The credit for Atlanta’s dominance in hip-hop often gets traced back to OutKast, Goodie Mob and Organized Noize. When Jermaine Dupri sat down for an interview with Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club,” Dupri asserted the public seems to forget all he’s done for the culture of Atlanta.
Dupri said he and OutKast come from two different places in the city’s hip-hop scene. At the start of his career Genius reports he discovered rap duo Kris Kross, writing and producing their 4x Platinum debut album Totally Krossed Out. He founded his own record label So So Def Recordings, which signed some of Atlanta’s most influential artists like Xscape, Jagged Edge and Da Brat in the early ‘90s.
“I don’t get the flag for selling eight million records with Kris Kross. I guess that wasn’t hip-hop? People leave that out. OutKast ain’t selling eight million records on their first album,” he said.
During the early 2000s, Dupri produced for Usher, Ludacris, TLC and Dem Franchize Boyz and a slew of staple remixes of that era in hip-hop music.
Even so, XXL reports Dupri said he put Atlanta on the map culturally when no one else was bothering to give so much as a glance by exposing up-and-coming hip-hop artists and people of the industry to the city’s culture. Uproxx said he also credited himself as being one of the first to make known the tried and true test of releasing hot off the hard drive music at the city’s strip clubs.
“I had to pay for all the magazines to come to Atlanta. No one was paying attention to what’s going on. As far as culture goes and having parties, bringing Puff, bringing Envy and Clue to Atlanta, that was all me,” he told the show’s hosts.
Who was more influential is hard to pinpoint, but Dupri brought up some really good points. Check out the interview below, and tell us what you think.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=f8p-lsSJegg%3Fstart%3D2041