Jermaine Dupri has dropped his USD $18 million royalty lawsuit in opposition to Sony Music Leisure.
So So Def Recordings, So So Def Productions, and Dupri filed a discover of voluntary dismissal on Friday (August 28) within the US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York.
The discover, which you’ll learn right here, landed lower than two months after the grievance, and earlier than Sony had responded to any of the allegations in it.
“Pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1) of the Federal Guidelines of Civil Process, the Plaintiffs voluntarily dismiss this motion with out prejudice because the events have resolved the matter previous to joinder,” reads the discover, signed by Dupri’s legal professional, Christopher Brown of Brown & Rosen LLC.
Neither Dupri nor Sony has disclosed what the decision concerned, and the submitting units out no cost, timetable, or accounting treatment.
The dismissal was with out prejudice, leaving Dupri and his corporations free to deliver the claims once more.
Dupri and his So So Def corporations sued the key on July 6, alleging years of unpaid and underreported royalties on recordings by Kris Kross, Xscape, Da Brat, Jagged Edge, Usher, Mariah Carey, Bow Wow, J-Kwon, and Bone Crusher.
“So-So Def had a 32-year contractual and enterprise relationship with SME,” the grievance said. “Because it seems, lots of SME’s dealings with So-So Def haven’t been lawful and have harmed So-So Def in its enterprise.”
The plaintiffs sought a minimum of $18 million, together with greater than $10 million in curiosity, plus attorneys’ charges, and demanded a jury trial.
The connection dated to a label settlement signed on Might 4, 1992, underneath which So So Def submitted artists together with Xscape and Da Brat to the key.
The grievance alleged Sony by no means reported producer or override royalties on Kris Kross’s first two albums, Completely Krossed Out (1992) and Da Bomb (1993), till 2023, and that greater than $2.2 million remained owed on these information alone.
“SME tried to hide all Kris Kross royalties due Plaintiffs for over 20 years in a separate royalty accounting system unknown to Plaintiffs,” the submitting said.
It mentioned royalty statements produced in 2023 and 2024 confirmed overseas gross sales of greater than $30 million on the Kris Kross account.
The go well with additionally alleged Sony underreported greater than $960,000 in producer royalties on Xscape’s 1993 debut Hummin’ Comin’ At ’Cha, and withheld greater than $1 million on Da Brat’s 1994 album Funkdafied.
A separate declare centered on a So So Def Manufacturing Share account tied to Xscape’s first two albums, Hummin’ Comin’ At ’Cha and 1995’s Off the Hook.
Underneath the label settlement, the grievance mentioned, Sony might recoup an artist’s advances from So So Def’s Manufacturing Share solely the place that artist’s personal royalties fell brief.
That account opened the interval ending June 30, 2020, with a unfavourable steadiness of $1,531,241.22, based on the submitting.
“It’s unfathomable that Xscape’s royalties had been inadequate to recoup the whole lot of Xscape’s advances on LP1 and LP2 – each albums had been licensed platinum by the RIAA – not to mention to depart such a staggering unrecouped steadiness 25–30 years later,” the grievance learn.
The grievance mentioned the account generated greater than $1 million in royalties between 2020 and 2024, none of which reached So So Def as a result of Sony stored making use of the unfavourable steadiness.
Dupri’s attorneys argued these balances ought to have been nullified underneath Sony’s Legacy Unrecouped Stability Program, and that the roughly $1 million ought to subsequently have been paid by means of to So So Def.
Underneath that program, introduced in June 2021, Sony mentioned it could not apply current unrecouped balances to earnings generated from January 1, 2021, by eligible artists and “members.”
As introduced, eligibility lined those that had signed to the key earlier than 2000 and brought no advance from that yr ahead.
Sony Music Group then widened this system in Might 2022 to a rolling foundation, overlaying creators signed for greater than 20 years who haven’t taken an advance in 20 years.
MBW confirmed on the time that Sony’s “members” lined producers, joint-venture companions, and distributed labels.
The submitting additional accused Sony of amending previous royalty statements for Jagged Edge’s 1997 album A Jagged Period, with the corrected figures reaching again solely so far as 2007.
“SME knew that it was violating the contracts with the Plaintiffs and by no means tried to reveal its contemptuous accounting practices to the Plaintiffs,” the grievance said.
The alleged discrepancies surfaced by means of a desk audit by accounting agency Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman in 2025, based on the go well with, with the events signing a tolling settlement on November 1, 2025.
In an announcement offered to MBW in July, a Sony Music spokesperson mentioned: “This matter considerations a royalty accounting dispute the events had been actively engaged in making an attempt to resolve.
“We’re disenchanted that So-So Def elected to pursue litigation slightly than proceed that dialogue.”
MBW has reached out to Sony Music and to Brown & Rosen for touch upon the dismissal.
In accordance with the grievance, Dupri’s recordings and manufacturing work have generated gross income of greater than $200 million throughout the 32 years of the Sony relationship.
Dupri, a Grammy winner, was inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame in 2018.
He based So So Def in 1993 as a spin-off of his manufacturing firm of the identical title by means of a three way partnership with Sony and Columbia.
So So Def has since moved its enterprise elsewhere, placing a distribution cope with HYBE America in April 2025, then led by Scooter Braun.
The dismissal makes Dupri’s the third royalty declare in opposition to Sony lined by MBW this yr to finish by settlement, with phrases undisclosed in every case.
Lit, the band behind the 1999 single My Personal Worst Enemy, settled its streaming royalty go well with in opposition to the key on July 7 in the identical New York court docket, 4 months after suing over an alleged $800,000 shortfall underneath a 1998 contract with RCA.
East Los Angeles band Los Lobos settled a declare in opposition to Sony Music and its Milan imprint on August 21, over streaming royalties on Canción del Mariachi, recorded for the Desperado soundtrack.
The band’s legal professional, Evan Cohen, advised Billboard, which first reported the settlement, that the matter had been resolved however declined to share phrases.
Los Lobos had introduced two fits in opposition to Sony entities in California state court docket in late 2025, in search of between $1.5 million and $2.75 million.
The opposite go well with, in opposition to Sony Footage Leisure over the La Bamba soundtrack, stays stay.
Sony has settled claims of this sort earlier than, agreeing in 2020 to pay $12.7 million to finish a category motion introduced by the property of Rick Nelson over overseas streaming income, as beforehand reported by MBW.Music Enterprise Worldwide
