Hip-hop mogul Jermaine Dupri has taken his long-running dispute with Sony Music Entertainment to federal court, filing suit in Manhattan this week over what his attorneys call a systematic effort to shortchange him on royalties spanning more than three decades of hits.
The complaint, filed by Dupri alongside his companies So So Def Recordings and So So Def Productions, traces the relationship back to May 1992, when Dupri’s imprint first inked its agreement with Sony.
The suit accuses SME of having “not been lawful” in its dealings with Dupri going back to that original deal. Over the ensuing years, the partnership would produce some of the defining sounds of Southern hip-hop and R&B, but according to Dupri’s legal team, it also concealed a growing debt that the label never volunteered to settle.
The suit’s allegations touch nearly every corner of the So So Def catalog. The roster named includes Xscape, Da Brat, Kris Kross, Jagged Edge, Usher, Mariah Carey, Bow Wow, J-Kwon, and Bone Crusher.
Kris Kross looms largest in the complaint. The lawsuit alleges Sony never reported producer or override royalties from the duo’s first two albums, Totally Krossed Out and Da Bomb, until 2023, with more than $2.2 million allegedly still owed from those records alone. Dupri’s team notes that the two albums moved a combined total of more than 42 million units.
Xscape and Da Brat fare little better in the accounting, according to the filing. The complaint says Sony underreported more than $960,000 in producer royalties from Xscape’s 1993 debut Hummin’ Comin’ At ‘Cha and withheld more than $1 million in producer royalties from Da Brat’s 1994 album Funkdafied.
Perhaps most striking is the claim involving Xscape’s recoupment balance: the lawsuit says Sony still had one So So Def account listed as more than $1.5 million in the red as of June 2020, despite both of the group’s first two albums being certified platinum.
Dupri’s side argues that the same account generated over $1 million between 2020 and 2024, but So So Def never saw those payments because Sony kept applying the old negative balance against incoming money, a pattern the complaint frames as running across multiple years rather than a one-time error.
Jagged Edge’s 1997 album The Jagged Era is also central to the claims. The lawsuit says Sony eventually issued amended statements but only corrected figures going back to 2007, leaving a chunk of earlier money still unaccounted for, something the complaint characterizes as a deliberate attempt to conceal what was owed.
According to the filing, Dupri’s suspicions were first triggered by unusual activity in Sony’s reporting. Partially attributable to the presence of previously unreported royalties appearing in “new and amended” statements, the anomaly set the stage for a 2025 audit performed by the accounting firm Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman.
A late-2025 tolling agreement between the parties failed to produce a resolution, which ultimately prompted the lawsuit.
Dupri’s attorneys also allege the label used a bookkeeping maneuver to further suppress payments. The suit claims SME “failed to remit royalty payments to So-So Def by incorrectly cross-collateralizing unrecouped account balances against royalties otherwise payable to So-So Def, including Dupri’s solo album releases and compilation albums.”
While the headline figure is $18 million, the total exposure could climb significantly. The suit states that Dupri is owed more than $10 million in interest payments alone for unpaid royalties relating to Xscape, Kris Kross, Da Brat, and other acts.
Dupri’s team maintains the missing royalties were not the product of clerical error but rather that Sony began altering statements only once questions were raised.
As for Mariah Carey and Usher, arguably the marquee names in the complaint, the picture is less finalized. Dupri claims Sony also underpaid royalties on projects he produced for the two superstars, though the suit says the full amount owed is still being calculated.
The complaint hints that the Sony dispute may only be the tip of the iceberg. Dupri’s lawyers argue that since underreporting was uncovered across so many of his contracts, it stands to reason similar shortfalls exist elsewhere in his catalog and that “additional royalties due to plaintiffs have yet to be determined,” leaving the door open for the claim to grow as litigation proceeds.
Dupri, the son of former Columbia Records executive Michael Mauldin, built So So Def into one of the most influential hip-hop and R&B imprints of the 1990s and 2000s.
His resume includes a 2018 induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and a 2006 Grammy for Best R&B Song for “We Belong Together,” the Mariah Carey ballad he co-wrote with Johntá Austin, a track that has since amassed nearly a billion streams on Spotify.
Dupri and his companies are seeking a jury trial, the full $18 million in damages, interest, and attorneys’ fees. Sony Music has not yet issued a public response to the filing.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Jermaine Dupri’s $18 million lawsuit against Sony Music comes down to one core allegation that the label knew it was underpaying him for over three decades and never disclosed it.
Whether it’s hidden royalty accounts for Kris Kross, a platinum act somehow still “unrecouped” 25 years later, or altered statements for Jagged Edge, the pattern Dupri’s team describes isn’t a series of accidents but a deliberate, systemic effort to conceal money owed.
The real number at stake may be far higher than $18 million, since Dupri’s lawyers suggest this could just be the visible portion of a much larger problem across his catalog.
