JR Writer is suing Universal Music Group for mastering royalties related to Cam’ron and Juelz Santana Roc-A-Fella’s 2003 and 2004 recordings.
JR Writer is taking Universal Music Group to federal court, seeking total royalties and a complete accounting of two Roc-A-Fella Records songs he co-wrote and performed on more than two decades ago.
The Harlem rapper, born Rusty Brito, filed a lawsuit against UMG on June 5 in the Southern District of New York, accusing Universal Music of accounting and unjust enrichment over two songs: Cam’ron’s “Shake” from his classic 2004 album Purple Haze and Juelz Santana’s 2003 debut Urom 2003. “SquaS” from the album.
To be clear, JR Writer is not suing Cam’ron or Juelz Santana. He points his finger squarely at UMG, the corporate entity that has been collecting streaming royalties from the tracks and, according to the lawsuit, keeping his cut.
The complaint lays out a paper trail that is difficult to refute. JR Writer is listed in U.S. Copyright Office records as the copyright claimant and co-writer of both songs, co-writing the lyrics to “Shake” with Cameron Giles and writing “Squalie” under his legal middle name, Marcos Brito.
Spotify publicly praised him as a featured artist and co-writer on both songs on all major DSPs. He has been collecting ASCAP publishing royalties and SoundExchange performance royalties, which the lawsuit says validates his status as a rights holder.
Beginning around April 2025, JR Writer spent nine months going back and forth with UMG’s royalty help desk, submitting W-9 forms, bank verifications, government IDs and ACH wire authorizations and everything they asked for.
Universal Music Group has acknowledged his publishing credit but has been stonewalling on the master’s part, citing an internal policy requiring an “artist agreement, letter of instruction or label exemption” before releasing any content.
The problem, as the complaint points out, is that no such agreement exists. JR Writer never signed a work-for-hire agreement or royalty waiver, and UMG never produced any document transferring its ownership interest because there was no document available for transfer. Under federal copyright law, a transfer of rights not recorded in a signed writing does not count at all.
The lawsuit claims Universal Music Group is completely behind the times. It is the party asserting the transfer of rights who is required to provide documentation, not the artist to whom the rights are allegedly transferred.
The same situation played out in Cam’ron’s recent legal battle with UMG over J. Cole’s Ready ’24 , in which issues with UMG’s credit and royalty accounting continued to surface.
JR Writer’s attorneys are seeking a full accounting of all earnings from the two tracks since their initial commercial release, plus his share of the mastering and publishing royalties, damages for unjust enrichment, and a court order requiring Universal Music Group to properly identify him in its records.
