Jermaine Dupri Speaks On His Departure From Def Jam
ESSENCE.COM: What would you say was your biggest problem with the label?
DUPRI: It wasn’t giving me the open door that I thought it was going to. It wasn’t aggressive enough and it was a big letdown for me. I thought I was going to a place that understood the times we were in as a music business and how aggressive we needed to be with putting out new projects and records.ESSENCE.COM: There’s hearsay that your brief tenure was plagued by meager sales and a lack of new talent which resulted in the label ousting you. Is that true?
DUPRI: Island [Def Jam Records] is going to say what makes them look good. They are not going to tell the truth and say, “He just stopped dealing with us on a daily basis.” If you don’t put out my records, that’s all I have as a person. I’m a record person, so if I give you a record and you don’t put it out, then basically you’re showing me that it’s really no business. I never got a chance to put the records out. I had Johnta Austin, Ninth Ward and Dondria. I read the blogs and I’m thinking, How can they say that I’m not putting out records when anyone who knows my track record knows I’m about making music? My biggest problem is that I’m still the youngest president to have this kind of success.ESSENCE.COM: Although it’s been three months since you’ve spoken to L.A. Reid, would you be open to reconciliation?
DUPRI: I don’t know. I saw a side of him that I had never seen before and that to me was a jealous side. I don’t know if I should be around people who are jealous of me. Mariah Carey sold more records in that entire Def Jam building and all of that was through my singles; so I’m looking like the golden boy. I only started thinking about it after I left.
Tags: Jermaine Dupri
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January 13th, 2009 at 8:53 am
THATS BECAUSE NIGGAS SIGNING BULLSHIT ARTIST DOWN AT DEF JAM, ONLY A KING STANDS ALONE JD, YOU A KING FUCK DEF JAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHECK THIS ARTIST OUT JD http://WWW.MYSPACE/KINGFLYLY!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 13th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Forget Jermaine Dupri.
Does anyone else miss the old website design.
Damn, those were the days:
When you could reply to a comment by referencing the comments number.
When the Black backround did’nt blind you and give you a headache and force you to leave and go to HipHopDx.
When it did’nt take so long to load.
When you did’nt accidently move your cursor over yet another Vibrant pop-up forcing an even more intense head-ache.
When there were less posts about Jermaine Dupri.
What happened to thos days? What happened to the classics?
January 13th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Oh now we have the numbers, Okay, now address the other stuff.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:43 am
HE’S STILL ONE OF THE MOST TALENTED AND INNOVATIVE RECORD MAKERS IN THE INDUSTRY,IT’S A SHAME DEFJAM AREN’T INTERESTED IN THE MUSIC ANYMORE
January 13th, 2009 at 10:47 am
SMH he sounds like THE MAD RAPPER (that guy that used to do all those skits in the 9Os)
“tell em why you mad [JD] tell em why you mad” LOLOL
my question is what happeneds to sosodef?? isnt that def jamm!?! is it goin to be changed to soso LOL and jd had big shoes to fill comming in after jay who gave big new sellers like riri and neyo sure mariah sold a lot but considering her track record she didnt even meet expectations and we all know about that flop frm janet SMH
BUT THIS RIGHT HERE HIM RUNNIN ON THE BLOGS IS A BITCH MOVE >>>>YOU DONT DO THAT IN BUSINESS
January 13th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
id keep the job anyway and collect them checks, cause so so def aint poppin off. just another obstacle nukka if you shined thru that environment bigger doors could have opened up. there is a story of a man a salesman that worked with thomas edison that was his dream. but he had to chill with packin boxes for his inventions i think and one day edison created some shit i dont remember and nobody believed it could have blew. except the guy, eventually he marketed the goods across the whole US and because a multi millionaire. oh well i guess the old man gonna be partying and shit now and just make beats
January 13th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I worked close enough to these people to say that JD is just angry he failed at being an exec. Running a music company isn’t about fishing for hits anymore. JD still lives in the 80s where we used to put out a gang of mediocre crap until “something sticks.”
Bottom line, his artists were wack. Half of them he found online through viral videos.
JD is the one out of touch, not IDJ.
Dude is a fool.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
def jam was destinted to be a failure once russell and lyor cohen left and sold the company to people who didnt ever care about the music or culture.
def jam now has chingy, rocko, ace hood…. enough said
jd only sold records when he aligned with mariah and usher. no one else that he ever touched sold any major records except for kiddie rappers.
jd should focus on r&b records anyway. that is his specialty. not managing any hip hop label.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
JD is still the most talented person in the music industry…no one has held such a high position in the exec field, writes music, makes records, and does everythin else….he’s the man and he’ll still be good with or w/o def jam
January 14th, 2009 at 7:53 am
boogs… ummmmm Jay is Jehovah to you huh?