Teddy Riley Clarifies Keith Sweat Make It Last Forever Dispute After Jermaine Dupri Questions Publishing [Video]

Teddy Riley‘s recent claim that he wasn’t paid for his work on Keith Sweat’s iconic “Make It Last Forever” album has caused an uproar in the R&B world. During an appearance on the “We In Miami Podcast,” Riley alleged that despite the album’s multi-platinum success and No. 1 chart run, he only received $1,500 and never saw royalty checks. Now, Jermaine Dupri has entered the chat, forcing Riley to clarify his stance, though he is not backing down.

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Dupri addressed the controversy in an Instagram video, questioning how unpaid royalties could occur without a publishing agreement being involved.

“Teddy saying he never got paid from that album, never got a royalty check or anything from that album, is almost impossible if, unless you sign your publishing over to someone,” Dupri said. “And I think that’s the part that’s being left out. Somewhere in the mix of that, Teddy signed something that gave his publishing to someone else.”

He continued, “All I’m telling you is from a real understanding of how publishing works, songwriting works. If you write songs and you have your songs published by a publisher, and all of your business is correct, it’s their job at that point to get you paid.” Dupri added, “If you sign a publishing deal with Sony Music or Universal or one of these people out here, their daytime job is to collect money and make sure their writers get paid.”

Riley later returned to Instagram to clear the air and issue a public apology to Sweat.

“Peace and blessings. I want to take this moment to speak from the heart,” Riley began. “There was a post that went out that talked about me not being paid on the ‘Make It Last Forever’ album. And that is true. But it’s also true that Keith Sweat did not get paid either. We are in the same situation.”

He pushed back on JD’s publishing speculation, stating, “For the people in the back, it doesn’t have anything to do with publishing…We are eating off of our publishing.”

Riley concluded, “I want to make this sincere apology to Keith and his family… We created this music together. And as I said, we should be eating from it.”