Jermaine Dupri has ended his 18 million dollar royalty lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment, with a notice of voluntary dismissal filed on Friday, August 28 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The notice, signed by Dupri's attorney Christopher Brown, says the plaintiffs dismiss the action without prejudice because the parties have resolved the matter prior to joinder. In plain terms, Sony never had to answer the allegations, admit anything or deny anything before the case closed.
Nothing about the resolution is public. The filing names no settlement figure, no payment schedule and no accounting fix, and neither side has elaborated. Because the dismissal is without prejudice, Dupri and his companies remain free to bring the claims again if the private arrangement does not hold.
The complaint had been filed on July 6, less than two months earlier. It alleged 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, across what it called a 32-year relationship with the major.
The sharpest money trail ran through Kris Kross. Dupri alleged Sony never reported producer or override royalties on Totally Krossed Out and Da Bomb until 2023, kept the account in a separate system his side did not know about, and still owed more than 2.2 million dollars on those two records alone.
Other claims followed the same shape: more than 960,000 dollars underreported on Xscape's 1993 debut, more than a million withheld on Da Brat's Funkdafied, and a production share account tied to Xscape's first two albums that opened one period more than 1.5 million dollars in the red. The suit argued those balances should have been wiped under Sony's Legacy Unrecouped Balance Program, announced in 2021 and widened in 2022.
Sony had said in July that the two sides were already trying to resolve a royalty accounting dispute and that it was disappointed So So Def chose litigation instead. Dupri founded So So Def in 1993 through a joint venture with Sony and Columbia, and moved its distribution to HYBE America in April 2025. The case is the third royalty claim against Sony this year to end by agreement with terms undisclosed, and it lands in the same period as Sony's own AI copyright suit against Udio and Merlin's purchase of Curve Royalty Systems. Dupri's catalogue sits across hip-hop and R&B and soul.
The facts
- The dismissal notice was filed August 28, 2026 in the Southern District of New York
- The suit sought at least 18 million dollars from Sony Music
- It was filed July 6, less than two months before it ended
- No settlement terms, payment or accounting remedy were disclosed
- The dismissal was without prejudice, so the claims can be refiled
- Claims covered Kris Kross, Xscape, Da Brat, Usher and Mariah Carey recordings
- Dupri founded So So Def in 1993 with Sony and Columbia
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