Atlanta is the only city I know where
people come here for like a weekend.
And then next time you see them,
they're like I live in College Park.
Where the players play and
we ride on them, things
like everyday big beat,
welcome to 11 Alive uninterrupted,
a program that brings you in depth
conversations with influential thought
leaders and dynamic visionaries.
In Atlanta, I'm your host Naima Abdullahi.
This week we sit down one-on-one with Grammy
award-winning super producer Jermaine Dupri,
who is also in the Songwriters
Hall of Fame and the official
ambassador of All Things Atlanta.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Absolutely. We have a lot to celebrate.
Yeah, the 30th anniversary of so,
so DEF recordings.
What comes to mind as we
reach this milestone?
I'm old.
A lot of things just just you know
just passing my mind like wow.
Yeah you know I mean all of this stuff.
So just looking at it is amazing.
I like I said I could do is thank God
considering the the decades
that so so DEF has been doing
amazing things to contributing
to the culture from 93 till now.
I mean launch the careers of escape,
Bow Wow, crisscross.
I mean if we really look at the entire
roster also includes Anthony Hamilton,
Jacket Edge, Dem, franchise boys,
Debrett and the list goes on.
Tell us about the contribution.
It has made not only to the hip-hop industry,
but also to the city of Atlanta.
Everything I do is, was, was and is to.
Further growing city, I mean,
because when I started,
the city wasn't the city that it is today.
Umm, that's right. And.
As I grew my company, the city grew,
the city grew as well.
And so, so it's, you know, so,
so death in Atlanta go hand in hand.
The Atlanta Sound is in the music.
The, the, the swag, the,
the attitude of Atlanta is in the music.
Does it ever hit you how much
impact you've made and continue
to make in the industry?
Is that something you ever reflect on?
Because I know you're very humble,
but you know you do deserve
your flowers in the country.
Yeah, I mean I think I don't
really pay attention to.
Yeah, I mean, it's hard to know that
you are making impact on people,
especially in today's world of hip-hop,
because somebody like me,
I've been an underdog for so long,
and I'm always in this argument
about this person and that person.
So when you're in that.
Battle, right?
People don't allow you to
understand if you're being
influential to other people.
Well, allow me to remind people,
if someone had 5% of your impact,
that would be enough for a lifetime.
I mean, considering the artist
that you've worked with from
records you've produced,
right for Jay-Z, Mariah Carey,
Usher, Aaliyah, Alicia Keys,
Janet Jackson, the list goes on.
What would you say is the
secret to your success? I think
the secret to my success is,
is it's a plan, you know, this is not love.
It's all, it's a plan.
It's a, it's a, it's a strategy.
It's a thought out plan that you know.
Once I I met Babyface and he said
he told me he was like, you know?
It's cool that you have that
hit record with crisscross,
but it don't mean nothing until you
can do it multiple times at that point
in time when I when he told me that.
That's what all of my focus went
my all all my focus went to.
It don't mean nothing until
you can do it multiple times.
So at that point I was working
on escape and I was just like.
Oh, OK I gotta make escape hit.
I gotta make the brat hit.
I gotta make jagged Edge hit.
I gotta make this person here I gotta,
you know?
So my mind at that point clicked
on and it was,
it's just became a plan of attack
and reflecting on so so deaf.
Do you feel like the record label
gets the credit it deserves and
what it was able to build not
only in the city of Atlanta but
for the entire music industry.
No we don't. The label doesn't get the
credit because I think Jermaine Dupri was so.
Much louder than the actual label.
I wish the label did get the credit and
people could have paid more attention
to the business acumen of social death
because of the people that came from there.
Little John scooter Braun. Kenny Hamilton,
this is so many people that are influential
guys in the music industry today.
Umm, that would birth that's also there
from a business standpoint, right?
And that's, that's a part that
I feel like people skip over.
Now looking at the record label kind
of culture in Atlanta right now,
where there are so many labels who
represent and reflect the culture.
I feel like so, so deaf really set the
tone and created a space for hip hop
artists in the city of Atlanta, right?
Well, I mean like I said, you know,
one thing that we don't talk about in
Atlanta is like I said, I was the 1st
and I I just realized this actually yeah,
that I was the 1st. Person.
To actually gonna get a hip hop group
signed to a major label in Atlanta.
So you know with that in itself,
that's just these are just facts.
This ain't even like a yeah,
this ain't even a conversation piece if
you look at the major side of it then.
That's what I brought to the city.
I made it.
Possible for other people to to to
believe that it could work for them?
This year also marks the
50th anniversary of hip hop.
I'm considering right now that
it is the most powerful music
genre in the world and at the
same time it's also the youngest.
What comes to your mind?
Well, I mean a lot of things like
I I can't believe that hip-hop
and myself are the same age.
It's amazing because I I do remember doing
interviews just like this when I started.
With crisscross. Hmm.
And people still saying it was a fad.
I also remember when I was younger and
I was dancing and I would do whatever
type of interviews I had back then,
and I would hear reporters talk
about hip-hop being a fad now,
for you to hear you say it's the
most dominant music genre ever
is is amazing, you know,
and looking at, you know,
just the contribution that
Atlanta has had with that.
You know, when we look at outcasts,
when we look at Goody Mob,
when we look at social.
Having so many others tell us about
that sauce that Atlanta was able
to put into that 50 years as well.
I mean, I I think this sauce that Atlanta
brought to hip hop was just territory, right?
Because I was thinking about
this other night, you know?
One thing that I had that.
That I have kept as as as I continue to
keep doing what I'm doing right is that.
You know, my territory is this
is this is my territory, right?
I haven't moved to another city
and set up shop. Hmm. I didn't.
You know, I I never did that out of all
the years that I've been doing, I'm doing.
I never decided to leave Atlanta
and go to somewhere else and try to
recreate what I had in this city.
A lot of hip hop artists today
and in the past. Moved.
And they didn't have the the ground
structure that Atlanta artists have.
So you look at QC, you look at future,
you look at little baby,
you look at Outkast, you look at Goodie Mob.
It's all the the bottom structure
is all the same.
How would you describe that fight for
Atlanta to feel heard with the South?
Got something to say? I mean,
like when we talk about that creativity,
that sound, that sauce in that
style that come from the city,
tell us about that fight
for the city to feel heard.
During those times and today as well,
I mean it was, I mean it was
pretty, pretty hard, you know?
I wanted to be heard so bad that I,
you know, I did.
I took a lot of different turns that a
lot of different artists weren't taking in.
When people talk about Southern hip hop,
I'm the first person from the South
to make a record with Jay-Z, right?
So. So. And I did. You know,
I didn't do that. To infiltrate.
Yeah, what they were doing, but.
I did that to further along
what we were doing right to,
to move the mindset of that, you know,
Atlanta was just this country place that,
you know, didn't,
didn't deserve to be in hip-hop.
And I came up.
I grew up in that space of people
thinking about Atlanta from that,
from that perspective,
yeah, that fight was hard,
though.
Being, you know,
considered country and not
people not playing our records
based on that is just wild.
And I feel like that fight
is still there, though.
Yeah, it's still there because why?
I think it's still there,
even as the Mecca of the
hip-hop industry right now,
because they care about hip hop, right?
Saying, I called you right.
They care about hip hop, right?
That's a part of hip hop that
people don't talk about, right?
You have to care about this.
You have to care about it.
You have to.
You have to want to move the needle.
You as a person have to want to move
the needle if you want to be in hip-hop.
And kind of reflecting on
the impact of the genre,
what seems to cloud it is some
of the violence that oftentimes
does get covered, unfortunately,
with some of the artists that
we've lost over the years as well.
Where does the responsibility
lie within that?
I mean, that's hard because,
you know, hip hop is,
it's always been a dangerous sport.
It's not, you know?
I think social media makes the
the violence louder now, OK?
We have lost more rappers than
ever and also makes the rappers.
More. Accessible right.
It makes it make it makes it easier
for you to find them and make date
they people on Instagram with money
arms and money phones and they tag
where they location that so it does
make it easier for you to get to him
and all of this so but but I you
know I don't I I think social media
is the reason behind that I think
people need to stop using social
media in that space we all know
that but at the same time I think
people should never blame hip hop.
You should blame.
The eyeballs that have been
being able to put on it because.
That wasn't there before.
And, you know, it's a young sport also,
I say that that, yeah,
I'm glad that we are celebrating
the 50th anniversary because yeah,
people talk about hip hop like
it's 100 years old.
Yeah, it's not. It's something new.
It's something that is growing every
day and there's something that.
Changes every month.
And there's something that is
learning is the animal of months
that hip hop is itself.
He's learning every day.
Yeah, part of that learning process is
also seeing the value of mental health.
And I know that that's something
Shanti Das really stresses.
How can we bring mental Wellness to,
you know, the culture so that we're also
talking about the things that we need
where if an artist does escape the trap,
they're not mentally trapped in that.
They have that Wellness journey to be
a better holistic person. As well,
I mean, you know, it's crazy because like.
I swear, man. When I was growing up.
Hmm. I never heard nobody
talk about mental health.
Umm, I was gonna ask you that. So, so, so.
I'm a person that's just learning this now,
you know, I mean,
and I think that that people,
I feel like that's another thing
that that people have to take into
consideration when you talking
about mental health and all that.
Yeah. I've been here, you know,
50 years and I'm, you know,
I'm just now hearing people talk about this.
And I'm trying to understand it.
Like at first it was like,
where's this coming from?
Right.
Like, because if if somebody was someone
mental health back when I was younger,
it was like one person.
It was like, this one person is
going through mental health things.
And that adopts to have a whole generation
of a whole clan of people in schools.
And all of this is something
that we all have to.
Educate ourselves a lot better
on because like I said, I'm,
I'm not as educated as I should be on it.
And it's not because I don't care.
It's more about it wasn't in my
right growing up and we didn't know
what we didn't know because like,
you know, for us, we didn't hear
about this. And shanti's my home girl, too.
That's what I'm saying.
It's like to have her be as
close as she is to me and to,
you know, see and hear things.
And I, you know, I know about.
Death and all of this.
But I'm also learning that
it's beyond natural causes.
It's people that are just,
you know, that are in these spaces.
Yeah. How do you get through your
hard times, those roadblocks,
those hardships that you face in life,
like what gets you through those days?
I don't have no hard times.
Yeah, because I look at my life right.
Just like you said.
What this thirty anniversary.
So, so deaf. Yeah.
You know, when you look at that,
based on where I came
from and how I grew up.
I can't be. I I can't have a hard day,
you know, I mean, I got two beautiful
daughters that are well taken care of and
I still continue to keep doing what I got
to do to make sure they write my mother,
my father, you know, I I do.
I have days where things don't go like
I want them to go, right. That's yes.
It's funny because on the currency
project I posted this verse of me
rapping and then the verse I talk about.
My father not being at home and my
mother working like a slave and
I look at all the comments.
I'm not all of them.
I see a lot of comments,
a lot of people in there like.
Especially on TikTok,
a lot of people like Jermaine.
This verse is hot,
but that versus cat you grew up rich
and what people don't understand is.
I've had money long as they've known me.
Hmm.
But they didn't know me when I was
12131110, right? Nine.
You know, they didn't know me as a kid.
They didn't know that nobody ever heard.
You made April 12, 1314.
Fifteen years old.
People didn't start knowing me till I was 17.
And people don't even really
take that into consideration.
That's the same thing I'm saying
about mental health as like people.
Just we believe and we start
living in this space and don't do.
Education.
We don't educate ourselves
and we just living right.
I'm one of these people that
don't subscribe to that.
I believe in living and understanding
what's actually going on
with a positive mindset and appreciation
for all the blessings that came.
Yeah. I mean like that's
that's what I'm saying.
Like I and I mean because I believe in,
I believe in what you put in the universe
and the energy you put in the universe.
It's gonna come back if it's good right.
Welcome to Atlanta where the play is
played when you said the phrase.
Welcome to Atlanta.
Did you have a feeling that it would
be a phrase that would bring the
world to the doorsteps of the a
Atlanta is the only city I know where
people come here for like, a weekend.
And the next time you see them,
they're like, I live in College Park.
Like what what?
I live in Decatur. Like OK, wow.
And how important it down here since age
3 that was happening prior to the song.
I started paying attention to that.
Like, I think I was seeing that
before everybody else realized
it. When you look at all your success.
And all your accomplishments.
Do you feel unappreciated in the
industry at any moment totally
unappreciated but but I but
like I said I feel like.
What do you feel underappreciated?
50% of the music industry can't
do what I do or they haven't
done what I've done and that's,
that's, that's speaking.
You know, if you have that larger
percentage then why don't people speak
of that person much higher, right.
And I think it's a default though because.
What I brought to the table. Was never seen.
Now people trying to tell me about what
I brought to the game is the thing,
and the numbers speak for themselves.
I did a quick Google search
and online it said you sold
more than 400 million records.
I'm sure that number is far
greater than that right now.
What does it look like now?
I don't know. But yeah,
that was a while ago. But right,
so numbers speak even when
you don't get the credit.
Why do you think oftentimes people don't
get their flowers while they're here?
Well now I'm starting to realize that it's
you have to take your flowers you can't get,
you can't nobody's you can't wait to
get it gonna give you your flowers you
gotta take them that that whole mindset.
And and you know I remember watching
Little Richard go on the American Music
Awards and say you know the winner is me.
Y'all ain't get y'all ain't
never gave me nothing.
And I thought about it when I watched it.
I seen it live. By the way.
I didn't watch it on YouTube.
I watched some actually say this.
And I remember how that impacted me like
they treat Little Richard like this.
They're gonna definitely treat me like this.
So for me I just look at it the
same way I'm like, do you know what?
We taking them.
I'm taking my flowers and I'm not gonna have.
You know, your your pride can't be too big,
right?
Your pride can't be.
If you if you want people to hear
you and you want to continue to walk
and do what you gotta do, you gotta,
you gotta put your feet on the
floor and do what you got to do.
That's why I came to see you
because I didn't. I I felt like.
This is the first interview I've
done for the 30th anniversary.
I want to continue what I started.
Umm, I started here in Atlanta.
Hmm. I started with local TV.
I started with local news.
I started with the local radio stations.
I want the base to continue to stay the same.
And the base will never,
the bass will never change long as I
continue to do what I've always done.
Jermaine Dupree, thank you so much
for this in-depth conversation.
We appreciate your time to talk about
your legacy and your impact that continues
to unfold in the city of Atlanta.
And to you, our viewers,
thank you so much for tuning in right
here on 11 alive, uninterrupted.
I'm Naima Abdullahi.
See you next time.