Jermaine Dupri is in the building this week at the Hard Rock Hotel New York, joining us for an Audacy Check In to talk about his new album, Magic City, his docuseries of the same name, and what's next for the ATL multihyphenate producer.
LISTEN NOW: Audacy Check In with Jermaine Dupri
The Atlanta institution known as Magic City is taking its turn on the stage, first with a five part docuseries on Starz, and now with album of music inspired by the project, now available everywhere. At the helm for all of it is Jermaine Dupri, who is once again bringing his So So Def empire into another era of excellence.
"To start in '92 and then be named the number one producer of Hip-Hop R&B of the 21st century in 2025, that's all the energy I need," Dupri reveals to DJ Buck and Big Regg, referencing the honor recently given to him by Billboard. "I know what my work has done. It got me to that spot, so it's like I can't even think about stopping at this point."
Not stopping for JD includes Magic City, the soundtrack to the docuseries he recently produced for Starz. The project features the producer in top-form with a roster of ATL's finest. "We have a city with a pool of artists that sometimes we overlook. We only talk about 3 or 4 of these people, but we have like 20, 30, 40 artists in Atlanta that really have made a real contribution to Hip-Hop," says Dupri. "It felt like we just ignore that, right? And I feel like if I ignore that, they're gonna ignore me, you know what I mean? You gotta lead by example."
The features on Magic City stretch across decades of Atlanta influence from Pastor Troy to Quavo to YFN Lucci, and everyone in-between. Even Ludacris has bars the new project, who Jermaine Dupri considers the one that got away from his So So Def family.
"One day I went in the office and felt like I wasn't giving people that I had hired an opportunity to work," shares Dupri. "I was making all the decisions. I was choosing the artists. I was picking the singles. I'm doing everything, but as a CEO is supposed to do. But I also was looking at Def Jam and I'm watching all these other labels. They had A&R meetings and they had people that was the A&Rs and they was letting them really become stars, right?"
"One day on my way to the office, I was just like, 'you know, today I'm gonna have an A&R meeting and I'm gonna let these guys tell me what we should do,' And I went in there and I said, 'I wanna sign Ludacris,' and everybody in the meeting was like, 'no, no, no, no, no, no.' And I was like, 'what?' And it's like, 'nah, JD, he seem like he gonna, I don't know about that, that don't seem like that's gonna last long.'"
"I was like, 'alright, I'm gonna listen to y'all guys,' and that was the last time I listened."
For more on the making of Magic City, why JD views music as therapy, and more, check out the full Audacy Check In with Jermaine Dupri above.