When Salt-N-Pepa entered the music industry 40 years ago, they paved a way for women in the industry. Now the members of the first female rap group to go platinum hope to inspire more artists to fight for their rights in their lawsuit against Universal Music Group.
Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton filed a lawsuit against the record label in May to reclaim their recording rights, claiming that Universal Music Group refuses to honor copyright laws. During an interview with Robin Roberts for “Good Morning America,” James and Denton opened up about their legal battle and claimed that the record company has been removing some of their biggest hits from streaming services.
“When you’re an artist, in the beginning, you sign a contract saying that the copyrights will revert back to you after 35 years,” James told Roberts. “And we’ve done all the things legally to get our copyrights back. But they’re just refusing, so we had to sue them.”
“It’s the law. That’s what it really boils down to. It’s the law,” Denton added.
The Salt-N-Peppa members claim that Universal Music Group is refusing to let them exercise their “termination rights,” a federal copyright law that allows artists to reclaim copyright to their original recordings after a period of time.
“It just keeps us from re-releasing our music — promotin’ it,” Denton explained. She believes the record label is withholding their rights to their music due to the “worth” of their hit records like “Push It.”
“Obviously, it’s something. They wanna keep it. They wanna hold onto it. And they’re tryin’ to fight us,” she continued. “So, obviously, they understand what’s the worth of that.”
Since the duo’s filing UMG has fired back with a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that their claims are legally invalid because they were not the ones to sign the contract.
“We are the artists and the law is to protect the artist,” James stressed.
Danton chimed in: “We didn’t have that leverage. We didn’t have that knowledge. We didn’t have that control in the 80s.”
“And so to be held to a contract from 1985 and 40 years later it’s ridiculous,” James concluded.
Despite their ongoing legal battles, this year marks a big year in the rap duo’s career as they prepare to be inducted into the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at the ceremony in November and to receive the Music Influence Award.
