EXCLUSIVE: JR Author Sues UMG Over Unpaid Royalties From Cam’ron And Juelz Santana Classics

JR Author sues Common Music Group for grasp royalties tied to Cam’ron and Juelz Santana Roc-A-Fella recordings from 2003 and 2004.

JR Author is taking Common Music Group to federal court docket, demanding grasp royalties and a full accounting from two Roc-A-Fella Information tracks he co-wrote and carried out on greater than twenty years in the past.

The Harlem rapper, born Rusty Brito, filed a grievance within the Southern District of New York on June 5 in opposition to UMG, alleging accounting and unjust enrichment over two songs: “Shake,” from Cam’ron’s 2004 traditional Purple Haze, and “Squalie,” from Juelz Santana’s 2003 debut From Me 2 U.

To be clear, JR Author will not be suing Cam’ron or Juelz Santana. His beef is strictly with UMG, the company entity that’s been amassing streaming royalties from these tracks and, in keeping with the swimsuit, protecting his minimize.

The grievance lays out a paper path that’s onerous to argue with. JR Author is listed as a copyright claimant and co-author in U.S. Copyright Workplace information for each songs, credited because the co-writer of lyrics on “Shake” alongside Cameron Giles, and credited on “Squalie” underneath his authorized center identify, Marcos Brito.

Spotify publicly credit him as a featured artist and co-writer on each tracks throughout all main DSPs. He’s been amassing ASCAP publishing royalties and SoundExchange efficiency royalties this complete time, which the swimsuit argues confirms his standing as a rights holder.

Beginning round April 2025, JR Author spent 9 months going backwards and forwards with UMG’s royalty helpdesk, submitting W-9 types, financial institution verification, authorities ID and ACH wire authorization, all the pieces they requested for.

UMG acknowledged his publishing credit however stored stonewalling on the grasp facet, citing an inner coverage requiring an “artist settlement, Letter of Route or label waivers” earlier than they’d launch something.

The issue, because the grievance factors out, is that no such settlement exists. JR Author by no means signed a work-for-hire deal or a royalty waiver, and UMG has by no means produced any instrument transferring his possession curiosity, as a result of there’s none to switch. Beneath federal copyright legislation, a rights switch that isn’t documented in a signed written instrument merely doesn’t rely.

The swimsuit argues UMG has it utterly backward. It’s the occasion asserting a rights switch that should produce the paperwork, not the artist whose rights are supposedly being transferred.

The identical dynamic performed out in Cam’ron’s current authorized battle with UMG over J. Cole’s “Prepared ’24”, the place the problem of credit score and royalty accounting at UMG stored surfacing.

JR Author’s legal professionals are searching for a full accounting of all revenues from each tracks since their unique business launch, plus his proportionate share of grasp and publishing royalties, damages for unjust enrichment, and a court docket order requiring UMG to correctly determine him in its information.