Atlanta producer Jermaine Dupri drops royalty lawsuit against Sony

Atlanta producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri dropped a short-lived lawsuit Friday that had sought $18 million from Sony Music Entertainment, saying in federal court records the situation has been resolved.

His lawsuit, filed in early July in the Southern District of New York, claimed Sony had a “systemic pattern” of underreporting and failing to report royalties and also altered statements to report previously earned royalties. The contested royalties were tied to albums by artists signed to his record label So So Def, including Xscape and Da Brat, as well as Dupri’s production work for performers such as Usher and Mariah Carey.

In a notice filed Friday, Dupri’s attorney, Christopher Brown, wrote that “the Plaintiffs voluntarily dismiss this action without prejudice as the parties have resolved the matter prior to joinder.” U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff signed the dismissal that same day.

Details regarding the resolution were not included in the court records. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reached out to lawyers for Dupri and Sony for more information.

Before the case’s dismissal, Sony, through its attorney, confirmed to the federal court it had received the complaint but had not responded in filings to any of Dupri’s allegations.

So So Def was founded by Dupri in Atlanta in the early 1990s and helped position the city as a major music influencer. Its artists include Xscape, 3LW, Jagged Edge, Bow Wow and Kris Kross. Dupri also produced music for Carey, Usher and Muni Long.

The label primarily functioned as a production arm in the 2010s, but in the spring of 2025, Dupri announced So So Def entered a distribution deal with Hybe America, allowing the label opportunities to launch new artists.

Dupri’s recordings have generated more than $200 million in gross revenue over the last 32 years, according to the complaint.

So So Def and Sony maintained a contractual and business relationship for about three decades. So So Def signed a label agreement with Sony in 1992 to sign performers to recording agreements. The royalties payable to producers of those recordings were capped at 8% of sales and was later amended to 6% in 1994, the lawsuit said.

The two companies formed a joint venture, GANY Records, a few years later that set Dupri’s royalty rate at 8% for production services provided to signed artists and 2% for remixing services, according to the suit.

Sony eventually bought out So So Def’s stake in 2002, at which point the lawsuit said Sony would no longer get any share of Dupri’s producer royalties going forward. So So Def signed a label agreement with Arista Records in 2003, which the two sides terminated the following year, as well as a producer agreement that was amended twice.

According to the complaint, Dupri “began to suspect” in 2023 that Sony had not paid all of the royalties owed to him “for multiple releases over a substantial period of time” and, the filing said, a fuller picture emerged after a financial services firm’s audit in 2025.