The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Jermaine Dupri Talks 'Freaknik,' Usher; Superbowl Performance, Magic City, Mase + More

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning everybody, it's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. The legendary. Jermaine Dupri. Yeah, yeah, what's happening? What up, JD? What's going on? Where you wanna start? You wanna start the number one record? Freak Nick, Freak Nick. Money Long? You wanna say congratulations on Money Long first? Yeah, we can start with the number one record. Alright, congratulations. Monday morning, number one record. That's right. right money long number one record this week produced by jd
Starting point is 00:00:28 yeah that's nothing to you no more jd there's nothing yeah i'm saying that's amazing no no i'm saying i i don't want to start with that i came to talk about freak nick no no i'm saying i'm i'm you know i'm ecstatic about it okay you know it's amazing now let's talk about freak me this freak dick documentary yeah now when making a documentary you had tons of of ladies and men scared that they were going to see their pictures their asses on the screen but it was it was well done it wasn't done in a disrespectful way it was it was uh so explain to it this documentary how it came out um how it came up yeah well i mean it came about i think luke was trying to do this initially and then they started having conversations about it and luke said you know he can't do it if i wasn't
Starting point is 00:01:10 involved and then when they came to talk to me about it i said the same thing to them i'm like well i wouldn't do this if luke wasn't involved and they're like well we got luke so do we got you and i'm like yeah so it went from there and then it just kind of just started moving pretty fast and then i just wanted to make sure that um the story was told from all perspectives because the people that was concerned about the ass is showing and all of that they don't understand how young i was when freak nick was actually popping so my perspective of freak nick wasn't that perspective i ain't see all that because i wasn't able to get into the clubs and all of this type of stuff. So my perspective was I was part of the street traffic.
Starting point is 00:01:49 I was out in the streets. I was dancing outside the cars. I was on Peachtree. That was a part of Freak Nick that I saw. Other people saw. Luke got a different story than other people. So it was just really important for me to see, make sure that we made you see everybody's different perspective. How much did y'all have to water the dock down because of this lame ass cancel culture error that we none
Starting point is 00:02:09 because i mean you i feel like i feel like ultimately what people don't understand is this it's black culture are you embarrassed by our culture like are you embarrassed that you went to hbcu and this is how y'all act if that if that's how you feel then you should just change your color of your skin because this is that's life in atlanta we got four you know i mean where everywhere else got one y'all got hampton and one we have four of them so if you put all of that energy in one place it's just what black culture is absolutely i mean how did um how did 21 savage get to be a part of it? I know that this was your era, you and Uncle Luke, but how did he hook up with 21? Well, 21, he'd been doing his birthday party, and the theme of his birthday party is Freak
Starting point is 00:02:54 Naked for the past couple of years. So at first, I was like, no. But then, you know, he live in Atlanta. He from, well, I mean, you know, he's not from Atlanta, but he from basically from Atlanta. So if you from Atlanta, you've been, you felt the repercussions of something from Freaknik at some point, you know. It's crazy because, you know, going to Hampton, of course, Freaknik created so many different gatherings, right?
Starting point is 00:03:21 Philly Greek, Fourth of July in Virginia, jones beach new york city it all started from freak nick but i just thought it was a party that a party that was created just for people a while out that's what i thought it was when you when you were in college that's what you think it was but the fact that it was created for students that didn't have any money was something you want to break that down because i thought it was created for a whole different reason well i mean that's what i'm saying a lot of people i didn't go to college so i can't you know i mean i didn't know that either so the that person that's watching this that's probably me that didn't go to college uh that don't know nothing about that lifestyle you know you don't understand that these kids that come from dc or new york or wherever they come they go all the way
Starting point is 00:03:59 to atlanta you think that they they got money to just fly back home on spring break and just well back then we didn't fly back home on spring break and just well back then we didn't fly back we would drive exactly so it's like even that's another thing that that this documentary shows of how uh unmanual we are as people unmanual yeah unmanual because we are as people because you guys used to drive now when you think you're gonna see four girls from new york get in a car and drive to atlanta just to have fun no way security airlines never ninety dollars you know i'm saying so it just shows you that type of stuff and then like you know so so you should see that freak nick is like oh these were some kids that couldn't go home they they they didn't know what
Starting point is 00:04:42 their spring break was gonna be like they watching all these white kids go to Daytona Beach and all this and they got money but these kids are stuck in Atlanta and they ain't got no money so they threw a picnic that turned into freaknik that's an American black history story well people weren't afraid to be broke back then
Starting point is 00:04:59 yeah well I mean you have no choice you have no choice to be afraid but nowadays people confront right so everybody can pretend to be afraid. But no, nowadays people can front, right? So everybody can pretend to be something that they're not. You can pretend to have more than you got. Nobody wants to admit they don't got it. I mean, but they still be frontin' too.
Starting point is 00:05:13 They just, you know, they, I mean, well, yeah, you know, I be seeing these girls go to Tulum, and I'm sure they sharing rooms. Yeah. I'm sure. But you know what, back then it didn't matter. Like, back then, you know what I'm saying then it didn't matter like back then you know philly greek or fourth of july in virginia and it'd be seven of us in the room and nobody thought about anything it wasn't we broke and be like oh you got the floor you got
Starting point is 00:05:35 the eye you take your quick shower but that's what it was because he was all hanging out his brothers it didn't matter that's why i thought it was for me that's why as we got into it that's why i was like this has to come out because people, you know, we don't, we don't see this in black culture. We just keep trying to make it seem like everybody got money and everybody do this.
Starting point is 00:05:52 And I know it was a time when none of that mattered. Right. And I thought, I liked when Jalen Rose was talking about how he got to freak Nick, he took his cousin car or something. And it was just like, you know, as long as I get a car i'm out we
Starting point is 00:06:06 get into freakney and it was the same thing with me when i was 17 or well 16 when i had just got my first car my first car was a valari a two-door valari basically probably listening don't even know what that is but it was an ugly ass car that looked like a pacer mixed with something else. Right. And I didn't care what the car looked like. I just was able to drive around Atlanta while this was happening. And that's all. That's ultimately what the goal was. Can you get into the freak net? Can you get in the traffic?
Starting point is 00:06:40 If you're sitting at home and you can't get in, that's when you mad. But if you have a car, that's what all that's all it was about it's crazy how they're how they easily cancel black events right but you look at daytona beach you look at uh miami spring break you look at where the white kids go for their spring break and they wild out they get drunk they fight and all types of stuff but those events never get canceled it seemed like they tried to tame it but they just totally cancel freakney which is which is crazy i mean they had to because it it was it was bad i mean it got to a point and i'm not talking about the the misconduct with the guys and the girls i'm talking about just the traffic and how the city was dealing with it because ultimately these guys that was at their school
Starting point is 00:07:23 they started something they never talked to the people in the city so the city had no idea what was actually happening when it got out of control they just start trying to control it the best way they could but they weren't even talking to the dc metro club right so it's like at that point it's like it's like uh frankenstein you know created a monster and y'all can't control this you got the only thing you can do is shut it down at least for a second and try to see if y'all can figure out how to make it work did it ever come back no i know we tried a couple years ago no i i don't think i mean i think it could come back if you know if people really really sit down and figure out how to make it into Essence
Starting point is 00:08:05 Fest, because that's basically what it should have become. It should have become Essence Fest of Atlanta. Right? But the traffic part of it was the that was the shit. Most of the people who go to Essence Fest now probably used to go to Freaknik. 100%. All them black people was at Freaknik.
Starting point is 00:08:22 You just gotta define a name, because when people hear the name Freak Nick, they think it's gonna be a... Yeah, but I'm saying we can get past that. We got Slutty Vegan now. Yeah. For real. I just think it's too much cameras now. Yeah, well, that's another thing.
Starting point is 00:08:38 I think that's the other thing. That's the only thing I would say. If you go to Freak Nick now, you gotta put your phone away, because you'll miss the girls dancing on the cars like the fact that you was driving down the street and you were looking for everything is how you saw freak knitting if somebody down there doing this you're gonna miss everything so that's another thing you gotta you know and maybe the hype of it and people saying it might make people want to see it. But I just think people are so like attached to their phones and they think everything is more important than their phone as opposed to seeing what's happening outside.
Starting point is 00:09:14 And how come nobody ever focuses on some of the women that went down there because they wanted to have a good time? Like they wanted to go out there and be loose and wild and liberated. Cause it's Freak Nick. Yeah. We talk about that. We let the girls talk about that. The show that they was grabbing the dudes, you know, it went both ways. You think uncle Luke's music helped or hurt Freak Nick? 100%.
Starting point is 00:09:37 Oh, it helped. You said, did it help? It helped. between uncle Luke and social death based all all stars that's the soundtrack of freak nick you know i mean it was like um i think i i also think now with miami shutting down spring break and all that it's the music because the people don't you you don't have nothing's
Starting point is 00:10:02 making you dance right nothing making you jump on top of the cars you see people doing it but they doing it to music that don't really have that vibration right at freak nick the girls was dancing so hard and the guys was dancing so hard you ain't had time to be worrying about nobody beside like it was a the energy level was just too high right and i just think the luke music um like i said the social death base all started the music was making you dance in a different space and it made you think about like you was like this and it wasn't you don't have time to be like hey nigga no no we you know i mean we ain't come down here for that we came down here to see these girls let's go go see these girls. It's almost like the mentality of a man when he goes to the strip club.
Starting point is 00:10:48 I go to the strip club every week. You go to the strip club, guys don't come in the strip club looking for niggas. They come in the strip club to see the girls. That was the mentality of Freak Nick. And for some reason, that's kind of lost in the space that we live in now niggas want to go see what other niggas wearing you think speaking of that um speaking of that if freak nick did come back today would you wear the boss baby outfit you wore the superbowl boss baby outfit yeah what was it what was what was the what was the inspiration behind that outfit, J.D.?
Starting point is 00:11:25 First of all, I had on a tuxedo with shorts. Very similar to what I have on today. I have on a tie, a regular suit shirt, and I got on shorts. It's very Boyz II Men. Yeah. I mean, everything. And it's Vegas, right? You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:11:43 It's a Super Bowl. It's the biggest event in the world. I could have went up there with a starter jacket and a starter hat. How regular a nigga is that, though? I'm just saying, I think sometimes people don't realize, like, I'm in the entertainment business. And I'm getting ready to do the biggest show of Usher's life. And my life, I guess you want to say. We're going on the biggest stage in
Starting point is 00:12:06 the world and i should be wearing a baseball cap and looking like a regular ass nigga in the street nah nah i don't i i mean that's that was the thought behind it right so it was more or less like you know a while ago like every year, we started this thing called the Ocean 7, right? And it was me, Usher, Jontae, B. Cox. We used to go to Vegas and we got dressed. And we'd be dressed up. So I wanted to actually have a piece of that in what we was doing. You know, we in Vegas.
Starting point is 00:12:39 Like, you don't go to Usher's show. I seen you at Usher's show. You was dressed. You know what I mean? Niggas go to Usher's show. I seen you at Usher's show. You was dressed. You know what I mean? Niggas go to his show dressed up. You don't go to Vegas with your fubu on. You know what I mean? You just don't do that.
Starting point is 00:12:53 So you did it to get people talking, basically. No, I didn't do it to get people talking. I didn't even think nobody was going to pay no attention to it. I had on a tuxedo with a tie and a regular shirt. The socks threw people off. Well, that's it. They didn't care about the tux. They were talking about the tux they were talking about the socks they were talking about the socks right and the socks once again the socks i i understand why everybody keeps saying something
Starting point is 00:13:12 about the socks because they do look like i guess what they say the bobby socks these socks yeah but they not they don't have nothing to do with that they don't look nothing like that once you get up on the socks and they also you know um like i said it's just i don't know it's my man's line right first of all that's another thing pharrell's my man ain't down niggas man right y'all don't know this nigga so in support of my homeboy line i mean i wasn't even thinking about it you know it just happened but i mean shit listen i put my first group out in 1992 i'm trending in 2024 yeah y'all can say whatever the fuck you want to say still got number one records what did usher's super bowl halftime performance mean to you um everything as the architect really the architect of us if we being honest yep yeah everything it means everything because when we made my way the discussion the discussion that he and i had making that record was that
Starting point is 00:14:09 he wanted to get to that space he wanted to and when he once he got to that space he wanted people to realize he did it his way that's how that whole album came about so for me to be in that seat and watch it go from my way to this um i probably was the most proud and then at the same time i mean you know he did six of my songs on my on superbowl it's like you know it's not a bunch of bucks that can say crazy they had six of their songs performed on superbowl i argued with somebody up here the other day when when they heard confessions right younger person and they were like yeah he wrote confess i was like you know confession was about jermaine dupree that jermaine dupree wrote that that's factual yeah okay so yeah so i mean i wrote you make me wanna
Starting point is 00:14:52 i wrote my way i wrote nice and slow i wrote confessions i wrote you got it bad i wrote my boo i wrote all these songs i mean you know people be like breaking it down when they when they talk about it they say confessions. But nice and slow. All these songs I wrote. You know what I mean? So it's just the story of confessions, I think, took over. And it was like, I was that guy. I was the person that was in that position.
Starting point is 00:15:17 But it happened right when he broke up with Chili. So people just assumed that he was writing it about Chili. Yeah. But that was your story. Yeah. And I mean, even when writing it, I't think about i wouldn't even think about that you know you just go to the studio you write songs it's not even about i mean sometimes you have a motive behind it but we was trying to just follow up i will i know i was i was trying to follow up
Starting point is 00:15:39 you got it back it just came off 8701 and was a big album so it was like what y'all gonna do this time is usher the biggest jewel in your crown the biggest what the biggest jewel in your crown It just came off 8701 and it was a big album. So it was like, what y'all going to do this time? Is Usher the biggest jewel in your crown? The biggest what? The biggest jewel in your crown? I don't know. I mean, Mariah Carey's Song of the Decade. Yeah, that Emancipation was a monster.
Starting point is 00:15:58 I don't know. I don't know. There's a couple in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, he's definitely, well, let me say this. Rolling Stone said that Russia is the, I mean, Confessions is the R&B, the number one R&B record of this 21st century, right? Or 20th century, whatever it is, 21st century.
Starting point is 00:16:19 So, I mean, if that's a true statement, then I guess so. I mean, that's a big record. That's a true statement then i guess so i mean that's a big record that's that's a big statement do you think atlanta as a whole is getting documented properly no that's why another reason why i want to make sure that this documentary gets the stage that it's on shout out to hulu disney uh mass appeal for actually allowing us to finally tell our story on this stage, because this is the first story from the South that's ever been told. And when I say that, I... What's up, y'all?
Starting point is 00:16:51 This is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out.
Starting point is 00:17:16 Hey, y'all. Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:18:19 I sat at South by Southwest and people was like, what? And I'm like, what's an Atlanta story that you know? What's a Southern story that you know? You from the South. What stories do we have that people know about the South? ATL is not a story of the South, of the South rise in the culture of hip hop. This is the first time that we get a story about our culture and how outcast popped how why you know social death oh damn why luke said bankhead and scar what was the reason for that like you ain't never
Starting point is 00:18:54 wondered like he from miami he talking about bankhead bounce like why he was saying that freak nick freak nick you know i'm saying that and this is the first time that, like I said, the South gets that look. I mean, we was never, we was, I think Hollywood never felt like our stories was important. If Freak Nick never happened, would Atlanta music blow up as fast as it did? No. Because what's that little thing with the, you know, when you put the little roach trap down and the roaches get in there and they go back to their house. Yeah, but I'm not saying it's a raid, but it's a little trap that they show on TV. They bring the food back to their house.
Starting point is 00:19:30 And they take the food back to their house. That's what Freaknik was for the South. People from Virginia, people from New York, people from Baltimore, people from D.C., people from everywhere came to Atlanta. The DJs in Atlanta was playing bass music. So, so, they're bass all-stars luke skywalker blah blah blah kids went back to their hoods saying yo we was in atlanta this is the new shit they play in atlanta well this is the shit that was we was doing in freak nigger they somebody saw the video and that's why the music spread that way right that's why it spread into so many places
Starting point is 00:20:02 because these people took it back home as if they had discovered some new thing that wasn't happening in their house in their neighborhoods and at that point if you take it to you know if 500 people go back to virginia with their same mentality and it spread then virginia starts sounding like atlanta right or whatever that's you know no, it wasn't. I think Freak Nick was definitely our mixtape. You know what I mean? Freak Nick was our mixtape that made people say, oh, there's some shit going on down there. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:20:39 So that's definitely, yeah, I don't know what would have happened if we, you know, it would have been a slower pace. How bad was it when the labels, it seemed like, you know, watching the doc, I seen Craig Mack performing. I seen Biggie performing. How bad was it when the labels, it seemed like, you know, watching the doc, I seen Craig Mack performing. I seen Biggie performing. How bad was it when the label started touching Freaknik? Did it commercialize it and make it worse or not at all? No, it was all good. I think that was in P-Boy Park. So, you know, the scene when I'm showing you and I'm talking, I'm standing in the park.
Starting point is 00:20:59 That was the park stuff. And that was, the concerts actually was helping because all these black people in the park smoking weed, drinking, doing whatever they want to do, because if nobody was covering this. Right. It was just, you know, y'all niggas want to go do good. That's how the city was open to it. So they was just out there and we never was. Nobody was scared about violence when nobody thinking about somebody pulling out a gun or anything but that could have happened so to give music and put music out there and then put artists on the shows that weren't just from the south definitely helped because then people from the north or whatever west coast they came and they
Starting point is 00:21:36 was like oh snoop here this person know i'm saying so you start feeling even more comfortable amongst all of these people and now you're about to turn around and do the magic city docuseries right yeah magic city and american fantasy yeah what's that about i mean we know what it's about yeah uh but it's also the same thing it's a story about magic city that that that i don't think people know like um the the story of magic city is so much more deeper than just a strip club. Right. And, and how magic, um, figured out a way to make this one club, um, a worldwide situation,
Starting point is 00:22:14 you know what I mean? And then people always keep saying, they were like, why is Drake involved? Because Drake is from a different country and he wants to come to a little bitty strip club in Atlanta. That's crazy right that that i don't even know how you're supposed to think about that because i'm not from a different
Starting point is 00:22:31 country but i'm saying to be in a different country we we in the united states i don't want to go to and then i heard nothing about nothing in canada that make me want to fly there on a monday and be a part of it right this place is that crazy that has made people in Toronto want to come to Atlanta on Monday. I think you have to hear about this. So it's just like I said, it's just highlighting things that have happened in the South that we haven't had an opportunity. So what helped elevate the Atlanta music scene more, Freaknik or Magic City? Freaknik.
Starting point is 00:23:03 Really? Yeah. Okay. Because you always hear about records breaking in magic city yeah i mean well i think and that was after the fact that by the way that's me saying that that was that was something that i talked about and once again like i said you got to remember i wasn't in the clubs in 80 82 83 84 i couldn't get in no club so and i wasn't even making music in 84 but and so uh even in 92 when crisscross came out i still i was only 19 i still couldn't even get into magic city so that that period where i felt like the strip club became the mixtape was a later 90s activity
Starting point is 00:23:41 before that freak nick was running the show damn i saw you with uh i think it was with gail king and carrie champion and all them you were talking about how if you if a woman couldn't understand you being in the script club she wasn't the woman for you yeah 100 so that if that was a deal breaker off the top really yeah because i'm saying like, I'm going to use you, Jess, as an example. If me and Jess was talking and she came to Atlanta and I said, we're going to Magic City tonight. And she was like, well, you know, I don't really fuck with no strip clubs. At that point, you have broke our synergy. You flew to Atlanta to stay at my house while i go party with my homeboys now when you
Starting point is 00:24:26 when i got a really nice house but i'm saying but when i go to the strip club as a woman her mind's gonna start doing this right i asked you to come with me so that your mind wouldn't do that but you want to stay at home and wait till i get back. Good point. And then come back possibly smelling like the strip club. All these questions. And then we gonna have a beef. You fucked it up from the jump. Yeah. Or I fucked it up
Starting point is 00:24:55 by allowing you to just stay at home. I should have just made you come. So I'm just saying, ultimately, if this is part of your life, this is part of my life. So if you gonna fuck with me, you gotta know that that's happening.
Starting point is 00:25:07 That's going to happen. Right. It's interesting. When I was dating Janet, I tried to not take her. I was going to have you. You had Janet Jackson in the back. Yeah, 100%. But I fought it for the longest. I wasn't in the space mindset that I'm in right now because I didn't, I wasn't paying
Starting point is 00:25:23 attention to it like the way I'm telling you I was thinking like oh if I take her in and one of them girls gonna tap me on my shoulder that I done been with and she gonna know and I was thinking about all the bullshit yeah nah you if this what you do what you did in your past is your past I'm with you now what let me see what's happening why you want to go there every Monday that's what her question was fuck it let's go did she understand after she went why you wanted to be there every monday yeah of course now when does jd get to tell his story right because there's so many so many i would say people in the industry that are successful from the jd tree right we can go
Starting point is 00:25:59 back from of course little john and school to braun and we can go to you know of course, Little John and School to Braun. And we can go to, you know, of course, Usher and the stuff you did with Mariah. You can go to myself and Neil, who manages Bryce and Tilla. A lot of people don't know that story. So when does J.D. create that story and go through it so people can understand what you did, what you produced, the artists you've broken, the executives and talent that you created? I mean, I think the freak Nick doc helps that get, helps me get into that space because, you know,
Starting point is 00:26:28 for the longest, the South has been ignored. It's just what it is. And I'm, and I'm part of, I'm part of that cloth. That's been ignored. You got to think at 19,
Starting point is 00:26:40 I put out my first group that everybody knows. And I wrote and produced every line and every beat in the music at 19 if a person their first single was a number one a top 100 single right how about crisscross
Starting point is 00:26:57 if that was sports like football or basketball they'd call me a freak of nature. Right. But the fact that it was the South, they treated us like we weren't even hip hop. Like, oh, that's some that's some gimmick shit. Like that ain't real hip hop.
Starting point is 00:27:16 So then it made people ignore the fact that I'm the person who ushered in young people rapping. If it weren't for them, you as a young person, you wouldn't even know that it was possible that you could have a record deal. Who else has come out since Bow Wow that, you know, Bow Wow is the only other person that did it. And I put him out. So I'm just saying it's that the stories have been ignored. So somebody, you know, at least we get one story and we got two stories. Hopefully that, you know, from that, it'll it'll it'll get into that space so you can actually see it. And then people won't have this misconception about what they have about me.
Starting point is 00:27:53 Michael Bivens said you got the whole backwards thing from him. The whole backwards close. He said that up here, actually. He said what? He said that up here. He said. Oh, I didn't get it from him. But BBD was in a space where they was doing things right um and they were they i think they had their pants inside out that's what
Starting point is 00:28:13 um because i say that in the song because inside out is yeah abc was wearing their clothes inside out so the the day that i told chris to put his jumper on backwards that's what i was thinking about i'm like they got their clothes on inside out maybe you should turn yours around i never saw bbd do it and i saw and i and i spoke to mike because he got on his cover of his uh i think do me baby he got a db a bbd jacket on that i thought was a leather pullover and he was like nah i had my jacket on back so we had a conversation about it but i didn't i didn't actually know we never had i never knew that that's what was happening and you know when people talk about you too jd they got to talk about the fact that mace thanks you for being the first person to pay him his worth
Starting point is 00:28:59 you introduced biggie you know to atlanta in a lot of ways and so who so who knows how that inspired him and jay-z with with money anything yeah was it was an introduction to the south in a lot of ways so you got to get credit for that too yeah i mean but that's what i'm saying it's like like i said it's been ignored i mean that's all that's all you could do like i said if you was if if i was in new york i'd be the king. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. There's no way. I mean, even like today, you don't know a person. Y'all don't have a person that can come up here this year that had his first number one record in 1992 and got a record that's number one today.
Starting point is 00:29:37 You won't see nobody else come up here to this station this year. Damn. Damn. No, that's actually true. You won't. No. Not this year. Damn. Yeah. No, that's actually true. You won't. No. Not this year. I mean, I don't even,
Starting point is 00:29:48 and we probably won't have it next year either. But I'm saying, no. My first number one record was in 1992. I have the number one R&B record in the country today. Do you think it's the media? Because even when you look at Atlanta. Who was born in 92? Born in 92.
Starting point is 00:30:01 She was born in 92. Atlanta's run has been longer than everybody, too. My run has been longer than everybody too. My run has been longer than everybody. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I think that's another thing. Like when people say Atlanta's run, yeah, Atlanta's run, but my run. I mean, I'm a cocky person, but I don't be one to just like, hey, you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:30:20 I represent the city. So I let the whole city get the splash for it. But my run has been longer than anybody's. If you don't tell your story, JD, nobody else is. No, I'm going to tell it. Believe me. That's why it's important that you watch Freak Nick on Thursday. Y'all run them streams up at Hulu so that Hulu calls me and says,
Starting point is 00:30:40 JD, we need your story. That's right. You know what I mean? You're relaunching Social Def too, right? How? You're relaunching Social Def as far as label. What artists do you have? Are you looking for artists? I know you gotta go, but are you looking for artists?
Starting point is 00:30:50 And are you putting the sign back up in Atlanta that says... Yeah, I'm putting the sign back up. I don't know if I'm supposed to say this, but anyway, I'm gonna say it anyway. You know, BMF comes to Atlanta. Are they in Atlanta right now? And you'll see in the BMF series that the sign goes back up.
Starting point is 00:31:09 And at that point, when that happened, I was like, okay, you know, as many niggas watch this, I'm going to have to put this sign back up. Because, you know what I mean? So, no, we're going to put it back up. On an artist tip, I'm looking for new artists. It's just my, you know, that's what I wanted. I wanted a space for me to continue to keep putting for new artists. That's what I wanted. I wanted a space for me to continue to keep putting out new artists. I love putting out new artists.
Starting point is 00:31:30 I'm not scared to put out new artists and I don't think nobody else could do it better than me. When you paid Mase what he was worth, did you do that just to upstate? No. When I pay people, I don't know that I'm paying them more than I don't know that that's I don't know that I'm paying them more than, you know. I don't know that that's, you know, I don't have that conversation.
Starting point is 00:31:49 I just go after what I want. Like, so if I wanted, you know, when I signed Harlem World, I wanted to make the deal because Mase kept telling everybody in every interview that he did that he came to Atlanta to meet with me. Right? So I actually felt like I fucked up. Right. So I felt like, damn, I fucked up and I missed this nigga Mason.
Starting point is 00:32:09 He out here killing it. So I'm like, you know what? Let's make this deal. And he told me what he wanted to do. And I, I didn't think about it twice. I just was like,
Starting point is 00:32:18 let's do the deal. I ain't know. I was giving him more money than he was. You know, I never knew that. Well, there you have it. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Jermaine Dupri. Freaknik this Thursday.
Starting point is 00:32:29 Appreciate you, brother. Congratulations, Money Long. Let me say this. She might be watching. Congratulations, Money Long. Number one record. It's an R&B song. No rap.
Starting point is 00:32:40 Number one urban record in the country. There you go. It's Jermaine Dupri. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up. The Breakfast Club.

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