Jermaine Dupri, Jacquees, and Mass Appeal Sued Over 2023 Single 'Pick It Up'

Jermaine Dupri, Jacquees, and Mass Appeal are facing a federal copyright infringement lawsuit over their September 2023 collaboration, "Pick It Up." According to Music Business Worldwide, the complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Van J. Watler and Patrick Watler. The brothers recorded during the 1990s as Home Team, releasing their own song titled "Pick It Up" in July 1992 on Luke Records as the opening track for their debut album, Via Satellite from Saturn. The duo alleges that Dupri and Jacquees lifted both the lyrics and melody without clearance. The filing, handled by Andrew Williams of The Williams Law Group, reads more like an improvised shakedown than a buttoned-up federal complaint. The Watlers are seeking writer credits, a cut of publishing, an accounting of revenue, an injunction halting sales, and more than $150,000 each in "general damages" and "special damages"—neither of which exists under the Copyright Act. The complaint also requests statutory damages "per sale." Federal copyright law calculates statutory awards per work infringed, not per unit sold, capping willful infringement at $150,000. Crucially, the filing fails to include a registration number or attach a certificate from the U.S. Copyright Office, which is a mandatory threshold to bring an infringement claim in federal court. Dragging an industry veteran into court over a three-decade-old regional catalog cut requires real precision, yet this legal team barely cleared statutory fundamentals. The defendants have not yet filed a formal response in court.