The Legendary hip-hop duo Salt-N-Pepa (Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton) lost their legal battle to reclaim their master recordings from Universal Music Group. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote granted UMG’s motion to dismiss the case. Deidra "DJ Spinderella" Roper, who parted ways with the group in 2019, is not a part of the lawsuit.

According to Reuters, Salt-N-Pepa asked the court to recognize termination notices they served in 2022, aiming to take back the rights to recordings released between 1986 and 1990. The judge found they “did not show that they ever owned the copyrights at issue.” In plain terms, Salt-N-Pepa’s contract work was originally owned by their first label (Noise In The Attic/Next Plateau), which meant the women never held those master copyrights themselves. Without ownership to terminate, their bid to force UMG to relinquish the masters collapsed.

Salt-N-Pepa, however, plan to appeal. They issued a statement to Pitchfork saying they “respectfully disagree with the Court’s decision and fully intend to pursue our rights on appeal” under U.S. copyright law. They invoked Section 203 of the Copyright Act (the termination provision), arguing the recordings should be theirs by now. 

Many artists from past decades find that their original label deals leave them with very limited recourse. Unlike music publishers’ rights (where some songwriters have successfully reclaimed works), reclaiming sound recordings has proved much harder.

This case is only the latest chapter in artists-versus-labels battles. Salt-N-Pepa’s loss stands in contrast to other high-profile catalog fights (for example, Taylor Swift’s re-recording strategy or Dolly Parton winning new publishing rights on her songs). Critics note that termination rights depend entirely on the fine print of old contracts. 

In Salt-N-Pepa’s case, the judge essentially said the women granted full ownership to others and thus can’t suddenly cancel those grants. For fans, the result is bittersweet. Their music stays available via UMG, but the founding members will not directly benefit from ownership of those recordings. For now, at least, Salt-N-Pepa must continue under UMG’s umbrella – perhaps focusing on new projects – while major discussions continue about how much leverage legacy artists should have to reclaim their life’s work.