Jermaine Dupri and Jacquees are being sued for copyright infringement over their 2023 single Pick It Up.
The lawsuit was filed by Van J. Watler and Patrick Watler, who recorded together as the duo Home Team.
They claim the 2023 track – credited to Dupri featuring Jacquees, and Dupri’s first release for Mass Appeal – copies the lyrics and melody of Home Team’s own Pick It Up, which the complaint says was released on or around July 3, 1992.
That song was the opening track on Home Team’s debut album, Via Satellite from Saturn, released through Luke Records, the Miami label run by Luther Campbell, who is credited as the record’s executive producer.
The complaint was filed on Monday (September 21) in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, in Miami, as case number 1:26-cv-26546.
It also names Mass Appeal Media, the New York-based company that owns Mass Appeal Records, the label that released the 2023 song.
The Watlers are represented by Andrew Williams of Miami firm The Williams Law Group.
The filing, which MBW has reviewed, can be read in full here.
The Watlers are asking for more than USD $150,000 in general damages, and a further sum of more than USD $150,000 in special damages – neither of which is a term the Copyright Act uses.
They also want the court to order that they be credited as writers on the 2023 track, and that they receive “the publishing percentages they are entitled to as ‘writers’ on the Song.”
On top of that, the complaint asks for a full accounting of all money earned by the song, and for an order stopping Mass Appeal from selling it.
The Watlers are also claiming damages set by law, though the complaint asks only for “any prescribed statutory damages” without naming a figure.
Under US copyright law, those run up to USD $150,000 for each work where the infringement is found to be willful. The complaint pleads only the musical composition of the 1992 song, and not the master recording, which leaves a single work at issue and caps that route at the same figure.
The claim against Mass Appeal, however, asks for statutory damages “per sale,” which is not how the statute operates: the award is calculated per work infringed, not per copy sold.
The complaint also states repeatedly that the 1992 song was registered with the US Copyright Office, but does not give a registration number or attach a certificate; the filing carries no exhibits at all. Registration is a precondition to bringing an infringement suit at all, and it also determines whether statutory damages and attorneys’ fees are on the table: they are available for a work registered before the infringement began, and closed off for one registered after.
If Home Team wins, the practical result could be a share of the writer credit and publishing income on Pick It Up, as well as a halt to Mass Appeal’s sales of the track.
According to the complaint, Dupri and Jacquees released their song through Mass Appeal on or around September 22, 2023.
The Watlers claim, based on their belief rather than on any figures cited in the filing, that the defendants have obtained “hundreds of thousands of dollars associated with the Song from their exploitation, sale, downloads, licensing, radio airplay, synchronization and digital streaming in violation of Plaintiffs’ rights.”
“Dupri, Jacquees, and Mass Appeal all knew or should have known that the Song contained the lyrics and the melody/harmony from the Original Song,” the complaint states.
“At no time did the Defendants ever attempt to contact Plaintiffs to get their clearance or permission to license the use of the protectable lyrics and melody/harmony from the Original Song,” the filing adds.
“Dupri, Jacquees, and Mass Appeal all knew or should have known that the Song contained the lyrics and the melody/harmony from the Original Song.”
Van J. Watler and Patrick Watler’s complaint
The complaint itself does not specify which lyrics or melodic passages from the 1992 song it says were copied.
The lawsuit brings a separate copyright claim against each of Dupri, Jacquees, and Mass Appeal, and describes both artists as composers of the 2023 track.
It alleges that Dupri and Jacquees each “collected music publishing royalties from various entities in violation of Plaintiffs’ rights.”
Of Mass Appeal, the complaint states: “Upon information and belief, Mass Appeal has received money for the infringing composition and has paid or caused other corporate entities to pay Dupri and Jacquees monies associated with the composition for the Song.”
The Watlers also bring a claim, in the alternative, that the defendants were unfairly enriched at their expense.
“Notwithstanding the financial gain and compensation that the DEFENDANTS received through their infringing use of the Original Song, Plaintiffs have not received any financial gain or compensation through the commercial release of the Song whatsoever, and they have not been properly credited for their contributions to the Song,” the Watlers’ complaint states.
“The circumstances are such that it would be inequitable for the DEFENDANTS to retain the benefits that were conferred upon them by Plaintiffs, without providing any benefit to Plaintiffs.”
“The circumstances are such that it would be inequitable for the DEFENDANTS to retain the benefits that were conferred upon them by Plaintiffs, without providing any benefit to Plaintiffs.”
Van J. Watler and Patrick Watler’s complaint
The Watlers have demanded a jury trial, and say they reserve the right to seek additional damages intended to punish the defendants.
The lawsuit arrives less than a month after Dupri ended a separate legal fight with Sony Music Entertainment.
Dupri and his So So Def companies sued Sony for at least USD $18 million on July 6, claiming the major had underpaid and underreported royalties on records by Kris Kross, Xscape, Usher, Mariah Carey, and others.
That complaint alleged Sony did not report producer or override royalties on Kris Kross’s first two albums until 2023, and that more than USD $2.2 million remained owed on those records alone.
A Sony Music spokesperson told MBW at the time that the case concerned “a royalty accounting dispute the parties were actively engaged in attempting to resolve.”
Dupri and So So Def dropped the suit on August 28, telling the court the parties had “resolved the matter.”
Neither side disclosed the terms, and the dismissal left Dupri free to bring the claims again.
Dupri founded So So Def in 1993 in a joint venture with Sony Music’s Columbia Records, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
The label struck a distribution deal with HYBE America in April 2025, then led by Scooter Braun.
Mass Appeal, meanwhile, began life in 1996 as a graffiti magazine and was revived in 2013 through a funding round fronted by Nas, as previously reported by MBW.
Universal Music Group led a USD $6 million funding round in the company in 2017, taking a stake and a board seat.
MBW has reached out to Mass Appeal and to Dupri’s management for comment. Representatives for Jacquees could not be reached.Music Business Worldwide
