Music producer Jermaine Dupri has filed an $18 million lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment, alleging that the company failed to pay him royalties owed for recordings by artists including Mariah Carey, Usher, Xscape and Kris Kross. The suit, lodged on Monday and reviewed by Variety, claims Sony's dealings with Dupri were "not been lawful" going back to May 1992, when his So-So Def imprint first signed with the company. The case matters because it targets one of the industry's major labels over long-running royalty accounting, a recurring source of disputes between artists and their distributors.

Dupri's lawyers describe a pattern of underreporting royalties and retroactively revising earlier statements, accusing Sony of "willful deceitful actions designed to harm" his business. Specific claims include roughly $960,000 in unpaid producer royalties for Xscape's "Hummin' Comin' At 'Cha" and more than $1 million for Da Brat's "Funkdafied," along with understated sums tied to albums by Carey, Usher, Bow Wow and others. Dupri says he began suspecting shortfalls in 2023, and the suit seeks at least $18 million plus more than $10 million in interest, along with attorney fees, to be determined by a jury trial. Sony declined to comment.