On January 8, 2026 a judge found that contracts dating back to 1986 showed Salt-N-Pepa never owned the copyrights in their master recordings. Who owned the copyrights? Noise In The Attic Productions, Inc., a company owned by their producer Hurby Azor, that later merged into UMG, designated as the sole owner, undermining their ability to invoke termination rights.
Salt N Pepa made claims in the lawsuit that UMG was holding their music “hostage” by denying their attempts to take back control and by pulling key albums (including ones with “Push It” and “Let’s Talk About Sex”) from streaming services, which they characterized as retaliation.
UMG publicly welcomed the judge’s decision as a “complete rejection” of the claims but said it remained open to a business resolution and to working with the group to promote their legacy.
Read – https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/salt-n-pepa-loses-bid-reclaim-recordings-umg-2026-01-08/
The shady timeline of Noise In The Attic included distribution agreement with Next Plateau Records, which then transferred those rights on to London Records, later part of UMG. Unless Salt N Pepa were not in the position (at the time of sale) to make the purchase of there masters, the unethical transaction of not presenting the sale first to Salt N Pepa could be grounds to rework the lawsuit.
This lawsuit could be the root cause to the prior lawsuit in 2019 by Spinderalla against the group over alleged unpaid royalties that is now learned wasn’t in the authority of the group to comply. Spinderalla’s additional legal claims were improper licensing, and being cut out of group earnings and branding.
The judge ultimately denied her requests in an early decision for immediate injunctive relief and sent the dispute toward mediation; the parties later reported that they had “resolved” the case, and Spinderella has since spoken publicly about moving on, though detailed settlement terms were not made public.
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