Universal Music Group (UMG) just notched another high-profile courtroom win, this time against hip-hop legends Salt-N-Pepa.
A federal judge in New York dismissed the legendary rap duo's lawsuit against UMG this week, ruling that Cheryl James and Sandra Denton failed to establish they owned the copyrights they were seeking to reclaim under federal termination law. The decision came from U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, who granted UMG's motion to dismiss in an Opinion & Order dated January 8, 2026. The court entered judgment the next day, officially closing the case.
However, journalist Loren Lorosa reported she has confirmed that Salt-N-Pepa plans to appeal the dismissal, and the group issued a statement making it clear they believe the ruling got it wrong.
"We respectfully disagree with the Court's decision and fully intend to pursue our rights on appeal," the duo said in a statement. "We, Cheryl James and Sandra Denton, also known as the hip-hop icons Salt-N-Pepa, are the creative and driving force behind all our sound recordings and have performed these songs over the past 40 years. We remain committed to vindicating and reclaiming our rights as creators under the Copyright Act."
Salt-N-Pepa originally sued UMG in May 2025, alleging the company interfered with their attempt to regain rights to key recordings through Section 203 of the Copyright Act, which gives creators the ability to terminate certain copyright grants decades after signing them. They also accused UMG of retaliating against their termination efforts by pulling music from streaming platforms.
In the ruling, Judge Cote emphasized that Section 203 can only be used to terminate copyright transfers that were executed by the author, and said Salt-N-Pepa's complaint did not plausibly show that they ever owned the copyrights for their masters or transferred them to UMG's predecessors in the first place.
The court pointed to contract language from the group's 1986 recording agreement showing ownership of the master recordings, including sound recording copyrights, belonged to their producer's company Noise In The Attic Productions, Inc. (NITA), not Salt-N-Pepa directly.
The opinion also addressed an inducement letter Salt-N-Pepa signed in 1986, which they argued acted as a direct grant of rights to Next Plateau Records. But Judge Cote found that reading the agreements together made clear that the only copyright transfer reflected in the documents was from NITA to Next Plateau Records, meaning Salt-N-Pepa could not terminate a grant they didn't execute.
"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," Cote wrote in her decision, referring to the NITA and Next Plateau deals.
Salt-N-Pepa also brought a separate conversion claim alleging UMG interfered with their possession of "master tapes," but the judge dismissed that claim as well, finding the duo didn't plausibly establish ownership of the physical masters.
With the case dismissed, UMG remains in control of the disputed recordings, but Salt-N-Pepa's planned appeal signals this legal fight isn't over yet.
Both parties shared their positions in the aftermath. Universal said in a statement, "“Even with the court’s complete rejection of their claims, we remain open and willing to find a resolution to the matter and turn the page so we can focus our efforts on working together to amplify Salt-N-Pepa’s legacy for generations to come."
In addition to their statement to Lorosa, the group posted a message on Instagram thanking their fans.
"For the last few years, we've been fighting to regain ownership of the music we created," they wrote. "Yesterday, we received a setback in the process, but we believe that justice will prevail in the end."