Longtime high-level performance in any constantly-evolving industry is a unique achievement. From music, sports, and communication to life itself, it’s not easy to keep up with the times. Some people try to adapt and fail; others are too stubborn to even see the need to adapt. Luckily, that has not been the case for Jermaine Dupri.
A music mainstay for over three decades, the 50-year-old’s pupil-like approach and master-like confidence have yielded some of the greatest acts and records in Hip-Hop and R&B. Despite how much the music business has changed, the So So Def founder has stayed true to himself—yielding the discovery of Kris Kross in the ‘90s, Bow Wow in the 2000s, and Ari Lennox’s first No. 1 hit in the 2020s.
One cannot omit how instrumental JD was in creating one of the greatest R&B albums of all time: Usher’s 2004 classic Confessions. His pen game, production efforts, and overall musicianship on the project are forever-worthy of full exploration.
Now, the Grammy winner is standing alongside the Toronto duo DVSN. JD was heavily involved with their latest album Working On My Karma, which was surrounded by controversy due to the polarizing lead single “If I Get Caught.” In the midst of battling the critiques of the ballad, he also has to fight off doubts about his catalog in the face of an upcoming “hits battle” with Diddy. However, he’s confident that people underestimating him will see the error of their ways.
VIBE caught up with JD to talk about connecting with DVSN, staying true to his craft, his and Diddy’s mutual admiration, and who he’s working with next.
VIBE: You were heavily involved in DVSN’s new album. How did that relationship come to be?
Jermaine Dupri: The DVSN thing came from Bryan [Michael Cox]. Bryan worked on one or two songs on their last album. They was speaking to him about me and he would say things to me about them. Honestly, I was a little unreceptive in the beginning because I thought that they were going to try to get me to do something that I wasn’t doing. For a second in the music industry, the younger artists seemed like they were going against the traditional musical forms and sounds and wanted every record to sound like trap music. I was just like, ’I never made music like this.’ I, unfortunately, can’t make records where I’m copying everybody’s music. I just know how to make what I make. Me and Daniel eventually had a conversation and we was locked in from there. I realized he wanted to get closer to the bridge of R&B. At some point, I started realizing that myself and Bryan are the gatekeepers in this younger generation getting to that space.
I think if more of your contemporaries took the same approach, that would reduce the number of complaints people have about this current era of R&B, which has a lot of talented people. They just maybe are a bit misguided.
I think, also for me, I’ve always worked with new artists. I don’t have a problem with artists not being stars before I work with them. A lot of producers are just looking to get on major projects. If anyone’s followed my career, they’ll know that every artist that I ever came out with, they had no name. I made who they were from the gate. A lot of what I do is looking for that opportunity still. So even with Ari, I saw that as an opportunity again for Jermaine to give her her first No. 1 record. I like all those types of awards (laughs).
With DVSN, this is their fifth album that’s coming out. A lot of people around me, especially here in Atlanta, didn’t even know who DVSN was. I felt like the job was to bring awareness to the group and have people ask me about them. Once you get that going, the discovery of the music is easy, especially when you write some hits. We just had to get them to become a talkative thing.
Early in the 2000s, you were working with a lot of great Hip-Hop artists. As of late, it’s really just been R&B production credits over the last decade. Is that intentional? Are you not feeling the way Hip-Hop has transitioned?
I feel like Hip-Hop is definitely hurting and needs reviving. I have to go ahead and say this: For the last 20 years Atlanta’s always had at least five to six top rappers at one time. Right now, Atlanta’s dropped down to two top artists: Lil Baby and Future. There’s a lot of talent in the city still, I don’t want anybody to screw what I’m saying, but that top tier where you have Ludacris, Jeezy, 2 Chainz, Migos, Future, Lil Baby—I mean, at one point, all of this was Atlanta. This was where all the top-tier rap artists came from.
I’m not talking about artists that just make records, but No. 1 songs. Artists that people feel like define the game. Rap to me became a little stale, but I’ve never stopped making rap records. As a producer, people continue to want me to produce R&B records. It’s interesting how you even started this conversation off [by] saying Bow Wow, which was crazy to me because, at one point in my career, I didn’t even want to make kid artists anymore because I felt like I didn’t want to be represented as the guy who made young, kid-friendly music. Then I started and I said, “’F**k that.” I just stopped fighting what comes toward me. I do want to say this: I’m dropping a rap project with Curren$y. So you got it here first.
You and Diddy are planning to do a “hits battle.” When the topic first came up, a lot of people on social media were like, “JD can’t keep up with Diddy” and then you spoke up. How did it feel to see people not really know all that you’ve done?
Well, one, Verzuz in itself is an East Coast-driven platform. I feel like, personally, anytime Jermaine Dupri is mentioned in the same space as any producer from New York, people start saying no against me and it’s fair enough, I get it. A lot of records that I made might have been Southern records that people didn’t hear in the city. A lot of times I was in New York, I used to be like, “Damn, I got a number one record, but I don’t hear my record on Hot 97 the way it should be.”
It doesn’t really bother me because I know what would happen if we did it that way. I’m a student of the game and I know the trump game. I also feel like, and I will say this on record, one thing that people underestimate about my catalog is the Bow Wow era. When this conversation occurred, people started saying, “Well, what’s JD gonna do? Play them girl Bow Wow songs?” Meanwhile, these are songs that you guys actually really f**king know. This is not something that I’m making up.
I would agree with that. Bow Wow felt like the biggest thing in the world to me when I was four or five.
This is what I’m saying. That’s an era. I don’t think people understand that. From 2001 to 2005, I’m gonna say Bow Wow up to Confessions. People always talk about Jermaine Dupri from the ’90s but, 2001 to 2005 is a very deadly Jermaine Dupri era. This is documented stuff. Nobody can tell me one Bad Boy artist that was going head-to-head with Bow Wow in 2001-2002. It’s the same thing he could say. Puff could say, “What artist did Jermaine have that was going head up with Biggie?’”
It feels so normal now for New York artists to collaborate with Southern artists or West Coast artists. In your era when those records happened, you all were kind of breaking ground. Jay-Z working with people in the South and the “Welcome to Atlanta” remix having Diddy and Snoop Dogg on it was unprecedented. In those moments when those records came together, what did that feel like?
It felt amazing because I was actually doing something that nobody else was doing. I was the guy that was bringing Jay-Z to Atlanta. I introduced at least my neighborhood, College Park, to Jay-Z. I can’t take credit for the rest of the world. Same thing when I put Puff on “Welcome To Atlanta.” This Verzuz talk was actually happening back then and was the reason why I put him on there. People kept trying to pit me and Puff against each other; I was trying to make sure that people realized I love what Puff Daddy’s done.
I was hand-in hand-with Biggie and Puff this whole ride. I never wanted people to start thinking that I feel like I’m the Southern version of Puff or whatever. I done heard so much crazy sh*t and I’m just like, “Guys, listen. First of all, for the record, I started before Puff Daddy.”’” I don’t think people even really realize that when Kris Kross came out, Puff Daddy did not have one record on the radio.
As a producer, I think a lot of times people don’t pay attention to that. What I was doing in Atlanta just so happened to coincide with the same thing that Puff started doing. We had a lot of similarities, but I never felt threatened by Puff. I always felt inspired by him. I told Puff two days ago, I was happy that he was running around New York working this song [“Gotta Move On”]. What Puff is doing too is showing these young artists how you work a record that you actually believe in. You don’t let the record go. You don’t go make another song. That’s why we do remixes. I’ve always studied and paid attention and got inspired.
If you could put together a producer Mount Rushmore, and you can include yourself, who would the four producers be?
Teddy Riley created an entire genre of music. Berry Gordy created music, period. Dr. Dre, without a doubt, created an entire wave and brought out a whole coast. Quincy Jones is undoubtedly the greatest producer of all time. That is the Mount Rushmore of producers. They cover the ground that none of us cover. As long as them guys is even in my eyesight, I won’t ever put myself up there.
Who are some current artists out that you’re impressed by and haven’t worked with yet that you would be interested in working with?
I think Brent Faiyaz is interesting. I think he and I would make a record that would change his life, not that he needs it (laughs). He’s popping. I think his sound is interesting. I’m still trying to completely understand it, but I would be interested to see the music that we would make for him.
Drake is another one. I feel like Drake has yet to make the R&B record that he actually wants to make. I think he makes amazing music. If I had an opportunity to collaborate with him, I do believe that we could offer Drake something that he hasn’t stepped into that might make him do something that we haven’t seen as well.
Kendrick [Lamar]. I wanna make a record with Summer Walker. I believe that I could make a song for Summer Walker that would be one of the biggest records ever.