Why are Salt-N-Pepa suing UMG? Drama explained

On May 19, 2025, the revolutionary female hip-hop duo Salt-N-Pepa, made up of Cheryl "Salt" James and Sandra "Pepa" Denton, sued Universal Music Group. The complaint, as per People Magazine, said that UMG took Salt-N-Pepa's famous songs off of U.S. streaming sites as a way to get back at the pair for trying to get back their master recordings.

The complaint says that the two had the right to have their old catalogs back when they sent UMG termination notices under the U.S. Copyright Act in 2022. It further states that UMG still claims ownership by putting its name on the works that were made for hire.

Salt-N-Pepa are suing UMG: more details

Salt-N-Pepa, the First Females of Rap, became famous in the mid-1980s because their hit songs changed the way the general public saw hip-hop. The two have launched legal action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, forty years after they first appeared, as reported by People Magazine.

They say that UMG broke the Copyright Act of 1976 and their artists' rights by not fulfilling their termination notifications in 2022 and by purposefully taking their songs off major streaming services.

Cheryl "Salt" James and Sandra "Pepa" Denton started Salt-N-Pepa in Queens, New York 1985. The two immediately became famous with songs like "Push It" (1987) and "Shoop" (1993). The duo's first two albums, 1986's Hot, Cool & Vicious and 1988's A Salt with a Deadly Pepa, were recorded under contracts that didn't give the artists any power in the business.

Section 203 of the Copyright Act says that artists may stop granting rights after 35 years. This means that the group may be able to get back the rights to their most important works. The Copyright Act of 1976 says that recording artists may get back master recordings and take away earlier awards of copyright ownership after 35 years.

Salt-N-Pepa delivered these messages to UMG in 2022 to regain the rights to the music from Hot, Cool & Vicious and the following hits. People say that UMG's actions have hurt Salt-N-Pepa's streaming income and kept new listeners from hearing their revolutionary songs.

This has hurt their financial condition and cultural legacy. There have been similar fights amongst legacy artists for catalog reclamation in the past. For example, 2 Live Crew won a fight in 2023, while a bigger class-action case against UMG and Sony Music over termination rights was thrown out for certification but was settled in 2024.

This action, which the two are preparing for their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later in 2025, might lead to bigger changes in how copyright works and how contracts are written.

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