Salt-N-Pepa’s Federal Lawsuit Against UMG Has Been Dismissed

Salt-N-Pepa’s try at suing UMG met an unlucky outcome this week. According to PEOPLE, on Thursday, January 8, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote dismissed the hip-hop duo’s federal submitting towards the label within the Southern District of New York. The latter filed a movement to have the complaint tossed back in July 2025.

The Queens-based rap outfit accused the imprint of violating the Copyright Act, saying that they weren’t permitting them to reclaim their masters. Moreover, Salt-N-Pepa claimed that UMG was retaliating by eradicating their music from DSPs.

In Judge Denise Cote’s ruling, she decided that the hitmakers by no means owned the copyrights and recordings within the first place. Moreover, they by no means carried out a switch of mentioned rights to themselves or anybody else.

Judge Coting says, “Even considered within the mild most favorable to Plaintiffs, the 1986 agreements don’t point out that Plaintiffs ever owned the copyrights to the sound recordings or that they granted a switch of these rights to anybody else. Federal legislation permits termination rights solely to authors who executed the unique grant, and the courtroom emphasised that “Plaintiffs can solely terminate copyright transfers that they executed.”

UMG has since issued a press release following their authorized victory. “While we’re gratified that the courtroom dismissed this baseless lawsuit, it ought to by no means have been introduced within the first place. Prior to this swimsuit — and with none authorized obligation to take action — we made a number of makes an attempt to resolve the matter amicably, enhance the artists’ compensation, and be sure that Salt-N-Pepa’s followers had entry to their music.”

They conclude by saying that they’re nonetheless keen to hash issues out with the femcee pairing. “Even with the courtroom’s full rejection of their claims, we stay open and keen to discover a decision to the matter and switch the web page so we will focus our efforts on working collectively to amplify Salt-N-Pepa’s legacy for generations to come back.”

As caught by Rolling Stone, Salt-N-Pepa have additionally responded to the information. “We stay dedicated to vindicating and reclaiming our rights as creators below the Copyright Act.” Overall, it seems like this combat may not be over simply but.

As for when all of it started, the main women, Cheryl James and Sandra Denton, introduced this forth in May 2025. However, you would say that it technically grew legs in 2022 as they filed notices of termination in 2022 in order that they might begin reclaiming their grasp recordings.