Salt-N-Pepa Sue UMG for Rights to Their Catalogue

Sandra Denton and Cheryl James of legendary hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa are suing Universal Music Group for the rights to their catalogue, saying that the label is holding their music “hostage.”

In a suit filed Monday in New York, the plaintiffs, whose hits include “Push It” and “Whatta Man” with En Vogue, say they “will not tolerate disrespect” from the label.

The legal paperwork, which was obtained by TheWrap, states that “Plaintiffs not only transformed the genre but created, recorded, and performed some of the most famous hits of the twentieth century,” and that as the “First Females of Rap,” they “pav[ed] the way for subsequent generations of powerful and commercially successful female rap and hip-hop artists.”

The suit estimates that the catalogue has generated $1 million in the past five months in synchronization licenses alone, despite “little to no marketing efforts” by UMG.

UMG has held a copyright grant since 1986, which has “given UMG the right to exploit Plaintiffs’ master recordings and retain a portion of all monies earned by Plaintiffs from the commercial exploitation of their work.”

In 2022, Denton and James sought to exercise their rights under Section 203 of the Copyright Act of 1976 and asked UMG to terminate their contact. This section allows authors to terminate copyright grants after 35 years.

“Inexplicably, UMG has refused to honor Plaintiffs’ Notices of Termination. To the contrary, UMG has indicated that it will hold Plaintiffs’ rights hostage even if it means tanking the value of Plaintiffs’ music catalogue and depriving their fans of access to their work,” the lawsuit states, citing instances where UMG removed Salt-N-Pepa music from streaming platforms and “otherwise made it unavailable for commercial exploitation in the U.S.”

The two women state they “will not tolerate disrespect from UMG who has benefited greatly from Plaintiffs’ enormous and immeasurable

contributions to the industry as artists, rappers, icons, and women—often in the face of immense odds and despite enormous industry pressure.”

Denton and James are seeking a jury trial.

Salt-N- Pepa will be inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame on November 8. They were thefFirst female rap group to be certified platinum and win a Grammy and can boast more than 1 billion global streams and 15 million physical album sales in the U.S.

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