00a0&#8220;Hummin&#8217; Comin&#8217; at &#8216;Cha,&#8221; $2.2 million for two of Kris Kross&#8217; albums and compensation for Dupri&#8217;s solo album.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint \u2013 which refers to Dupri as &#8220;one of the biggest hitmakers in hip-hop music, ever,&#8221; and credits him with jumpstarting some of the most successful music careers in Hollywood \u2013 alleges Sony&#8217;s &#8220;willful deceitful actions&#8221; were intentional and &#8220;designed to harm&#8221; Dupri and his label in their business.<\/p>\n<p>The filing further alleges it is &#8220;likely&#8221; Sony owes &#8220;additional royalties&#8221; that have yet to be determined.<\/p>\n<p>Dupri and So So Def Recordings are seeking at least $18 million in damages, along with interest, attorneys&#8217; fees and &#8220;any other relief this court deems just and equitable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usatoday.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jermaine Dupri praises Mariah Carey at 2025 MTV VMAs red carpet At the 2025 MTV VMAs red carpet, Jermaine Dupri reflects on Mariah Carey\u2019s legacy and what drives him as a producer. Music producer Jermaine Dupri is suing Sony for $18 million in alleged unpaid royalties. The Grammy-winner, 53, and his label So So Def [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2492510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[39915,22220,364605,21751,239390,22367,340752,490870,6297,21741,21944,22270,403662,351952,413275,346891,40695,22240,239389,21739,298114,365064,312296,21800,74947,21738,30600,239343,239420,340751,31765,27784,86850,239344,100640,239391,354481],"class_list":["post-2492509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-affiliate","tag-arts","tag-carey","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrities-u0026-entertainment-news","tag-celebrity","tag-celebrity-legal-proceedings","tag-dupri","tag-eamotion","tag-entertainment","tag-hip-hop","tag-industry","tag-intellectual","tag-intellectual-property","tag-jermaine","tag-jermaine-dupri","tag-legal","tag-life","tag-life-now","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","tag-mariah","tag-mariah-carey","tag-music","tag-negative","tag-news","tag-now","tag-overall","tag-overall-negative","tag-proceedings","tag-property","tag-recording","tag-recording-industry","tag-u0026","tag-urban","tag-urban-u0026-hip-hop","tag-usher"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Jermaine-Dupri-sues-Sony-for-18M-unpaid-Mariah-Carey-Usher.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2492509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2492511,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492509\/revisions\/2492511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2492510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2492509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2492509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2492509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}