Jermaine Dupri has a humble yet unapologetic perspective about his success.
Last month, the Recording Academy opened the Jermaine Dupri & So So Def: 25 Years of Elevating Culture exhibit in the Grammy Museum to celebrate the company’s 25th anniversary. Three months prior to that, Dupri made history as only the second hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
“This year basically changed the forecast of how people look at So So Def and Jermaine Dupri,” he claimed.
To cap off the year, Dupri, 42, is taking his roster on the road for his Cultural Curren$y tour. The 12-date run will feature sets from his So So Def roster including Bow Wow, Anthony Hamilton, Xscape, Jagged Edge, Dem Franchize Boyz and Da Brat.
But the tour is more than just an opportunity to celebrate. According to Dupri, Cultural Curren$y’s mission is to provide a nostalgic experience for his older fan base while educating the new generation on So So Def’s impact in music.
After signing the pre-teen duo Kris Kross in 1992 at the age of 19, Dupri opened the doors to So So Def in his hometown of Atlanta. Today, the city is a bustling hip-hop and R&B utopia, where aspiring artists, fans and press outlooks flock. But when Dupri was coming up, his southern-based operation was sometimes overshadowed by his peers located in New York and Los Angeles. Nonetheless, he and his retinue stuck to grassroots marketing campaigns, and catered to the streets of Atlanta, to cultivate a following for his artists.
“I presented myself to the world from where I am right now,” he said. “I had to make people pay attention to me.”
In addition to running one of the Atlanta’s most impactful labels, he racked up credibility and notoriety with his songwriting and production credits, including Usher (“Confessions Pt. II,” “Burn,” and “My Boo”), Mariah Carey (“We Belong Together”), Bow Wow (“Let Me Hold You”), Jay Z (“Money Ain’t A Thang”) and more.
Despite selling over 400 million records to date, Dupri is far from retirement. In 2016, he expanded his brand into television as the executive producer of the The Rap Game. The reality show centers around a handful of young rappers competing for a coveted record deal with So So Def.
Moving forward, Dupri plans to meet the next quarter century of his career with the same tenacity as when he started.
“That’s my challenge: attack this new generation that are learning about Jermaine Dupri with the same attack on those who already know.”
