The Man Behind So So Def: Happy Birthday Jermaine Dupri

I consider him to be the Russell Simmons of the South. He’s the man behind some of the biggest hits of Usher, Mariah Carey, Monica, Xscape, TLC, Bow Wow, Jagged Edge and even Da Brat and Kris Kross, just to name a few. He goes by the name of Jermaine Dupri. If you’re a true hip hop fan, you should remember seeing 12 year old JD dancing background for the legendary hip hop group, Whodini, in their music video for “Freaks Come Out At Night.” Homeboy was rocking a serious jheri curl and leather jacket, with those big eyeballs of his directly in the camera as he popped and locked, straight 80’s style. LOL! But let’s fast forward a bit to the 1993. It was the year 1993 when JD launched the legendary record label, aka So So Def but it was in 1990 and 1992 when he first produced for a group named Silk Tymes Leather and Kris Kross. History books say that JD discovered Kris Kross at a local mall and then the rest in history. In 1993, he also discovered Xscape, signed them and their debut album “Hummin’ Comin’ At Cha” was released. Then on an appearance on Yo! MTV Raps, he met Da Brat through Kris Kross, signed her as well and “Funkdafied” was born. Throughout the 90’s, JD started working with other artists like Mariah Carey. He did “Always Be My Baby” and its remixed version featuring Da Brat, he also did “Not Tonight” for Lil’ Kim on her “Hardcore” album, and in 1997 he helped launched Usher’s career with the album “My Way.” A lot of people think that’s Usher’s first joint but he had an album in 1994 that was self titled and super underrated in my opinion. Also in 1997, he remixed “Everything” for Mary J. Blige with the classic “My Name Is D-Nice” beat and y’all know how Mary does it, simply raw and smooth over that joint. Rocking it like she was a rapper and even had this cat named Roc on the joint. In 1998, he met Bow Wow, who was known then as Lil’ Bow Wow. The greatest work done by JD to me is Usher’s 2004 album “Confessions”, which in my opinion is Usher’s best album, along with Mariah Carey’s 2005 comeback album “The Emancipation of Mimi.” There’s a long list of hits done by Jermaine Dupri that’s too much to think about. Hands down one of hip hop’s greatest producers of all time and definitely one from the South as well. He’s the reason why I like southern R&B better than southern rap. In his own words in almost everything he does, “Y’all Know What This Is! So… So…. DEF!”