DJ Spinderella filed a lawsuit against her former Salt-N-Pepa members last month, seeking monetary compensation for unpaid royalties. On Friday (August 2), a spokesperson for Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton, Rich French, released a statement to HipHopDX revealing the case has been moved to mediation.
“A U.S. District Court Judge in the Dallas District today rejected DJ Spinderella’s requests for immediate relief against Salt-N-Pepa and its management, ordering the case to mediation,” French said in the statement. “We are grateful for the judge’s ruling as Salt-N-Pepa have been extremely generous to Spin over many decades and attempted to settle what amounts to a divorce, both peacefully and without rancor.
“Unfortunately, Spin and her legal team adopted a scorched earth approach that brought unnecessary attention to a business dispute that all along could have, and should have, been settled amicably and privately.”
In May, Spin revealed she wouldn’t be touring with Salt-N-Pepa as part of the New Kids On The Block: The Mixtape Tour and claimed the other two members had sent her packing.
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“I’m deeply saddened to share with all the #SaltnPepa and #Spinderella fans that I will not be performing on the #NKOTB Mixtape Tour,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “Despite my participation in promoting the tour and being highly publicized as one of the acts, in January 2019 I received a ‘termination’ email from #SaltnPepa excluding me from performances with the group.”
Spinderella was originally suing for trademark infringement, fraud and breach of contract. She was reportedly most upset about what she learned from SoundExchange, a company that collects and distributes royalties to artists.
She was told Salt and Pepa have been paid over $600,000 in royalties in the last 10 years, and Spin never saw any of the money.
