Jermaine Dupri recently appeared on ‘The Breakfast Club’ where he offered his opinion about Atlanta’s thriving hip-hop culture.
JD had a hand in several megawatt careers, i.e. Usher, Xscape, Da Brat, Kriss Kross, Bow Wow, and it’s clear he’s played a major role in hip-hop… but the legendary producer also claims that he “made” Atlanta so to speak.
Charlamagne Tha God asks JD whether he or OutKast deserves the crown as being the most ‘influential’ to Atlanta’s hip-hop culture, of course Dupri chose himself.
Details + video below…
In the video above beginning at about 34:40, Dupri states:
Depending on what type of hip-hop you talking about, we come from two different places in hip-hop.
As far as culture, me, I brought people to Atlanta that had never seen Atlanta. I showed everybody in the world Magic City?I was the first person to start throwing money in the club.
[Sidebar: What’s a club party when Outkast can still sell out venues all around the world? But I digress.]
JD even says he was the ‘bridge’ between ATL and NYC, as he brought several budding hip-hop celebs to Atlanta during his club days, exposing them to his hometown’s culture:
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.
I don’t know nobody else who was doing it.
OK… the party scene? Maybe. But for JD to claim that he had the greatest contribution to Atlanta’s hip-hop history as a whole is stretching it a bit.
Whatever the case, Dupri wants y’all to know that he’s used to being overlooked when it comes to his contribution to Atlanta’s hip-hop culture, stating:
I don?t get the flag for selling 8 million records with Kris Kross ? I guess that wasn?t hip-hop.
People leave that out though, right? OutKast ain?t sell 8 million records with their first album.
For the record, Outkast will always get my vote but I can see where Jermaine’s coming from.