{"id":7551,"date":"2026-06-06T21:09:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/2026\/06\/06\/exclusive-jr-writer-sues-umg-over-unpaid-royalties-from-camron-and-juelz-santana-classics\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T21:09:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:09:53","slug":"exclusive-jr-writer-sues-umg-over-unpaid-royalties-from-camron-and-juelz-santana-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/2026\/06\/06\/exclusive-jr-writer-sues-umg-over-unpaid-royalties-from-camron-and-juelz-santana-classics\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: JR Writer Sues UMG Over Unpaid Royalties From Cam&#8217;ron And Juelz Santana Classics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allhiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Camron.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>JR Writer sues Universal Music Group for master royalties tied to Cam\u2019ron and Juelz Santana Roc-A-Fella recordings from 2003 and 2004.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.aigeon.ai\/api\/signup\/form\/sw_3MiYKLndhel9vIXU\" class=\"signup-embed allhiphop-signup-embed\" data-test-id=\"signup-embed\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width: 400px; height: 240px; margin: 0; border-radius: 8px; background-color: transparent; box-shadow: 0 0 #0000; max-width: 100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/aside><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/tag\/jr-writer\/\">JR Writer<\/a> is taking Universal Music Group to federal court, demanding master royalties and a full accounting from two Roc-A-Fella Records tracks he co-wrote and performed on more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>The Harlem rapper, born Rusty Brito, filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York on June 5 against UMG, alleging accounting and unjust enrichment over two songs: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6Ff__MmCZRo\">\u201cShake,\u201d<\/a> from Cam\u2019ron\u2019s 2004 classic <em>Purple Haze<\/em>, and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/rKQ6rb9LFvk?list=RDrKQ6rb9LFvk\">Squalie,\u201d<\/a> from Juelz Santana\u2019s 2003 debut <em>From Me 2 U<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p>To be clear, JR Writer is not suing Cam\u2019ron or Juelz Santana. His beef is strictly with UMG, the corporate entity that\u2019s been collecting streaming royalties from those tracks and, according to the suit, keeping his cut.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint lays out a paper trail that\u2019s hard to argue with. JR Writer is listed as a copyright claimant and co-author in U.S. Copyright Office records for both songs, credited as the co-writer of lyrics on \u201cShake\u201d alongside Cameron Giles, and credited on \u201cSqualie\u201d under his legal middle name, Marcos Brito. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><d class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><br \/>\n<d class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shake\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6Ff__MmCZRo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/d><br \/>\n<\/d><\/figure>\n<p>Spotify publicly credits him as a featured artist and co-writer on both tracks across all major DSPs. He\u2019s been collecting ASCAP publishing royalties and SoundExchange performance royalties this whole time, which the suit argues confirms his status as a rights holder. <\/p>\n<p>Starting around April 2025, JR Writer spent nine months going back and forth with UMG\u2019s royalty helpdesk, submitting W-9 forms, bank verification, government ID and ACH wire authorization, everything they asked for. <\/p>\n<p>UMG acknowledged his publishing credits but kept stonewalling on the master side, citing an internal policy requiring an \u201cartist agreement, Letter of Direction or label waivers\u201d before they\u2019d release anything. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><d class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><br \/>\n<d class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Squalie\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rKQ6rb9LFvk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/d><br \/>\n<\/d><\/figure>\n<p>The problem, as the complaint points out, is that no such agreement exists. JR Writer never signed a work-for-hire deal or a royalty waiver, and UMG has never produced any instrument transferring his ownership interest, because there is none to transfer. Under federal copyright law, a rights transfer that isn\u2019t documented in a signed written instrument simply doesn\u2019t count.<\/p>\n<p>The suit argues UMG has it completely backward. It\u2019s the party asserting a rights transfer that needs to produce the paperwork, not the artist whose rights are supposedly being transferred. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/news\/exclusive-camron-vs-j-cole-update-major-portion-dismissed-but-fight-isnt-over\/\">The same dynamic played out in Cam\u2019ron\u2019s recent legal battle with UMG over J. Cole\u2019s \u201cReady \u201924\u201d<\/a>, where the issue of credit and royalty accounting at UMG kept surfacing. <\/p>\n<p>JR Writer\u2019s lawyers are seeking a full accounting of all revenues from both tracks since their original commercial release, plus his proportionate share of master and publishing royalties, damages for unjust enrichment, and a court order requiring UMG to properly identify him in its records. <\/p>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<!-- CONTENT END 1 --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/news\/exclusive-jr-writer-sues-umg-over-unpaid-royalties-from-camron-and-juelz-santana-classics\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JR Writer sues Universal Music Group for master royalties tied to Cam\u2019ron and Juelz Santana Roc-A-Fella recordings from 2003 and 2004. JR Writer is taking Universal Music Group to federal court, demanding master royalties and a full accounting from two Roc-A-Fella Records tracks he co-wrote and performed on more than two decades ago. The Harlem [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}