Jermaine Dupri Drops Lawsuit Claiming $18M in Unpaid Royalties on Mariah Carey & Usher Albums — Billboard

RESOLVING THE LEDGER

Jermaine Dupri Drops Lawsuit Claiming $18M in Unpaid Royalties on Mariah Carey & Usher Albums — Billboard | AIPROPX

Jermaine Dupri has quickly dropped a lawsuit against Sony Music that claimed he was owed $18 million in unpaid royalties tied to albums from Mariah Carey , Usher and others.

The legendary hip-hop producer and his So-So Def Recordings sued Sony Music in July, accusing the label of a “systemic pattern” of using “contemptuous accounting practices” to underpay royalties for many years.

Jermaine Dupri Sues Sony Music for $18M in Unpaid Royalties on Mariah Carey & Usher Albums

Dale Morris, Nashville Manager Who Guided Careers of Alabama & Kenny Chesney, Dies at 89

HYBE Pledges Over $300k for Colombia Earthquake Recovery

But less than two months later, attorneys for Dupri moved Friday (Aug. 28) to voluntarily dismiss the case, telling the judge that they had “resolved the matter.” The move did not come with a written explanation, and an attorney for Dupri did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Sony declined to comment.

Dupri, who wrote and produced Kris Kross’s 1992 all-timer “Jump,” had a long career as a hit-making producer, helping Carey, Usher, Nelly and others create chart-topping tracks. He also released a pair of studio albums himself, featuring high-profile collab tracks with Jay-Z and Ludacris .

The son of former Columbia Records executive Michael Mauldin , Dupri founded So-So Def in 1993 as a joint venture with Columbia and Sony, where he later signed Xscape , Bow Wow , Da Brat and others. That partnership ended in 2002 and, after several more years at Sony imprints, So-So Def hopped from EMI to UMG to several other distributors.

In his July lawsuit, Dupri claimed that over a “32-year contractual and business relationship” Sony had repeatedly failed to pay proper royalties to him and his company: “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.”

Dupri claimed he was owed more than $2 million for Kris Kross’s first two albums, including their smash, Totally Krossed Out , which featured “Jump.” He also accused Sony of using bookkeeping trickery to maintain unrecouped advances on other music.

Friday’s dismissal will end all those accusations without any real litigation. But it came with a catch: Dupri’s lawyers moved to drop the case “without prejudice,” meaning they could theoretically refile it at some point in the future.