On July 6, 2026, producer and label founder Jermaine Dupri filed suit against Sony Music Entertainment in the Southern District of New York, seeking more than $18 million in unpaid and underreported royalties. The complaint covers decades of catalog through Dupri's So So Def imprint — Kris Kross, Xscape, Jagged Edge, Da Brat, Bow Wow, J-Kwon and Bone Crusher among the artists named — and alleges Sony failed to properly report producer and override royalties, in some cases going back to the label's earliest 1990s releases.
According to the filing, more than $2.2 million remains outstanding on Kris Kross's first two albums alone, a catalog Sony reportedly did not correctly account for until 2023.
Why it matters beyond one lawsuit: catalogs age, master ownership changes hands, and royalty statements pile up for decades — but the underlying obligation to account accurately never expires. For independent labels, publishers, and artists without a large legal team on retainer, this case is a reminder that audit rights written into a contract are only useful if someone actually exercises them.
It is also a preview of what a wave of legacy-catalog audits could look like as more artists and estates revisit deals signed 20, 30, even 40 years ago — deals negotiated in a pre-streaming, pre-digital-distribution world, with royalty structures that were never designed for today's reporting complexity.
At PA74 Music, transparent, artist-first accounting has always been part of how we work with the labels, publishers and artists in our network — not an afterthought bolted on when something goes wrong. Disputes like this one are exactly why we think it matters.
Sources: American Songwriter, Music Admin.