Salt-N-Pepa’s lawsuit against Universal Music Group has been dismissed by a federal judge.
According to PEOPLE, the ruling stated that the duo “did not plausibly establish ownership of the copyrights and master recordings.”
Judge Denise Cote granted UMG’s motion to dismiss the filing in the Southern District of New York, essentially closing the case brought by Cheryl James and Sandra Denton. The lawsuit was filed in May 2025.
In the ruling, Cole said that the group could not reclaim the recordings under the Copyright Act because they never owned them. And therefore “never transferred — the copyrights they were seeking to terminate.”
”Even viewed in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs, the 1986 agreements do not indicate that Plaintiffs ever owned the copyrights to the sound recordings. Or that they granted a transfer of those rights to anyone else,” the judge wrote. “Federal law allows termination rights only to authors who executed the original grant. And the court emphasized that “Plaintiffs can only terminate copyright transfers that they executed.”
UMG released a statement lauding the judge’s decision.
“We are gratified that the court dismissed this baseless lawsuit. It should never have been brought in the first place,” UMG said. “Prior to this suit — and without any legal obligation to do so — we made multiple attempts to resolve the matter amicably. To improve the artists’ compensation, and ensure that Salt-N-Pepa’s fans had access to their music.”
In the suit, Salt-N-Pepa followed a copyright law that lets artists take back control of their music 35 years after signing away the rights. The group notified Universal of their decision in 2022. According to the suit, UMG rejected the notices. Eventually, UMG removed “Push It,” “Shoop,” “Let’s Talk About Sex,” and the group’s other songs from streaming services.
Salt-N-Pepa stated that UMG’s actions have “effectively frozen their ability to profit from their own work. Also, “diminished the value of their catalog.”