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JERMAINE DUPRI

On music, Janet Jackson and why his home city is hip-hop happening.
November 2005

Published in ::

WORDS DAVID FANTLE & THOMAS JOHNSON

Music mogul Jermaine Dupri calls the shots from his Atlanta base.

He’s been called rap’s “renaissance man,” and as singer, songwriter and producer, he has helped shape the careers of such artists as Usher, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and Bow Wow. If all that’s not enough, he’s dating Janet Jackson. Then, there is his new Atlanta restaurant, planned hotel and his interest in a vodka business. It’s no wonder that while taking a break at his Atlanta recording studio, the 32-year-old music mogul Jermaine Dupri describes his life thus: “It’s kind of a good space right now.”


With Usher
and Mariah Carey.

And Dupri, also known simply as “JD,” has reason to be content. By any measure, he has enjoyed a watershed year and now occupies a lofty perch as one of the reigning kings of the R&B and hip-hop music business. In April, his So So Def label moved to Virgin Records, where he assumed the position of president of urban music. Company executives seem confident that Dupri’s proven magic will help make Virgin a major player in the urban music world.

He was born Jermaine Dupri Mauldin, an only child to working-class parents in Atlanta, where his father worked in the music business as a roadie and manager. “I wasn’t the most fortunate kid, but I wasn’t the most deprived,” he remembers. “My mother tells people I was spoiled, and maybe I was.”


Suited up with
Crucial and Alicia Keys.

Despite some early bristling to his mother’s insistence that he take piano lessons, Dupri knew at an early age that he wanted to devote his career to music and forge his own destiny in the rough and tumble industry. “My mother used to send me to piano lessons, and I used to be, ‘Man, I ain’t going to that,’” he says. “But as I got older, I started picking it up on my own. It became something I wanted to do rather than something people were asking me to do.”

In 1982, at the age of nine, Dupri managed to get on stage during a Diana Ross show—thanks to his father—and did an impromptu dance with the diva before a delighted crowd. After that, he began performing around the country with acts like Cameo and Herbie Hancock. At age 14, he produced and secured a record contract for the female trio Silk Tymes Leather, and two years later he formed So So Def Productions—an accomplishment that belied his age.

LA’s got Dre, New York’s got Puffy,
and Atlanta’s got Jermaine Dupri.

Dupri credits such early business acumen to a higher power. “You start a business in your mind,” he says. “You don’t have to have money or nothing like that. You start thinking, ‘this is what I want, this is what God planned for me.’” Raised Catholic, Dupri says faith is very important in his business dealings. “I think He definitely planned for me to do this. He didn’t know how far I was supposed to go. That part is on me. But he showed me the road.”

While the music industry is primarily centered in New York City and Los Angeles, Dupri has made a conscious decision to remain in his hometown, and position Atlanta as a hotbed for new urban music. “I’ve made myself a very prominent person in this city,” he says. “I thought it was better for me to be from here rather than somewhere else. Other artists have their own cities. LA’s got Dre, New York’s got Puffy, and Atlanta’s got Jermaine Dupri and a slew of other people.”

Dupri and others—including Outkast, Ludacris and TLC—have helped put Atlanta on the map as a hip-hop haven. Dupri does his part in promoting the attributes of his hometown, including composing an anthem for the city,

“Welcome to Atlanta,” which he hopes will eventually rival “New York, New York” in popularity as a city song.

“The pace [in Atlanta] is slower than anywhere else, but at the same time, the people are nice—real friendly,” he says. “It’s not as fast as New York. It’s cool that it’s slow and puts me in a position to make it faster.”

Earlier this year, Dupri opened his first restaurant, Cafe Dupri, in the affluent Buckhead area of Atlanta. The diverse menu caters to his personal health-conscious diet and features nutritious choices such as turkey burgers cooked with a distinctive southern flavor. “It’s like a café with regular food,” he says, “but prepared healthy.” Dupri says he can be found almost every morning in the restaurant eating breakfast.


Janet and JermaineNext up for Dupri is a boutique hotel called Hotel D, scheduled to open in Atlanta sometime in 2006. “It’s definitely going to be the spot,” he promises. “My plan is to build Atlanta up and make it as hot as any other city and have things that make people want to come here. I want this to be the hottest hotel in Atlanta. It’s going to be young and new and hip.”

Another enterprise that sees Dupri expanding his business ventures beyond the recording studio is his partnership with the Chicago-based 3 Vodka Distilling Company, started in May 2004. “I stopped drinking because the carbs make you fat,” he says. “So I invested in the vodka business because it has no carbs.”

While Dupri is creating his own diversified business empire, he still focuses on producing good music and nurturing the careers of his stable of artists. Working with other artists and musicians requires a constant balancing act in which artistic disagreements, egos and tempers occasionally flare up.

“They’re all cool and respectful,” Dupri says in describing his working relationship with his collaborators. “We all have days when you catch us off guard, when we’re doing too much stuff and we don’t want to be bothered. It may come off as a little egotistical or as if they have a bad attitude. But you have to understand how we work. We’re just regular like everybody else. Just because we go on TV and make records doesn’t mean that we have to be different or nicer than the next person. Our lives go crazy, just like everybody else.”

Released this past summer, Young, Fly & Flashy, Vol. 1 was Dupri’s first personal album in four years. It featured the hit single, “Gotta Getcha” and introduced new artists such as Young Capone, T Waters and Dem Franchise Boyz. “T Waters,” says Dupri, “is one of those rappers that I think will be socially and politically [aware] and use ’hood-correct language.”

“I’m not too outspoken on these issues because I really don’t want to become a politician,” he says. “To me that’s another job, and I think I have enough jobs right now.”

A reluctant role model, Dupri realizes that his success can serve as an example to other African-American youth.

“They have to pay attention to what’s going on around them,” he says. “They can’t let society dictate what they do. Things have always been bad in the hood, even when I was growing up. But I had a choice. You do have a choice. You can take that bad road or you can take the good road. The good road is a little bit tougher, but it pays off in the end. I basically tell somebody young, ‘Look at me—I took the good road and it paid off.’ It’s not guaranteed that everybody’s life will end up like mine, but it’s more than possible.”

And what a life Dupri has. Almost as noteworthy as Dupri’s musical career is his high-profile romance with Janet Jackson. Dupri—who has a seven-year-old daughter, Shaniah, from a previous relationship—says his long-term plan would eventually include marriage, but for now he simply says, “We are good.”

Jackson does seem to be having a positive effect on the music producer. With almost 20 years of non-stop work under his belt, Dupri says he’s focusing on the future and evaluating which charitable organizations he’ll support and attach his name to. He says Janet and her brother Michael are role models when it comes to giving—Michael was in the Guinness Book of Records for being the pop star who supports the most charities. “I want to be part of that, and I’m going to learn how to do that from them,” says Dupri.

With Dupri a regular fixture in the music charts, and with a growing business empire, it is no wonder he aspires to the heights of the Jackson clan. This Atlanta superstar has only just begun.

Essential Dupri: 10 tracks to make you get down

Kris Kross, “Jump” (Ruffhouse Records) 1992
MC Lyte, “Keep On, Keepin’ On” (Elektra) 1996
Usher, “Nice & Slow” (LaFace) 1997
JD feat Jay-Z, “Money Ain’t A Thang” (Roc-A-Fella Records) 1998
Monica, “The First Night” (Arista) 1998
Jermaine Dupri & Nas feat Monica, “I’ve Got To Have It” (Sony) 2000 Bow Wow, “Bounce With Me” (So So Def) 2000
Jermaine Dupri feat Ludacris, “Welcome to Atlanta” (So So Def) 2001 Jagged Edge, “Let’s Get Married” (Columbia) 2001
Mariah Carey, “We Belong Together” (Island Def Jam) 2005

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