Best of Full Interview: Jermaine Dupri Talks 'Magic City: An American Fantasy,' New Album, Billboard, Mariah Carey + More

Best of 2025- KING OF THE SOUTH - Jermaine Dupri Talks 'Magic City: An American Fantasy,' New Album, Billboard, Mariah Carey , Recorded 2025. Listen For More!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day up waiting, click your ass up the Breakfast Club.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
You don't finished for y'all done morning everybody.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
It's d J Envy, Jess Larry Charlamagne, the God. We
are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
the building.

Speaker 4 (00:14):
Yes, indeed, j.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
D, Jermaine dupri. What's happening?

Speaker 5 (00:17):
How you feeling?

Speaker 4 (00:18):
You're looking at the wall, looking at the wall.

Speaker 5 (00:21):
We ain't got JD on the wall.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (00:24):
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I don't think. I don't think I made the wall.

Speaker 6 (00:27):
That's all right, that's you got JD on the wall,
y'all ain't got me up there.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
See the wall represents like iconic breakfast club moments.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Not that you haven't given us great interviews.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
I haven't had it. You know what I'm saying. You
have had some you know.

Speaker 6 (00:44):
The studio, don't.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
I'm I'm not that conversation.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
But you have always coming in and gave giving us
great conversation.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Man.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
And I've been enjoying the Magic City docuseries and it
got me to thinking about like just Atlanta. Like in
Atlanta's had a lot of different runs as far as
music is concerned.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
But what is Atlanta culture exactly? Is it? This? Is
it the script clubs?

Speaker 6 (01:12):
Yeah, that that's one of the things skating, you know,
And you know, I think like it's a bunch of
different things, like the base music and a bunch of
different things. But we haven't we've never really highlighted these
things the way I guess I'm trying to do and

(01:32):
make sure that people understand that that's what it is,
because I think like people think, like even with the
strip club situation, it was me and whoever else was
promoting this from a long time ago, just black people
trying to promote strip clubs.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
And you learned from.

Speaker 6 (01:48):
The documentary that this this was a law that was
passed in the city and might be more states in
this you know South, that nudity was something that they
opened the floodgates and made it a business.

Speaker 5 (02:02):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
So even me growing.

Speaker 6 (02:04):
Up, I never realized why it was so many strip
clubs in Atlanta. It was a strip club, damn on
every corner in every hood in Atlanta, and I never understood.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
I just thought we was just a strip club place.

Speaker 6 (02:15):
But when you look at this documentary, you start going
outside and looking at all the other places, like in
Florida and all these other places. You're like, oh, it's
a law that was passed, right, And I used to
come to like New.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
York when we used to do things and wherever.

Speaker 6 (02:29):
I go to other cities and be like, man, why
these cities ain't popping like Atlanta with the strip clubs,
And the law is a real law that gave us
the entryway to just have this going.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
So there, that's a that's an Atlanta thing. You know.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
It's Magic City, the biggest strip club and the most
recognized club in the US.

Speaker 5 (02:48):
To you what you think, what's your thoughts on it?

Speaker 6 (02:50):
Nah, I think I mean, I think it's been It's
been a couple.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
You know, over the years.

Speaker 6 (02:56):
I think Magic is in the top three, of course,
but like booby trapping, Miami, King of Diamonds when I mean,
you know, Miami's always had you know what I mean,
They've always had these trip clubs turn over there and
be live. I think that's Houston. So I think Houston,
it's a couple of places that's got. But I don't

(03:17):
think Houston can get naked though.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
That's the thing.

Speaker 6 (03:19):
It's like we're talking about Nudy is Flord's strip clubs
is Miami and.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Atlanta was nudy nudity Atlanta need that infrastructure. Now, That's
what when I think about Magic City. I know people
look at it as just a teddy ball, but when
I'm watching The Doctor, even just growing up, I.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Think of it as infrastructure. People with the break record, I.

Speaker 6 (03:40):
Want to say, I mean, that's the that's the thing.
Like I was going to answer your question. The reason
why I wanted to do it is because you know,
we don't talk about the places that actually helped us
get to where we are. You know what I mean,
that part of hip hop stopped a long time ago.
Like when you watch like Style, right when there's a

(04:01):
person that's not from New York.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
I watched Wild Style.

Speaker 6 (04:03):
You can see like how Grandmaster cas them what they
was doing to become and made what made hip hop
turn into what it was here in New York. And
in the later years of hip hop, what shows or anything,
show kids what how we got? You know what I mean,

(04:23):
how we got to where we are? And I think
that you know, it's important for black establishments to show
like it's a forty year old black establishment. The owner
went to jail, They tried to sell his property. He
took it back over and now it's back popping.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Then that he got a TV show Like.

Speaker 6 (04:41):
That's American dream, you know what I mean? Like, regardless
of whatever good or bad, it's a Black American dream
that we don't ever really be talking.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
About infrastructure now, huh is it needed? Now?

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (04:54):
I mean we needed more than any of everybody. I mean,
not just Atlanta, like a bunch of cities need to.
It's probably a bunch of other cities has got like
forty to fifty year old black establishments that that I don't.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Even know about.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
What do you think ruined strip clubs? Because at one
time it was a strip club in every city? They
were always big. There was fifteen in Atlanta, there was
ten in New York. What do you think ruined the
strip club safety?

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Right?

Speaker 6 (05:17):
I think that's why magic stands out so much, because
you can go in magic with all your jurey on.
You can go on magic and be the biggest star
in the world and be standing next to the biggest
criminal in the world. But whatever would happen somewhere else
ain't getting ready to happen in magic.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
And you know, I mean, and.

Speaker 6 (05:35):
I say that proudly because even me, I go to
Magic without security, like because the security in there gonna
take care of me like they like if they was
working for me.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
And I feel like it's the safest club in Atlanta.

Speaker 6 (05:47):
So I feel like that. I feel like the safety
of strip clubs and how Magic ran the club strip
club atiquette, I think that is that that's what killed.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Strip clubs for the most part.

Speaker 5 (05:59):
Now.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Also, I notice, you know, growing up, when we used
to go to strip clubs, you go with a couple
of dollars.

Speaker 5 (06:04):
Right, and you would you will be fine all night.
That's totally changed.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
That's that's just your mental okay, Right, that's just people's.

Speaker 6 (06:11):
Mental space, right, because I go to the club now
and you know, I don't if the if Magic City
is like overly crowded, I'll go stand by the bar
and I might spend five one hundred to one thousand dollars,
you know.

Speaker 5 (06:26):
And by the way, that's a lot of money.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Talk about a hundred dollars a thousand dollars at the bar.

Speaker 6 (06:33):
I'm just saying, let me put this in perspective, said,
what's happened the other night when Chris Brown was in Atlanta?
They spent two hundred thousand dollars in Magic City. So
my little five hundred to a thousand that corner is
like one hundred dollars man face, because.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
I have when people say those numbers and I'm like,
I don't believe it.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
I swear to God, I mean godred thousand, God a
hundred went to Chris, right.

Speaker 5 (07:03):
I've seen people bought one hundred thousand singles.

Speaker 6 (07:05):
Yeah, I mean one hundred went to Chris without a
doubt and magic in magic they go when you when
you order the money, they bring a Magic City bag backas.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
For you backpack.

Speaker 6 (07:14):
So the backpack had a hundred in it. Jada Waiter,
y'all know, Ja, she got about a dog, right. I
think maybe more p from QC. I think he ordered
forty right then, and that you know that's that's one
sixty right there. You know what I'm saying. Chris by

(07:35):
himself had one hundred, That's what I'm saying. So if
you start splitting it up, I think Booo probably got
ten and fifteen to twenty.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
You were two hundred fast.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
So when you was in the back of the day
with BMF, how much did you see them spend that.

Speaker 6 (07:46):
One on my album, I have a conversation with Meech
and he says he spent six hundred thousand dollars one night.

Speaker 5 (07:53):
That's insanity, that's crazy.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
What's the most you spent with Janet? What did you spend?

Speaker 6 (07:58):
I mean I had a I had a limit, like
when everybody heard me say I spend ten thousands, that
was my limit. So once I got to that ten,
I wasn't trying. But by the way, I'm not in
there trying to compete. I always felt like, you know,
at one point in time when BMF came or when
BMF grew, because I've been in the club with meet
for a long time before BMF was a crew like that,

(08:21):
and we used to be at the Gentleman's Club back
and when you watched the episode where Magic supposedly was
burnt down or whatever, and everybody went to the Gentlemen's Club,
that's back in the period of time when I actually
met Meech, and Meech didn't have the crew, the crew
of people with him, and we was in the Gentleman's
Club and then the Gentlemen's Club. It wasn't about it

(08:44):
wasn't it was like what he saying, We wasn't really
throwing the money. We was just like giving the girls
the money, right. And that's that's where I that's where
the whole confusion about who started throwing the money came
from because I start I started doing this in Money
and the Thing video, And I know people want to
say they did it and did it. Will you find
a video that came out before Money and any thing

(09:05):
where you see rappers throwing money like this, right? And
that I never had a like, it wasn't about me
trying to challenge nobody. It got it got to be
that when reaching them crew came and it was like,
oh damn, they throwing more money, we gotta throw It
became like a money wall.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
I was never I was never part of that.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
I was thinking about you too, man, watching the documentary
because especially thinking about everything that's going on in Atlanta. Now,
did you purpose because you was outside, you was outside
connected with everybody. Did you purposely stay away from rappers
that were too in the street?

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Nah, I just I'm not. I'm not a street guy
like that.

Speaker 6 (09:38):
I mean what I mean, I'm like, I'm a real
hip hop person, right, a purist basically, right, And I
don't believe that you should be rapping about shit that
you don't actually do, like I've been that guy. Right,
if you ain't in the jury and you ain't do it,
don't talk about it.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
If you ain't flying, you.

Speaker 6 (09:55):
Don't be getting, then don't be making raps about it.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Right.

Speaker 6 (09:59):
And I ain't never had no reason to talk about
me selling no dope. That ain't that just ain't been
my life, right, I ain't.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Come up like that. What about signing an artist that
I have signed artists like that. I mean, Brat smoke
more weed than Damnar Snoop Dog.

Speaker 6 (10:13):
But you know what I mean, it wasn't like it
wasn't from a drug dealer perspective.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
It's from an actual stoner perspective.

Speaker 6 (10:20):
Right, I just think the perspective of how we I
never was trying to sell, like I said, selling selling drugs.
But I mean, you know all the artists I think,
damn it talking about I mean that franchise boys, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (10:33):
White Tea is about dope boys, like all of that.

Speaker 6 (10:36):
All the music I just think it's it's also camouflaged
in beats that make you want to dance where you're
not paying attention to it.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
It's not this dark, I'm gonna kill you type of music.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
That was the other thing about Magic City too. Why
are script clubs?

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Why are you able to break records in script clubs
but not liking the regular club. In the regular club,
you got to play the records that keep the party going. Yeah,
But in the script club you can try new shit.

Speaker 6 (10:58):
Why is it Because in any lounge setting, music is
just played, right. It's just like almost like getting on
the elevator. When you get on the elevator, you don't
care what the music is. They play all kind of
music in the elevator. Especially when you go like the Vegas,
you hear all kinds of stuff and you're like, you
might listen, you might not.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
You're having a conversation. It's the same way. It's it's
ultimately it's for DJ to pay attention.

Speaker 6 (11:21):
If he play a record and y'all over there talking
and then all some somebody start moving, you can see
at that point this was not forced, right, And I
feel like that's the most organic thing that we still
have left in the music business. It's like, organically, I
didn't pay you to listen to my song, or ain't

(11:42):
nobody come over there? And over promote you to listen
to my song. You just heard it, and you like, damn.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Who is that? Who is that?

Speaker 6 (11:49):
That's like Cuavos, you know, you know you could see
the emotional people trying to figure out what it is,
or you see somebody in the shazam the song.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
This is actual real time.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
At one time with women banned from the strip club,
I thought I never remember because I know they would
be charged now.

Speaker 6 (12:05):
It was one It was a period of time where
none dancing females looked down on dances and the Gentleman's
Club was a gentleman's club.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
It wasn't no women in the Gentleman's Club. That's what
it was called. And that's how we That was our spot, right.
But then these ladies start.

Speaker 6 (12:23):
Figuring out, these guys are going to having fun, they eating,
and they not calling us, They're not coming home.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
We want them to come home. What the hell is
going on in this club?

Speaker 6 (12:34):
And then once, like I said, even like me with Janet,
she wanted to go so bad, and I'm like, I'm
just in there having fun, kicking it with my guys,
eating blah blah blah. And it was like multiple times
where I was like, I'm not going, not going, And
then when we got to take care in that, she's like, oh, oh,
I thought y'all was in here. I'm like, I don't

(12:55):
know what y'all thought we was in here doing, but
they they thought it was something else prior to them going,
and enough of them started going and they start realizing, like, girl,
they don't be doing nothing in there.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
They ain't having a good time.

Speaker 6 (13:07):
If you are able to just party and not pay
attention to the girls being nicked, then you should be
able to have a good time with your man or
your friend or whoever that's in there. So I think
that started right that that situation started, and then guys
start realizing like they didn't have to lie to their
girls either, because ain't nobody having sex in Magic City,
you know what I mean. They got other clubs where

(13:28):
that might be going on, but Magic City is a
full on show, right, It's no way for you to
be in there, you know what I mean, doing that
in that club and people.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Not see you with nothing. So that's not what happened.
That's not what's happening in that club.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
The other thing about Magic City, or just watching the
docu Atlanta used to pride itself on having a unique sound. Yeah,
Now a lot of folks say Atlanta music just kind
of like blends into the main scream. Do you feel
like the city has lost this identity or it's just
a natural evolution.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
No.

Speaker 6 (13:58):
I was trying to figure out how we how we
talk about this because I don't want people to get
this misconscrewed about me saying, because I'm not saying anything
about what's going on with Thug, but what's happening with
Doug is almost making people believe that.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
That's just that's all of Atlanta. Right. Meanwhile, Atlanta has.

Speaker 6 (14:18):
A subculture of these female rappers right now with Pluto,
Yk Bankro, Nina, Banna Bee, and they have a real
thing going. They have a real motion going, and they
have a real movement going that is being ignored. Like
right when they said, I saw people saying, it's no

(14:38):
song of the summer. When Whammy in Atlanta, it was
the song of the summer, you know what I mean,
That's that's the song of the summer. But for some reason,
and it's the first time that's ever happened to me
in Atlanta. So I'm saying, I'm trying to figure out why.
But it's the first time that anybody else that's in

(15:01):
the pressed. They're stealing all of the energy away from
all of the artists that's out there, like we got Belly,
Gang Cush, we got Swabe, we got all these new
artists that's hot, even like Jed Jid got a hot
new record with Sierra Earth Gang. No no, no, it's
not record. It's it's not the label fault. It's actually
it's actually the media that all of the new artists

(15:23):
claim that they don't want to deal with by saying
they don't want gatekeepers, the media is acting like gatekeepers
and all they're talking about all these little podcasts. Guys,
all they talking about this thug. If you want to
talk about that and that's what you got going, then cool.
But don't say this is Atlanta Atlanta fell off. And
you ain't mentioning these girls, you know what I mean.

(15:45):
And you ain't mentioning Belly, and you ain't mentioning Jed
new album, and you ain't like because that's that now
you now you're deterring the energy that we out here
putting out and making it seem like this is the
only thing that's happening in Atlanta, and Atlanta's never been
like that.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
That's a great conversation.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
You open it up because I'm sitting there thinking like
back in the day, we had artists who had big records,
and you maybe didn't know the artists yet, but at
some point those dots connected, like you know, white teams,
franchise but all of that stuff, but then eventually you
knew who the group was. Yeah, I think that's the disconnect,
like you might hear the record but not know who
the artist is connected.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
I meant, they gotta work harder.

Speaker 6 (16:21):
But at the same time, it's like I said, it's
still mainstream media is promoting this as RA at Atlanta,
Like that's not that's not That's not where I live
at you know what I mean. And like I said,
these girls, I'm just looking at these girls and I
managed bank Ronina and and just me coming into helping

(16:44):
her with her career. What attracted me to it is
that they they doing this in a hip hop way.
They're using TikTok and whatever things means that they got
to get what they want and actually really creating a
thing in the hip hop And the only thing that's
missing is mainstream media paying attention to.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
I think I think that takes uh. That takes sometimes
people to run the circuit. Like everybody talks about the
clips right and they're like, yo, the clips had it's
one of the most genius rollouts.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
I'm like, that wasn't a genius rollout. It was just
a rollout.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
That's what the artists used to do.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
So I think sometimes it takes somebody like you to say, naw,
we're going on the circus.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
But now, it was the thing even with the franchise boys, right,
you took the franchise Boys out on the road. Right,
you went from Mark de markets city to city, you
spoke to DJ to DJ until it connected.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
So somebody got to do that with a night and
it got to be you because you just more artists.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
But I get you say with Ji DJ like he
has to get out there and people like they know
his music, but do.

Speaker 5 (17:41):
They know his face as much? Same thing with Pluto.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
I love the fact that Pluto is out, she's outing
about she came on the Breakfast Club, she's doing podcasts,
she's starting to see her face outside of her music.
But we don't see that a lot anymore. And with
the thing I was going to ask you, but what's
going on with Atlanta. I've never seen Atlanta in a
place where it seems like it's been so much against
each other because Atlanta is usually the place where everybody.

Speaker 5 (18:02):
Fucks with each other. Everybody sees each other at the club,
everybody sees each other.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Magic City, you see everybody together, whether they on good
terms or not, there together. And I've never seen a
land in a place where it seems like they're not connected.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
But that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (18:14):
If we put the I mean, you're right both sides,
but if we put the eyes on these girls, they're
demonstrating what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
They making records of each other, They making songs.

Speaker 6 (18:25):
They putting out records every week, and it's one record
with Bunnabee and Yk. It might be bent ro Nia
the next week and this person they put their showing
that they cool, they kicking it, they not beefing, even
though YK and Pluto kind of split, but they still
out here moving in a motion that shows the love
that what you're talking about Atlanta was prior. And that's

(18:47):
really what I wanted to do with my album is
just get back to that and just put people in
spaces that I didn't that I haven't seen people doing.
So when I put like Jay Money and Sean Paul
on the same that's what I was trying to do,
is like, because that is how I that's how I
grew up seeing Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
But people got to make the rounds that these niggas
ain't Beyonce and so many niggas like the drop music
with no promotion no more.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Let's let's put that out there, nigga.

Speaker 6 (19:14):
Everybody got to stop doing that ship in the music business.
Everybody got to stop doing that. I say that every
time the album come out, like I don't understand what
what what you think you're gonna get by not giving yes?

Speaker 4 (19:25):
And once aday, I go back to the clips.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
The clips O g Rap Group showed everybody what you
supposed to do when you got a.

Speaker 4 (19:31):
Project, go work all the rooms.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
Like you can't just put your ship online and expect
people to come come to you.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, for sure they did. They did.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
They were out on the street and performed in the
middle of Brooklyn at.

Speaker 5 (19:44):
A block party.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
To do that.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
They went to the car show, they went to concerts,
they did radio, they did you podcast, they did everything.

Speaker 5 (19:52):
They was to get those numbers, and it showed.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
I saw it.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
I saw these memes going around about the VMA's this
past weekend this week and everybody was like, yo, this
is like this means saying, this is how I feel
watching the VMA's. You know less and less people every year,
and that's not because you getting older. It's because a
lot of these people just ain't running the circuit.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
Well, like everybody you just name. The only person I
know faces Pluto.

Speaker 6 (20:13):
Yeah, I mean, but the VMA's I went, and I
was gonna tweet while I was there, but I was like,
I'm not great because I might get in trouble.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
I'm like turning something else.

Speaker 6 (20:24):
But black culture is what is driving the internet when
it comes to music, right. It ain't enough black culture
at the VMA's for where the culture is from this
interviewing space, right, And I think that's a that's a

(20:44):
disconnect that you see at the VMA's and so so
a lot of the artists don't know if they should
go because they don't know, you know what I mean,
because it's been front loaded with like people like Paris Hilton,
and I mean, you know, they put Lotto in an
what's the next I spice on there. But that's what
I'm saying. It's still like it's not it's like, let's

(21:05):
forget about the under the down low.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
People that's really coming up.

Speaker 6 (21:10):
I thought Busters should have got what he got, but
we should have saw somebody new, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Jid, Sierra, you know what I mean. They could have
easily performed though. I just don't think that.

Speaker 6 (21:20):
I just don't think people are actually from the mainstream
perspective of paying attention to this ground swell of music
that's happening.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
And then what do you do because I know for
a fact that first time I heard your album, I'm like, Yo,
this skate.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
Record goals with Sierra and Earth Game.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
When when you're a JID and you're telling the label
this is the record, but the label saying, nah, let's
go with something else. But then the label ain't servicing
nothing to radio.

Speaker 6 (21:44):
Yeah yeah, I mean when you got to you know,
like like NB knows it, you saying you gotta bring
these labels to what's going on. That ain't never been
a nun practice. Right when we had never scared. It
was Super Bowl weekend in Atlanta. I flew everybody to Atlanta,
and my mindset was when everybody leave, everybody gonna leave

(22:07):
here saying Bone Crushes the biggest record they heard in Atlanta.
People left Atlanta and they were saying that bone Crushing
record is the big When everybody got back to New York,
that was what was happening in their office. Can you
send me this bone crushing record? What's up with that
bone crush artist?

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Blah blah blah.

Speaker 6 (22:21):
You've always been that's always been part of the practice.
I don't know why people think that these things change.
You have to None of these people know, you know
what I mean? Like nobody skates, right, nobody. These older
people that's in these labels, they're not skating. So how
do they know that it's a skating.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Thing going on in Atlanta? Three three days out of
the week. What night is popping?

Speaker 1 (22:44):
What?

Speaker 2 (22:45):
They're not even trying to go? They just thinking about music.

Speaker 6 (22:47):
But we are actually selling culture inside our records and
we're actually doing what we talked. It was like selling
drugs if you talk about the drug wrappers. That's why
so many of them going to jail, because it's actually
real life.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
What skating rink was it?

Speaker 1 (23:01):
Cas skating is that is that would that be the
equivalent of Magic City for the skating rinks in Atlanta.

Speaker 6 (23:05):
On the west side, But it's a skating rink on
every side. Like where I'm from, we had Sparkles and
we had and we got skate Town. But I think,
like when we shot the video for Jed, is that
Golden Glide that's on the east side. So all of
like each side of Atlanta they got skating rings.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
Did they break records?

Speaker 6 (23:21):
And yeah, I think I want to say that the
first time I ever heard the Jaquess hit that he
had was at the skateing ring and it was on
like a because they do you know. The crazy part
about it is like R and B records, they do
slow skate or they do couple skate, and they don't

(23:42):
play no ghetto music when they do that. They actually
play whatever the ballad is.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Right.

Speaker 6 (23:47):
So I'm sure, like right now the Chris Brown record
probably going crazyness came round. I haven't been in the
last you know, the last couple of months, but I'm
sure it goes crazy when they do the couple skate
and that definitely breaks music. You skate, No know what
I'm saying I'm just saying these are time I hear records.

Speaker 4 (24:04):
You didn't.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
I want to ask you know, we had Coach k
up here about a week ago. He was saying that
the industry is missing a and.

Speaker 5 (24:12):
Rs right, and we talk about it a lot.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
Do you still think that we need somebody to develop
these artists, to help develop these artists, but.

Speaker 6 (24:19):
The an rs need somebody to develop them, you know
what I mean? Like you know that's that's that's the truth.
Because the problem is is that the an ars is
acting more like babysitters down't They scared to tell the
artists like that shit ain't that ain't hot? And because
they know if they tell them, the artists might smack
shit at them, or they might just the artists might

(24:41):
call a label and be like, y'all don't like him, right.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
So people trying to be friends with people.

Speaker 6 (24:46):
As opposed to like giving them creative criticism, and it's
not it's not helping the music, you know what I mean?
I I it's crazy as I was working with so
many artists during this album, and the artists coming to
school and they're like, JD, don't don't just not produce me,
let me make me.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
Sound the best. So it's artists out here that want
creative criticism.

Speaker 6 (25:04):
I just think it's from the They gotta people gotta
get back to like making sure that that's their job.
And when you see a person, they understand that that's
what they supposed to get from you.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Every time, every time I see you and I talk
to you, I always ask you the same thing. I
feel like you're one of those hip hop people that
are underrated, right, that people forget about what you've done
and the lineage you put out there and the people.

Speaker 5 (25:27):
That you brought out. Do you always feel that way?
And when do we?

Speaker 3 (25:30):
When does JD tell his own story in a movie
form where you talk about the beginning, the artists you popped,
the A and r's you you birth, the producerve you birth,
the sound you brought out? When does that happen? Because
people don't necessarily forget even to this day.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
Sometimes I'm like, dam.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
Jady did that one? So yeah, I mean, I don't know, man,
you know I can't.

Speaker 6 (25:49):
I was thinking about this on the way up here today.
I was like, I'm gonna see what Charlamagne I get today.
I'm gonna get the.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Cool Charlamagne I'm gonna get there, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (25:56):
With Charlaman, I'm gonna get But last time I was here,
I told y'all, y'all, ain't gonna have nobody come up
here that would have a number one record in the
same time that I did with the Money Long Record.
Right this time, I'm here and Billboard basically finally called me,
I mean named me the number one producer of the
twenty first century of hip.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Hoppin' on beat. So I feel like the tide is changing,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (26:18):
It's like I saw a bust To say something at
his speech the other day, like it's timing. Man, when
God wants you to get your flowers, he gonna give
them to you, you don't rush it.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
So I've just been sitting back waiting.

Speaker 6 (26:30):
I feel like everything that you're saying, it's gonna eventually come.
Because at the end of the day, when you look
at that list based on who I started with, ain't
none of them niggas even on the list, you know
what I mean, Like this a whole new list of
people that I'm going against based on who the guys
I came out with.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
So as long as I just keep doing what I'm doing.
I'm not.

Speaker 6 (26:48):
I mean, I think that is one of my most
proud accomplishments though, to make that list, because I feel
like for the first time people have to really like go.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
And see why.

Speaker 6 (26:58):
And when you go see why, first of all, the
list that is not comprived of your heart and your stomach.
It's comprived of who has the most number ones in
the last twenty first century.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Them is facts, Like that's what I was telling the
last time we was up here.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
When you start dealing with the stats, you know, it's
a different conversation. And I feel like if people start
having to have that conversation, then you know, the respect
has to change at that point.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
I mean, I've seen people like completely mad.

Speaker 6 (27:26):
About Beyonce being at number five on that list, But Beyonce.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Actually produces these records.

Speaker 6 (27:31):
She's telling the other people in the room, like just
what I want do a drop right here? Just you
know what I mean, that's production, So you know what
I mean. I mean, I've never been but I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
But even with the versus conversation. I remember the versus
conversation and they played you, so I don't want to
say he's so little. But they made it seem like
at the time, puff was gonna wax you, right, and
you start thinking about the amount of records you produced
and the hits that you did, the records that you
writ that you wrote, that's why you were so like,
do this, let's let's do this. I mean, I'm sure
it will never happen, but is that the reason why
you was like I wanted you wanted to do it

(28:04):
so bad it was gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, yeah, I do.

Speaker 6 (28:06):
I mean, and I want to do it here in
New York because I wanted, you know what I mean.
I feel like, I mean, I performed at the Tunnel,
I been in, I done, been in the ship storm
of hip hop.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
So it ain't none of that. Don't none of that
scare me, right at the end of the day.

Speaker 6 (28:19):
And I feel like that's the only way at that
time that people were gonna realize, like, oh, this nigga's crazy, right,
because if you I can't keep saying it, you know
what I'm saying, it is what it is is at
this point if you ain't you know, I saw somebody say, oh,
yesterday when I said something about the female rappers like
I'm saying right now, and somebody come in and say, oh,
now you want to say something good about female rappers,

(28:42):
I'm like, damn, did I not get you out of brack?
I have the ability to talk about female rappers more
than anybody because I'm the one that took the chance
to even try to see if it were right.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
But people don't want to. They still want to fight it.

Speaker 5 (28:58):
Like, so I'm like, whatever it is, what what's the motivation?

Speaker 1 (29:01):
One of the only things I think about this list
when you look at this Billboard.

Speaker 5 (29:04):
List, name the list. You can name the top five,
so people, but.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
I'm only going to name top two, but you number one.
And then when he I guess you was that's your protege, Michael,
it's my part?

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Yeah? Yeah, how did that.

Speaker 4 (29:16):
Make you feel?

Speaker 2 (29:17):
I mean amazing?

Speaker 6 (29:17):
Because you know, when you think about like what people
say about Mike, Michael Jordan and basketball, I always usually
they always talk about like, you can only be the
best on list if you can make other people better,
right than any business.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Right. I think that's the thing.

Speaker 6 (29:31):
Like, so, I mean, half of them songs that put
Brian in there is the same songs that got me
up there.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
So it's like we make each other better.

Speaker 6 (29:38):
So I mean, that's that's the focus that we have
when we work and the records that we do together
is just that's the focus. We have a goal amongst
us both And if he was lower on that list,
I'll be mad because I'm like, it ain't no way possible,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
He's been right there with me every step of the way.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
And I think too, when I think about Mariah Carey getting,
you know, the accolade she got the other night at
the VMA, I don't know if that happens without you.
And what I mean by that is Mariah had a
fantastic career, but that album was like a comeback album
that kind of solidified her forever.

Speaker 6 (30:15):
I was talking to her about this before yesterday, and
I was saying, like, it would have happened without me,
but Mariah, listen, Mariah is such a New York hip
hop person that she wants to gravitate towards the shit
right as opposed to like promoting the Boys the Men record,

(30:36):
which was no song her first song of the decade, right,
she ain't even perform that song the other night, Like
you know what I'm saying, like, she.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Got records that's bigger than the records I did. That.
She just like, yeah, you know, we gonna red do
this tonight. This is what we're gonna do.

Speaker 6 (30:51):
I listen. I love it because I'm a part of it.
But don't get it twisted. These songs is you know
what I mean? She got records that she could do.
That's like hero, you know what I mean? These songs
that's huge. That made her Mariah has sold thirty million
records before I even worked with her, you know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Like that charm Bracelet and then that was it was
that movie called I don't even remember that.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
It was a bad It was dark. Yeah, but one
one black eye can't kill you.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
No, that's true.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
But then you came back to the mass vision of me,
and that's that's a nuclear bomb.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
I mean that's not.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
A normal album.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (31:27):
I just I always look at that like, I'm really
I can't take credit for Mariah.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
She's She's who she is.

Speaker 6 (31:33):
And she was who she was before I you know,
I'm just happy that she let me be a part
of the ride.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
I think that puts more pressure on you, though, And
what I mean by that is when you're tasked with
going in there with the iconic person already and creating
something that gets them, you know, back scene the way
that they were seeing before that, you know, last flop,
that says a lot that you was able to accomplish that.

Speaker 6 (31:54):
Then to put pressure on me, I would think so
back then, nah, because I don't think about it like
you know, Like the thing about is when I go
in to studio people, I don't be like, I don't
get caught up on what's happening in their life. And
I think that that was what was going on in
her life outside of the studio. I go in the
studio and I'm like, I say this all the time
when I when I work with Aretha Franklin, she made
me realize, like, listen, if you're gonna be in here

(32:17):
working and I'm.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Gonna pay you and we're gonna let you get this credit.

Speaker 6 (32:21):
You better say what the fuck you gotta say If
I sound bad, if I don't even sound halfway good,
she was like, tell me to do it again. And
I'm like, I can't tell Aretha Franklin, nothing like this
will Rita Franklin. But the way she was talking to
me was like I flew you here to Detroit to
cut my vocals. So what you're gonna do, You're gonna
sit in the here and there and watch me? Or

(32:41):
if that's I'm going home. That's what she told me.
She says, literally, I'm going home, that's what you're gonna do.
And that's when I set that for me and I'm like,
you know what, I gotta do this. I just gotta
be brutally honest with artists. And when it came to
mancipation to me me we belong together. We made the
song like listen, Marian, if you don't hit the note
that this song at the end of the record, the
record ain't gonna be what people want the record to be.

(33:03):
They want you to that's that's what they want. We
gotta give them what they want. And it was like
nobody else wanted to say this. I had to say it,
and I have to be like, you know, if you
don't like me for saying what is real? Then while
we in the room together, what was one.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Of the artists that didn't like you being brutal Lyannes?
I was like, nah, it's not for me.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Nobody. I don't think nobody.

Speaker 6 (33:24):
I mean I think everybody want they don't want to
address it, but when it's right, they're like, oh, okay,
you know, but a lot of.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Them like, you know, bout I didn't like. Oh, I
think they like me.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
Usher didn't seem like you wrestle with him every time.
You're understand that's what balance.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
But I'm saying Usher didn't like you make me want
to And you have to sit there and be like, man,
why what do you what are you listening to that
make you not like this song?

Speaker 3 (33:52):
So what did you say that Mariah Carrey when she
didn't do that the last note at the end, right,
the note that everybody tries to sing, did you call
her back like, hey, I need you to do the Like.

Speaker 6 (34:01):
What's crazy is we had six hours to do we
belonging together.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
She came to Atlanta, We did everything in the song
except for that note.

Speaker 6 (34:09):
Right, the song was finished, and I kept saying, Mariah,
when you do the you know, because she also was
gonna sing her vocals when she came back, and I
just kept saying, when you sing the vocals, make sure
you end the.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Song with this note.

Speaker 6 (34:23):
And it wasn't there, It wasn't in there, and it
was just like you had to say it or not.
I had to feel like I felt like I had
to keep saying it before she left me because I
wasn't gonna be there with her. And sometimes you know,
artists want to be cool and like Mariah is like
a singer that don't that can.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Really sing, but she's a rapper.

Speaker 6 (34:44):
She want to be like she want to do rapper shit,
so she don't actually be wanting to like show you
how well she can sing no more. And I'm like, no,
show these niggas you could really fucking sing. They can't,
by the way, So you have to do that. You
have to tell her because she'll get she's a rapper.
I told this, I told her this other.

Speaker 5 (35:03):
How many times? You know how many times did she
have to do that? Last note her?

Speaker 2 (35:07):
I don't think she had to do that.

Speaker 6 (35:08):
I mean, it don't take her long when she's when
she's in that mold, but just last Yeah, they don't
take one time.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
It don't take them.

Speaker 6 (35:15):
Mariah's she's she's flawless when she want to be. But
like I said, she's so New York. I'm telling you,
like the first time I went to work when Mariah I.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Came here I ain't know what to expect.

Speaker 6 (35:27):
She walked in the studio and she laid the CD
on the desk and it was the Wu Tang Cream
and she was like, I want you to sample this.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
This is what I'm singing over. And I'm like, nah,
I'm not doing it.

Speaker 6 (35:40):
I'm not because I start thinking about like you already
successful and you think I'm getting ready to be the
nigga that's gonna put cream under you and make you
We're not doing that.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
I'm not doing that right. But I quickly learned who
she was, Like she just told us that story, like
she's that's who she is.

Speaker 4 (35:57):
No, somebody told that story about Mariah wanted to sing
over cream?

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Who was it?

Speaker 4 (36:01):
Mike literally just.

Speaker 6 (36:01):
Told us that's that's that's the thing. Like right now,
she put out a song where she's over for president,
She's New York to the call.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
What was it about the emancipation of me me that
got her back to where she needed to be? Was
it the freedom that maybe you provided because I started
brat telling this story about how Tommy Matola got guns
pulled on you because you let.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
Mariah go to burden.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
I didn't let them do nothing.

Speaker 6 (36:27):
They pulled off and went on their own. But yeah,
we'll tell the story. I don't know the story, Okay.
So the first time I started working with Mariah, I
decided to do it. Always be my baby remix, right,
So I brought Escape and the Brat to her house
that was out in upstate with her and Tommy. And
this was the first time me I started bringing my

(36:48):
people around Mariah and I brought Brat.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Her and Brat kicked it. They hit it off, and.

Speaker 6 (36:57):
She convinced Brat or either Bratt convinced her let's take
a trip in the car, just me and you and
go to McDonald's or some more.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
Ship left the ground without me knowing, and.

Speaker 6 (37:08):
Niggas showed up in the studio like what's going on.
I'm like, I seen motherfuckers running around like and it
always looking at me like JD, this is your person.
She done ran off with Mariah and I'm like, what
the fuck? Like that was a crazy moment. This is
my first time being there, this is my first time
at her house, and I bring some niggas over.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
This was just like a story. You bring some niggas
over to the house and this is what happened, And
I'm in the house like this, like, I'm just trying
to make a record. Man, what the fuck is going
on where you're at? Yeah? I called her. She's like,
we just getting some fries and I'm like what, why? Why?
And she was saying that MARIAJH.

Speaker 6 (37:47):
Just like at that period of time, Mariah was, you know,
this was a different type of success life at this
point celebrity. She wasn't the artist that could go outside
and go to McDonald's or she wasn't even doing that.
Like she was sheltered and house and she she just
wanted to get out and Brat was her her person
that was ready to go escape and do it.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
So was it that level of freedom you provided her?
That's what I'm called the emancipatient.

Speaker 6 (38:11):
Yeah, A me, nah, Just I just think I think
I make Mariah comfortable, right and I don't.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
I don't.

Speaker 6 (38:17):
I don't fake with her about the music that we
should make. And I think that's what makes her feel free,
you know, free because I'm telling her, I'm telling anybody,
if you sing, make singing records man like, and like,
I get it, you want to rap And I'm a
rapper at heart, but I learned how to make music.

(38:38):
And I learned through the success that I've had that
these people want these records to sound like the records
that they know. The audience don't change, right, So I
just have to keep beating that in people's minds and
letting them know, like, listen, you might want to change
your shit up, but the person that's listening, they want
the new Mariah record to sound like the Mariah record

(38:58):
that they heard before.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
And that's always a hard fight with artists.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
Did you ever take the Magic City?

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yeah? No, no, no, no, she won't. She won't. She
probably won't go to that. That ain't her That ain't
her bag.

Speaker 5 (39:10):
Now back to Usher, you said she didn't like make
me want to? Yeah, why not? What was the problem
with that?

Speaker 2 (39:15):
I don't know?

Speaker 5 (39:15):
And how did you get him? How did you force
him to finally do it?

Speaker 6 (39:17):
Well, I mean I have to force him, but he
also he just let me know it wasn't like, that
wasn't what he felt he should be coming with. At
this point in time, Usher was still not sure where
his career was gonna go. So he's still cut the song, luckily,
but if we was in that space right now, he's
not gonna cut the song right now.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
He ain't gonna be like, I don't fuck.

Speaker 5 (39:38):
With that song right now. He don't care if he
don't like it.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
It's not even gonna get cut even now.

Speaker 6 (39:42):
Right now, I would trust you to not he's gonna
be like, that's right now. I'd be like, yo, Usher,
please cut this song.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Us should turn his phone off.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Like, when you look at this new generation of Atlanta rappers,
do you feel they understand the history of the city sound.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
It's all about what's hot? Right? Well? I think they do,
but I don't think they respected.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
From a level of why how high you should be
holding it right because a lot of people in Atlanta
still don't understand the how we even got to where
we are, right. I did an interview the other day
like about no First of the Month or something like
that with big facts right and Bank was saying, you know,

(40:28):
JD niggas in Atlanta used to think you wanted to
be from New York. And it's funny because it wasn't
that I wanted to be from New York. It's just
this is where hip hop lives, and this is where
hip hop was at and it wasn't hip hop nor
no hip hop in Atlanta, right. It wasn't no place
in Atlanta that even gave me what I felt was

(40:51):
I was getting when I came to the city and
I wasn't getting anything.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
I was treated like I wasn't even supposed to be here.

Speaker 6 (40:57):
But still I was looking at people doing what I
wanted to do, right, So I'm like, Yo, we gotta
get We got to figure out how to get this going.
So he was telling me that when I did Money
and a Thing, that it felt like I wanted to
be from New York as opposed I also, I wanted
to be the first nigga from Atlanta to make a
record with a nigga from Brooklyn that everybody kept claiming

(41:19):
was gonna be who he came who he became to be.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
And I don't think people.

Speaker 6 (41:25):
Understand that move as much as they want to try
to make it seem like I want to be from
New York. I was trying to be the first person
to push us forward and make sure that Atlanta exists
the way it does in hip hop.

Speaker 5 (41:40):
Did you have to pay hold for that record? How
did that record come about? Money? In a day?

Speaker 2 (41:43):
I had to?

Speaker 6 (41:44):
I mean, it was my idea from the Jump and
he took it and put it on his album once
it started popping.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
So you know, we just we're just an even swap.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
So who when you when you talk, I loved I
loved these Atlanta stories and I really feel like Atlanta
story still hasn't been told.

Speaker 5 (42:00):
It should have.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
That's why I'm glad you did the Freak Nick Dog
and y'all got the Magic City Doc. When you think
of Atlanta, who should really get the credit for introducing
the world to Atlanta hip hop?

Speaker 6 (42:09):
Me?

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Outcast?

Speaker 6 (42:12):
Outcast was calling so so death trying to get signed,
Like I think, I think, you know, one of the
things that that we have to really start doing is
in dealing with me. And that's where it goes, like
people start moving the goal posters that Chris Cross was
the first rap crew from Atlanta to sell over to
three four million records, point blank, ain't no if and

(42:34):
buts about it, right. But when we start having a
conversation about Chris Cross, people start trying to make it
seem like it's kitty rap.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Right.

Speaker 6 (42:43):
But then when I started saying something about me making
a record, the niggas starts saying, jade o g it's.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
A young man game. If it's a young man game.

Speaker 6 (42:52):
Then give it to the young man who started the
ship for the city, right. But when you ask for
that credit, niggas try to make it seem like nah nah, nah.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Nah, it can't be these kids.

Speaker 6 (43:05):
But that don't make sense, right it don't you one
minute it's for the kids, then the next minute the kids.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
You don't want to get the kids to credit.

Speaker 6 (43:11):
And I think that's the biggest mistake in Atlanta h
hip hop is that niggas don't give Crisscross the credit
for pushing the door open. Like t I definitely says
that he started rapping because he saw Criscross and he
realized that he didn't have to be old. He didn't
have to be twenty five years old to make a record.

(43:32):
He saw some little niggas from his hood making music
and he was.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
Like, I can do it. Right. Even Killer Mike says
the same thing.

Speaker 6 (43:39):
And I feel like, you know, you got a couple
of people that like these guys that say it, But
the rest of the city, if you start having conversation
about it, it's always who who started at first. Criscross
came out way before outcasts, you know what I'm saying,
and they sold eight million records the first album.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
You can't just not talk about that.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
What's the biggest differ between being a music mogul in
the nineties versus in one now.

Speaker 4 (44:01):
They don't look the same.

Speaker 6 (44:02):
Yeah, they don't look the same. And I think that
the difference now is that it just ain't a bunch,
That's what it is. That's the ultimate difference. Because we
all learned from everybody. I learned most of everything that
I started doing from Russell, you know what I mean,
just seeing Russell Simmons do what he was doing.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Andre Horrel rest in peace, just everybody.

Speaker 6 (44:27):
You know, we had, We had books of people that
we could look at and read their book and be like, Okay,
if I'm gonna do it, I want to do it
like this. If I'm gonna have this company, I'm gonna
have it like this. We don't have that no more. Right,
we don't have that no more. And I need it,
you know what I'm saying, Even me, I need it.
So it's therefore it's like I mean, at least I

(44:47):
always used it. I might be that person that people
look at this point, but I'm saying, for the most part,
we don't have these guys that's out here that you
could actually look at and be like, Okay, I want
to have I want to even like Jay Prince, Ay
Prince was doing what he was doing in Houston.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
They not doing that no more in Houston, right, So
the niggas ain't Houston.

Speaker 6 (45:05):
Only nobody like patting what they're doing off and nobody
they can talk about it, but you don't see nobody
coming out of Houston.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
It's like the new j Prince. That's true, you know.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
I mean it's interesting too it Atlanta because you always
repeat yourself when you think about all the different sounds
that have come out of Atlanta now. But I love
Metro booming out and stuff you got on the on
the Magic City soundtracks sound like that too. Why is
that era it seemed like coming back?

Speaker 6 (45:29):
Well, I mean mine is because it's connected to the dock, right.
I think Metro them was on the something that was
just like they felt like, like I said, I don't
know where these girls, what mindset these female rappers was
in when they started, but they started taking these old
records and remaking new records on top of them. So

(45:49):
like all these atoven beats, that's the Pluto song when
Wami was a zatoven beat right.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
Like I said, the girl bank Roll Now that I
worked with, she got a bunch.

Speaker 6 (45:59):
Of these records that they they're taking all of these
older records and they putting new records on this. So
I think the feel of it when they when you
start seeing that, that feels like okay. You know, everybody
that make music always try to get into the tempo
and what's gonna go with the next song.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
As a producer, I mean, that's what I do.

Speaker 6 (46:19):
So if you're listening to oh I think they like
me beat, and somebody come on with a new song
that your your next move is to damn.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
To make a record that sound like leaning with it.

Speaker 6 (46:29):
Rock with is just automatic because you can't just come
with a song that you can't just blow by and
be like, I ain't paying attention to that tempo.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Let's do something else.

Speaker 6 (46:38):
No, that ain't. That ain't never been hip hop. So
I just think that it's.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Just a wave.

Speaker 6 (46:42):
Like I said, these girls they started and I just
feel like you're seeing people just follow the wave.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
It's gonna be address that take me through their record. Yeah,
with that with that influences, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (46:52):
But I'm saying that's why k THO. Yeah, So I
mean that's that's what I'm saying. It's like it's it's
just it's just they wave and people just they started it.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
You know.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
Now we talked about a lot of stuff that you've
done in your history. What's left that you mayne wants
to do that he hasn't done yet, Like because you
didn't did everything, you didn't did docu series, you didn't
did produce for every decade, what's left that you want
to do that's like this is the last thing I
want to do, or this is something I want to do.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Just continue, man.

Speaker 6 (47:19):
I think that, Like it's a lot of stuff that
I did that I didn't know what I was doing right,
and so it was like go back and do it
in a way now that I know. Like when I
came up here and talked about the Rap Game, I
ain't know what that show was going to be.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
I ain't know a lot of it was gonna come
from that show. I ain't know.

Speaker 6 (47:35):
I don't know what was going to happen. Right now,
I know now people know that show would be accepted,
you know, and received so much better now.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Because people it wasn't accepted back then, like like I
think it would be now.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (47:48):
It's proven though.

Speaker 6 (47:49):
Yeah, it's just really just like like I said, a
lot of the stuff is like I'm the first to
like step out here and see what's going on, and
you don't even know what's happening. And once it worked,
if you come back and do it again, it's like, oh, Okay,
now people fucking with this, and they might do it.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
But that's a lot of the stuff.

Speaker 6 (48:05):
I just you know, I was just like, you know,
like even like the Division I signed Division, and the
first album that I did with Division, I jumped out
here with a song called if I Get Caught, and
you know, their fan base was a little like that,
Ain't we.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
Donna fuck with that? Right?

Speaker 6 (48:21):
I was just trying to make records and get them
guys popular because I felt like they too good to
be such a box group, and they also wanted that song,
So I'm not gonna just say I pushed it on them.
But at the same time, I learned in that process
they got a fan base, right, and they make love music,

(48:41):
and you can't come out with a group that make
love music. Talking about if I get caught cheating, that
just is not gonna It's gonna be a crash.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
So this new project, we put out.

Speaker 6 (48:52):
Two new records last week, and all I see is
people online saying, this is the division we wanted.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
This is what I'm talking about, you know, Joe Budden's
so you just learned. I just learned. So I don't know.

Speaker 6 (49:02):
I feel like, you know, I had a look at
the things that I feel like I'm not I didn't
know what I was doing totally, and then just come
back and do it again and try to make it
right right the way that I feel like it should
have been the first time.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
What's the hardest personal sacrifice you've made for your career life.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
I don't really have no life. I just be making music,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (49:25):
And I have people that tell me this all the time, like,
jad you know, you don't really you My baby mother's
be saying it's like, you know, you your life is
the music. All you do is care about the music.
All you care about is putting out records. All you
care about is doing what you're doing every day. And
that's the truth, it is, That's what it is. I
don't care about nothing else.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
You enjoy the money on go on vacation.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
I mean that come along with it, but it ain't.
That's that's not a chase for me.

Speaker 6 (49:49):
Like my chase is to be you know, like what
they said on the Billboard, I get number one, I
feel like I feel like I finally did something by
getting number one on that list.

Speaker 5 (49:59):
But that it's never enough because more not now.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
It's like it's but it's also like fighting.

Speaker 6 (50:03):
It's like boxing, you gotta you gotta can you can
you stay in that space?

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Right? You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (50:10):
It's like watching Floyd and Tyson tug while they gonna fight.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
It's like Floyd retired, but he still want to be
the He wants to be the best. You know what
I'm saying. It's like I'm not saying I'm retired. I'm
out here.

Speaker 6 (50:23):
So I just know that, you know, Like I also
know that it's space in hip hop and R and
B that hasn't been touched. What I'm doing, going from
ninety two and being becoming the number one producer the
twenty first century in twenty twenty five ain't been seen
ever ever, Right, So if you start doing shit that

(50:45):
ain't never been seen. You don't have no reason. I
don't have no reason to stop. I just gotta, you know,
pray to God that don't stop.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (50:51):
It's funny. I wonder if hip hop had limits you
may do for you.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
And what I mean by that is when people start
talking about, yo, who's the greatest producers of all time,
They'll start a bunch of people who do a lot
of hip hop records. Right, But you gotta just say
Jamaine is a musician. If you if you said Jamaine
is is just a musical producer, then I think the
conversation is a little bit different.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (51:12):
I mean it's hard, man, because I feel like I
switched from people. I switch up on people so much
when I'm in R and B mode, I'm not telling
about no rap, right. I remember one time I came
up here and I was so R and B and
out and I want, I'm waving the flag for R
and B and I ain't talking about nothing rap. I
think that confuses the podcast and the guys that usually

(51:37):
talk to me about they like, wait a minute, I
thought this nigga was money anything. And you you know
what I mean, Magic City, this niggas over tell me
you want to make division.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Records, you know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (51:47):
I think that that that throws the whole thing off
because I do switch. I mean, that's how That's the
only way I can do it. That's the only way
I can make it is to get away from, you know,
from one thing for a minute and go into that
space and be one in that space.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Is there a media bias even towards the South, But
I think about that with the producers and the artists.
There's some artists from the South who should be getting
mentioned its top lyricists all the time. Some producers from
the South should be getting mentioned this to us.

Speaker 6 (52:13):
I just think that, and I want to I want
to get I want to show Bank a shout out
because I feel like his interview with.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
Doug Fantastic pushes Brilliant.

Speaker 6 (52:23):
Finally somebody in Atlanta to the forefront of hip hop
media in the city of Atlanta. And I think it's
taken thirty years for somebody in the city of Atlanta
to be the person that you have to sit down
and talk to if you that guy in hip hop,
and he just made himself that person.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
If you asked, I'm glad. I'm saying that. I said
it on the air.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Regional identity matters in media and everything, and Atlanta has
been the hip hop capital for so long, but has
never had that media Prince Luther Gray screening on, but
they've never had that person You've got to go.

Speaker 6 (53:00):
And I think that's the problem, is like every time
somebody from Atlanta that's.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Popped, they always had to come to New York.

Speaker 6 (53:06):
And no disrespect, but I've been saying it should have
been somebody that did what he did with Future Ludacris
w TI.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
I got out of jail.

Speaker 6 (53:16):
We know had so many artists that had so many
stories or they missed the opportunity like what just happened
with Doug because we don't have that person in the city,
and that just that goes to the culture like people
should Like I just saw the magazine out there with
you on the front covered Variety. I've never seen that
before right in Atlanta. I don't think young people read
and see things like that to push them to say, you.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Know what, I'm wanna do what Charlamage doing? Man? I
want to do what Envy doing?

Speaker 6 (53:42):
He got a call show, Like they don't see that
enough to distract them. All they see is JD throwing
money and this nigga throwing money them nigga rapping Niggas'm
gonna be. I'm gonna be a rapper. Nah, you ain't
gotta be no rapper.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
You know what I mean? Bank getting ready to hit
the bank.

Speaker 6 (53:58):
You know what I'm saying, based on the way he
just did that one interview, As far as I'm concerned,
if he do what he gotta do and he keep
it at that level and the way he talked to him,
it makes you gonna have people that really want to
sit down and like, let you interview him the same
way you did.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
And Big Facts has already been that platform to me, right,
And then now to see Bank doing the perspective with banks, yeah,
I agree with that.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
But it took thirty years, That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (54:21):
Took thirty years for somebody to say, this is what
we need, I'm gonna do it like this, right, And
I'm really happy to see that. I feel like that's
gonna turn that's gonna change the city, because that's gonna people.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Somebody gonna see.

Speaker 6 (54:36):
That and they gonna create another one. Right, and at
that point, that world will open up.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Because when I came here, I think the beginning of me.

Speaker 6 (54:44):
Talking about Magic City, I was like, Yo, everybody in
New York got a fucking podcast. I mean everywhere I went,
everybody got podcasts cluing him. Got one across the street
in a little bar, everybody fat Joe them. I was
going to all of them. I mean, carmeloed them out
of Brooklyn. It's a podcast everywhere. I was just like this,
this this bug ain't hit Atlanta yet.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
N They got him in Atlanta because you got Big Facts,
you got Bank, got eighty five South shows in Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
You got Pull Mind podcast based out of Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Four y'all have about twenty out there, you know, I
mean you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (55:18):
It's just and they moving. Y'all got y'all got twenty
out here, that's moving. I'm just saying, these guys that
you like the eighty five South show, I think that's
probably the closest next.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
But after that, it ain't no real Like, ain't nobody
you gotta.

Speaker 6 (55:31):
Talk to Big You ain't got to talk to them,
That's what I'm saying. I'm just talking about as far
as like, if you want of these people, I feel
like we don't have we ain't had nobody that you
have to talk to, Like if they was like call
me Carla wrec compan they like jo Ja Man, who
you wanna have a in.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Depth conversation with your name? Your name is gonna come up?

Speaker 6 (55:53):
And then who's the competitor to Charlemagne in Atlanta?

Speaker 5 (55:59):
From Atlanta to you know put in?

Speaker 6 (56:02):
So I just feel like I feel like Bank put
himself in the category to get you know, the Gucci mans,
all of these people that we want.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
To hearing Bank right now, Gunna should be calling Bank
like I need to come sit down with you and
just to read that.

Speaker 4 (56:16):
They reply.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
But yeah, I mean, but it ain't even like.

Speaker 6 (56:21):
It's just like I said, he just made it where
like Oprah Winfrey, like you want to watch it, you
want to hear it. And he's not gonna hold back
on the questions. And he's creditable in that category to
where you can't run.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
No bullshit on him. Is he gonna let you know
you running some bullshit?

Speaker 5 (56:41):
That's what I love. He was He wasn't afraid to
push back.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Nah.

Speaker 6 (56:43):
But I mean, but he don't have no that's him.
You know what I'm saying he wanted He the guy
that told me when I said, He's like, Jad, we
thought you you want you want to be from New York.
That's who told me that, right, And I'm like, nah,
I wasn't trying to be from New York. I'm trying
to just push my music. And I just feel like,
like I said I part them on that interview, he
did it.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
They have two more questions. What's the one misconception about
JD that you wish people would.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Let go of.

Speaker 6 (57:09):
That I'm anything like any of these other people that
we talk about. I don't do none of the the
people talking about they got a case with Chris krusting it.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
I don't do none of that. Ship all that shit. People,
I don't know. I ain't got time for all that.

Speaker 6 (57:25):
I make music, Right, If you want to talk about music,
then that's what we talk about. If you want to
talk about all this other bullshit that's going on in
the world, I'm not your guy for free costs whatever
you want to call it, like not freaks. I think
like you know, like you know, they got like transporting
kids and all this type of shit going on out
here now. And just I feel like because we have

(57:47):
seen so many people do and get in trouble for things.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
You know, It's like, well, JD part of that system.

Speaker 5 (57:54):
Too, JD. I ain't never hear bullshit.

Speaker 6 (57:56):
Nah, But I'm saying like that. I mean, you know,
I'm around long time, but I'm just from saying I'm not.
I don't I don't have no reason to be doing that,
Like I don't have no reason to do it. And
I think a lot of people don't understand. Like a
lot of my success I was with Janet, you know
what I'm saying, Like I had, I was the first
nigga to be out here doing that besides Bobby and Whitney,

(58:18):
you know what I mean. Me and Janet was together
before Jay and Hole. I mean Jay and b actually
really announced it. So I was kind of like pushed
to the side, like a boyfriend type of dude that
was like just making music. So I don't know, I
just think I think that's the one. I think people
just they want me to be in that shit, but
I'm not going in that direction.

Speaker 4 (58:38):
Yeah, I mean, you wanted a few.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
It seems like yo, you jay Z, like y'all planes
are landing with the wheels out of the lot people
planes did not land with the wheels.

Speaker 6 (58:48):
I mean, well, I had this conversation with Chad because
chad Ellie shout out to chad Elle, that's my best friend.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
And we've been friends since I was twelve thirteen, and
we was talking about the list of Billboard list and
we started out in the garage.

Speaker 6 (59:02):
I used to live with him in Brooklyn Easton Parkway,
and we was we used to make you know, we
go buy records and we ain't know what he's doing.
Was just trying to make beats and we ain't have
no drum machines. We just used to use our imagination.
And I was telling him about it other night. Was
I was like, yo, we got a toast. I'm number
one producer, right And he was like, man, just sitting

(59:23):
here think about it made me want to cry because
it's like what we went through for me to even
be in that space, I don't think people even realize.
So it's just like, I'm all all I focus on
is that man just trying to be I'm a I'm
a you know, I'm trying to be the top of
the top of the game and I made it.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
I'm just trying to stay in that space.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
When your name is mentioned fifty years from now, what's
the one record or one artist you want to define
your legacy.

Speaker 6 (59:53):
I don't know who the artist is. Somebody great, I
mean I think, you know, I think like watching Mariah
get Van Gold Award and her performing in that piece
to records that I did, I think that means that
means a lot, you know what I mean, like almost
like you're saying, it's like my records a loud enough

(01:00:14):
to make people damnar believe that I had something to
do with her success.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
And that's a that's a that's a to me, that's.

Speaker 6 (01:00:20):
A mean accomplishment because I didn't have anything to do
with her becoming who she is.

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
That's not true. That's not true. I mean because it's
a second wave.

Speaker 6 (01:00:30):
Yeah, but I'm saying I think I think I might
have made more black people like her, Yes, but she
still Rode Carrett.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Yeah, but it says something you me. I mean, I
mean the best album I get it me me is
Brod Carey's best album. Absolutely, that's probably.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
The definitive album of her whole career. That's her thriller.
It is.

Speaker 6 (01:00:49):
I don't know, I don't know. Run well, Yeah, I
mean before I go, I got an album. I think
my album's coming out on Friday. Yeah, I think because
I've been I had a lot of sample clearance issues.
We're supposed to come out last Friday to go with
the doc, but I'm hoping it comes out this Friday
because this is the last episode of Magic City this Friday,
so we're trying to make sure the album comes out

(01:01:11):
and I'm supposed to turn it in by four o'clock.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
So that's what my running is, all right, that's what
my phone is doing.

Speaker 5 (01:01:16):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
Well JD Jamain Dupre may make you check out the
Magic City Dock and of course the album.

Speaker 5 (01:01:21):
We appreciate you always for joining us.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:01:23):
It's the Breakfast Club's j.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Hold every day a week ago. Click your ass up
the Breakfast Club. You're finished for y'all done it.