The sharpest detail buried in Jermaine Dupri’s new lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment is not the $18 million figure. It’s the claim that Sony hid Kris Kross royalties in a separate accounting system for over 20 years without telling anyone on Dupri’s side.
Dupri, So So Def Recordings and So So Def Productions filed the complaint in Manhattan federal court on July 6, targeting Sony over alleged royalty shortfalls tied to some of the biggest names in ’90s and early 2000s R&B and rap. The roster reads like a So So Def hall of fame: Xscape, Da Brat, Kris Kross, Jagged Edge, Usher, Mariah Carey, Bow Wow, J-Kwon and Bone Crusher.
The Kris Kross piece is particularly pointed. The lawsuit alleges Sony never reported producer or override royalties from the group’s first two albums, Totally Krossed Out and Da Bomb, until 2023, and that more than $2.2 million is still owed from those records alone.
When Dupri’s side started asking questions, Sony reportedly said it simply didn’t know those royalties had never been reported. The complaint doesn’t accept that explanation, alleging Sony “attempted to conceal all Kris Kross royalties due Plaintiffs for over 20 years in a separate royalty accounting system unknown to Plaintiffs.
The filing also claims Sony handed over Kris Kross royalty statements in 2023 and 2024 showing more than $30 million in foreign sales, yet still refused to cut the check for at least $2.2 million tied to those records. That’s a hard gap to explain away as a clerical issue.
Xscape and Da Brat are central to the case as well. The complaint says Sony underreported more than $960,000 in producer royalties from Xscape’s 1993 debut Hummin’ Comin’ At ‘Cha, and withheld more than $1 million in producer royalties from Da Brat’s 1994 album Funkdafied.
The Xscape accounting gets even messier. Both of the group’s first two albums were certified platinum, but the lawsuit says Sony still had one So So Def account listed as more than $1.5 million in the red as of June 2020. The complaint calls it “unfathomable” that platinum-selling records couldn’t cover their own advances.
Dupri’s side says that same account generated over $1 million between 2020 and 2024, but So So Def never saw those payments because Sony kept applying the old negative balance against incoming money. That’s not a one-time mistake; that’s a pattern running across multiple years.
Jagged Edge’s 1997 album The Jagged Era is also in the mix. The lawsuit says Sony eventually issued amended statements but only corrected figures going back to 2007, leaving a chunk of earlier money still unaccounted for. The complaint frames that as a deliberate attempt to conceal what was owed.
The whole case was reportedly triggered by a 2025 desk audit conducted by accounting firm Gelfand, Rennert and Feldman. That audit is what allegedly surfaced the full scope of the problem, and Dupri’s team is now arguing that Sony “knew it was violating the contracts” and never voluntarily disclosed any of it.
The $18 million figure includes more than $10 million in interest, which signals just how far back some of these claims stretch. The complaint also notes that Dupri’s work and production deals under So So Def generated more than $200 million in gross revenue over three decades, framing this as a 32-year business relationship that soured badly.
Dupri’s side is asking for a jury trial, the full $18 million, attorneys’ fees and any additional relief the court sees fit to grant. Sony has not yet publicly responded to the filing.
