INTERVIEW: Jermaine Dupri Talks 'Magic City: An American Fantasy,' New Album, Billboard, Mariah Carey + More

Today on The Breakfast Club, Jermaine Dupri Talks 'Magic City: An American Fantasy,' New Album, Billboard, Mariah Carey. Listen For More!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't every day up weak click your ass up the
Breakfast Club.

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

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Everybody's d j Envy, Jess Hilarrys Charlamage the God. We
are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
the building. Yes, indeed, JD Jamain dupree.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
What's happening?

Speaker 4 (00:17):
How you feeling?

Speaker 5 (00:18):
You're looking at the wall, looking at the wall.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
We ain't got j D on the wall.

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

Speaker 4 (00:24):
I don't think.

Speaker 5 (00:25):
I don't think.

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

Speaker 4 (00:27):
That's all right, that's where you got JD on the wall.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Y'all got me up there.

Speaker 6 (00:32):
See the wall represents like iconic breakfast club moments.

Speaker 5 (00:37):
Not that you haven't given us great interviews. I haven't
had it, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (00:41):
You have had some you know studio.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
I'm out of that. I'm not that comsation.

Speaker 5 (00:53):
But you have always coming in and gave giving us
great conversation. Man.

Speaker 6 (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 5 (01:07):
But what is Atlanta culture exactly? Is it? This? Is
it the script clubs?

Speaker 7 (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
make sure that people understand that that's what it is,

(01:34):
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. And you learned from 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

(02:00):
the floodgates and made it a business.

Speaker 5 (02:02):
Right.

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

Speaker 7 (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.
But when you look.

Speaker 7 (02:16):
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 York when
we used to do things and wherever. 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

(02:39):
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 trip club in the US.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
To you what you think, what your thoughts on it?

Speaker 7 (02:50):
Nah, I think I mean, I think it's been It's
been a couple you know, over the years. 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 and be live. I

(03:12):
think that's Houston. So I think Houston, it's a couple
of places that's got. But I don't think Houston can
get naked though.

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

Speaker 7 (03:19):
It's like we're talking about Nudy is Flord's strip clubs
is Miami.

Speaker 5 (03:23):
And.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
Yeah, Atlanta was nudy, nudity.

Speaker 6 (03:29):
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 5 (03:37):
Think of it as infrastructure. People with the break record,
I want.

Speaker 7 (03:40):
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.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
You know what I mean? That part of hip hop
stopped a long time ago.

Speaker 7 (03:58):
Like when you watch like Why Style, right when there's
a person that's not from New York.

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

Speaker 7 (04:03):
You can see like how Grandmaster cads 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?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
You know what I mean, how we got to where
we are?

Speaker 7 (04:24):
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.
Then that he got a TV show Like that's American dream,
you know what I mean? Like, regardless of whatever good

(04:46):
or bad, it's a Black American dream that we don't
ever really be talking.

Speaker 6 (04:49):
About infrastructure now, huh is it needed?

Speaker 5 (04:52):
Now? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (04:53):
I mean we needed more than any everybody. I mean,
not just Atlanta, like a bunch of cities need to.
It's probably a bunch of other thats got like forty
to fifty year old Black establishments that don't that I
don't even know about.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
What do you think ruined strip clubs? Because at one
time there 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 7 (05:17):
I think that's why magic stands out so much, because
you can go in magic with all your jury 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. And you know,
I mean, and I say that proudly because even me,

(05:37):
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. And I feel like
it's the safest club in Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
So I feel like that.

Speaker 7 (05:48):
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 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, right, and you would you will be fine
all night.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
That's totally changed that.

Speaker 7 (06:08):
That's just your mental okay, right, that's just people's 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 4 (06:26):
And by the way, Katie, that's a lot of money.

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

Speaker 2 (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.

Speaker 7 (06:43):
So my little five hundred to a thousand that corner
is like one hundred dollars man space, because I have.

Speaker 5 (06:54):
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 4 (07:03):
I've seen people bore one hundred thousand singles.

Speaker 7 (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
for you backpack. 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

(07:28):
ordered forty right then, and that you know, that's that's
one sixty right there. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Chris by himself had one hundred, That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (07:36):
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 6 (07:42):
So when you was in the back of the day
with BMF, how much did you see them spend that.

Speaker 7 (07:46):
One on my album, I have a conversation with Meech
and he says he spent six hundred thousand dollars one night.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
That's insanity, that's crazy.

Speaker 5 (07:55):
What's the most you spent with Janet? What did you spend?

Speaker 7 (07:58):
I mean I had a I had a limit, like
when everybody heard me say I spend ten thousand, 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 well, 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 Gentlemen'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.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Say they did it and did it.

Speaker 7 (09:02):
Will you find a video that came out before Money
and any thing 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 like when Meaching them crew came and it was like,
oh damn, they throwing more money, we gotta throw It
became like a money wore.

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

Speaker 6 (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. I mean what I mean, I'm.

Speaker 7 (09:39):
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.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Right, I've been that guy. Right.

Speaker 7 (09:51):
If you ain't in the jury and you ain't do it,
don't talk about it. If you ain't flying, you don't
be getting, then don't be making raps about it.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Right. And I ain't never had no reason to talk
about me selling no dope.

Speaker 7 (10:03):
That ain't That just ain't been my life, right, I
ain't come up like that.

Speaker 5 (10:07):
What about signing an artist that.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
I have signed artists like that. I mean, Brat smoke
more weed than Damnar Snoop Dog.

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 7 (10:20):
Perspective, right, I just think the perspective of how we
I never was trying to sell, like I said, selling
selling drugs.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
But I mean, you know all the artists I think
Damn It talked about.

Speaker 7 (10:31):
I mean that franchise boys, you know what I mean,
White Tea is about dope boys, like all of that.
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.

Speaker 5 (10:42):
To it.

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

Speaker 5 (10:47):
That was the other thing about Magic City too. Why
are script clubs?

Speaker 6 (10:50):
Why are you able to break records in script clubs
but not liking the regular club. And the regular club
you got to play the records that keep the party going.
But in the script club you can try new shit.

Speaker 7 (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 elevation. 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. If it's
it's ultimately it's for DJ to pay attention.

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
You just heard it, and you like, damn, who is that?
Who is that?

Speaker 7 (11:49):
That's like cuevos, you know, you know you could see
the emotional people trying to figure out what it is,
or you see somebody in is shazam the song.

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

Speaker 3 (11:59):
One time with women band from mister Club. Thought I
never remember because I know they would be charged now.

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 7 (12:18):
And that's how we That was our spot, right. But
then these ladies start 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? 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.

Speaker 7 (12:48):
I'm not going, not going, And then when we got
to take her in that, she's like, oh, oh, I
thought y'all was in here. I'm like, I don't 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 7 (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.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
They got other clubs where that might.

Speaker 7 (13:29):
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 6 (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 mainscream. Do you feel like
the city has lost its identity or it's just a
natural evolution.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
No.

Speaker 7 (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 that's just that's
all of Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Right.

Speaker 7 (14:17):
Meanwhile, Atlanta has a sub culture of these female rappers
right now with Pluto, Yk Bankro Niah, 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

(14:37):
people saying, it's no song of the summer.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
When Whammy.

Speaker 7 (14:42):
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 the pressed. They're stealing all
of the energy away from all of the artists that's

(15:05):
out there, like we got Belly, Gang Cush, we got Swabe,
we got all these new artists that's hot, even like
Jed Jig got a hot.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
New record with Sierra Earth Gang.

Speaker 7 (15:16):
No no, no, it's not record. It's it's not the
label fault.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
It's actually it's actually the media that all of the
new artists 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.

Speaker 7 (15:32):
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.
And you ain't mentioning Belly, and you ain't mentioning Jed
new album, and you ain't talk like because that's that
now you now you're deterring the energy that we out

(15:53):
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 5 (16:00):
That's a great conversation.

Speaker 6 (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 by all of that stuff, but then.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
Eventually you knew who the group was.

Speaker 6 (16:15):
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 mean, I gotta they gotta work harder.

Speaker 7 (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 6 (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. I'm like, that wasn't
a genius rollout. It was just a rollout. That's what
the artists used to do. So I think sometimes it
takes somebody like you to say, naw, we're.

Speaker 5 (17:21):
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 5 (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 4 (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 4 (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 7 (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 7 (18:25):
They putting out records every week, and it's one record
with Bunnabee and YK might be bent rod Nya 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.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
About Atlanta was prior.

Speaker 7 (18:47):
And that's 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. It's like, because that is how I That's
how I grew up seeing Atlanta.

Speaker 6 (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 nobody.

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

Speaker 7 (19:13):
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 5 (19:25):
And once again I go back to the clips.

Speaker 6 (19:27):
The clips O g Rap Group showed everybody what you
supposed to do when you got a.

Speaker 5 (19:31):
Project, go work all the rooms.

Speaker 6 (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.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
They did.

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

Speaker 5 (19:45):
To do that.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
They went to the car show, they went to concerts, they.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Did radio, they did you podcast, they did everything they
was to get those numbers, and it showed.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
I told it.

Speaker 6 (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, that's 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 5 (20:09):
Well, like everybody you just name. The only person I
know faces Pluto.

Speaker 7 (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 going to because I might get in trouble.

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

Speaker 7 (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 being frontloaded with like people like Paris Hilton
and I mean, you know, they put Lotto in an
what's the last 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 people that's really
coming up. I thought Busters should have got what he got,
but we should have saw somebody new, you.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
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. 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 6 (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.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
Skate record goals with Sierra and Earth Game.

Speaker 6 (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 7 (21:44):
Yeah yeah, I mean when you got to you know,
like like NB nos it you saying it.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
You gotta bring these labels to what's going on. That
ain't never.

Speaker 7 (21:53):
Been a nun practice. Right when we had never scared.
It was Super Bowl weekend in Atlanta. I threw everybody
to Atlanta, and my mindset was when everybody leave, everybody
gonna leave here saying Bone Crushes the biggest record they
heard in Atlanta. People left Atlanta and they were saying

(22:13):
that bone Crushing record is the big When everybody got
back to New York, that was what was happening in
their office.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Can you send me this bone crushing record? What's up
with that bone crush artist? Blah blah blah. You've always
been that's always been part of the practice. I don't
know why people think that these things change.

Speaker 7 (22:27):
You have to None of these people know, you know
what I mean, Like nobody skates, right, nobody, these older
people us in these labels, they're not skating. So how
do they know that it's a skating thing.

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

Speaker 6 (22:44):
What?

Speaker 2 (22:45):
They're not even trying to go? They just thinking about music.
But we are actually selling culture inside our records and
we're actually doing what we talked.

Speaker 7 (22:53):
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 5 (23:00):
What skating rink was? It?

Speaker 6 (23:01):
Cas skating is that is that would that be the
equivalent of Magic City for the skating rinks in Atlanta.

Speaker 7 (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 Jig, is that
Golden Glide that's on the east side. So all of
like each side of Atlanta they got skating rings.

Speaker 5 (23:20):
Did they break records?

Speaker 2 (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. Right.

Speaker 7 (23:47):
So I'm sure, like right now the Chris Brown record
probably going crazyness came round.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
I haven't been in the last you know, the last.

Speaker 7 (23:53):
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 5 (24:04):
You didn't produce.

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 4 (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.

Speaker 7 (24:18):
But the an rs need somebody to develop them, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Like you know that that's that's the truth.

Speaker 7 (24:26):
Because the problem is is that the an ars is
acting more like babysitters down 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 all, or they might just the artists
might 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 7 (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 sound the best.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
So it's artists out here that want creative criticism.

Speaker 7 (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're 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
that you brought out.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
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 artist you popped,
the A and r's you, you birth, the producive, you birth,
the sound you brought out? When does that happen? Because
people don't necessarily forget even to this day.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
Sometimes I'm like, dam Jady did that one?

Speaker 2 (25:46):
So yeah, I mean I don't know, man, you know
I can't.

Speaker 7 (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 7 (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 hoppin' on be So I

(26:16):
feel like the tide is changing, you know what I mean.
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 7 (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 7 (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 and see why. 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.

(27:09):
Them is facts, Like that's what I was telling you
last time we was up here. 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.
I mean, I've seen people like completely mad about Beyonce
being at number five on that list, But Beyonce actually

(27:30):
produces these records.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
She's telling the other people in.

Speaker 7 (27:33):
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 4 (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.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
You were so like, let's do this, let's let's do this.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
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 so bad.

Speaker 5 (28:05):
It was gonna happen.

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

Speaker 7 (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 done been in, I done been in the ship
storm of hip hop.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
So it ain't none of that. Don't none of that
scare me, right at the end of the day.

Speaker 7 (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. But
people don't want to. They still want to fight it.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Like, so I'm like, whatever it is, what what's the motivation?

Speaker 6 (29:01):
One of the only things I think about this list
when you look at this Billboard list.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
The list name the top five, so people, but.

Speaker 6 (29:07):
I'm only gonna 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 5 (29:14):
Yeah? Yeah, how did that make you feel?

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

Speaker 7 (29:17):
Because you know when you think about like what people
say about Mike, Michael Jordan and basketball, I always use this.
They always talk about like you can only be the
best on list if you can make other people.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Better, right in any business, right, I think that's the thing.

Speaker 7 (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 7 (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'd 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 6 (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 7 (30:15):
I was talking to her about this 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, which was

(30:37):
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.

Speaker 5 (30:47):
That.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
She just like, yeah, you know, we gonna redly do
this tonight. This is what we're gonna do.

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 6 (31:09):
Saying, Like that charm Bracelet and then that was it
was that movie called I don't even remember that.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
It was a bad It was dark.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, but one one black eye can't kill you.

Speaker 5 (31:19):
No, that's true.

Speaker 6 (31:20):
But then you came back to the mess vision of
me me, and that's that's a nuclear bomb.

Speaker 5 (31:24):
I mean that's not a normal album, you know.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah. I just I always look at that like, I'm really,
I can't take credit for Mariah. She's She's who she is,
and she was who she was before.

Speaker 7 (31:34):
I you know, I'm just happy that she let me
be a part of the ride.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
I think that puts more pressure on you though.

Speaker 6 (31:40):
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.

Speaker 7 (31:54):
That then to put pressure on you, I would think
so back then, nah, because I don't think about it
like you know, like the thing about it, this 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.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
I go in the studio and I'm like, I.

Speaker 7 (32:10):
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 working and I'm gonna pay
you and we're gonna let you get this credit, you
better say what the fuck you gotta say If I
sound bad, if I don't even sound halfway good.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
She was like, tell me to do it again.

Speaker 7 (32:28):
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 here and there and watch me? Or
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

(32:51):
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 at the end of the record, the record
ain't gonna be what people want the record to be.
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,

(33:11):
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.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Was one of the artists that didn't like you being
brutal Lyannes That was like, nah, it's not for me, nobody.

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

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
But a lot of them like you know, Bow, I
didn't like. Oh, I think they like me.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Usher didn't seem like you wrestled 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 what's crazy is we had six hours to do.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
We belong together.

Speaker 7 (34:04):
She came to Atlanta, We did everything in the song
except for that note. 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 song with this note.
And it wasn't there, It wasn't in there, and it

(34:25):
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.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
Can really sing, but she's a rapper.

Speaker 7 (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 4 (35:03):
How many times? You know how many times did she
have to do that? Last note her?

Speaker 7 (35:07):
I don't think she had to do that. I mean,
it don't take her long when she's when she's in
that mode.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
But yeah, they don't take one time.

Speaker 7 (35:14):
It don't take the 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 came here.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
I ain't know what to expect.

Speaker 7 (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.
This is what I'm singing over. And I'm like, nah,
I'm not doing it. 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 5 (35:57):
No, somebody told that story about Mariah wanted to sing
over cream?

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

Speaker 5 (36:01):
Mike literally just.

Speaker 7 (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 6 (36:11):
What was it about the emancipation of me me that
got her back to where she needed to be?

Speaker 5 (36:17):
Was it the freedom that maybe you provided?

Speaker 6 (36:19):
Because I started brat telling this story about how Tommy
Matola got guns pulled on you because you let Mariah
go to Bird.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
I didn't let them do nothing. They pulled off and
went on their own.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
But yeah, we'll tell the story cause I don't know
the story.

Speaker 7 (36:32):
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
people around Mariah and I brought Brat.

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

Speaker 7 (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 mored shiite left the ground
without me knowing, and niggas showed up in the studio
like what's going on. I'm like, I seen motherfucker's running
around like and it always looking at me like JD,

(37:18):
this is your person. She done ran off with Mariah
and I'm like, what the fuck? Like that was a
crazy moment.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
This is my first time being there, this is my
first time at her house, and I bring some niggas over.

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 5 (37:39):
Where you're at? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (37:40):
I called her.

Speaker 7 (37:41):
She's like, we just getting some frize and I'm like, what,
why why? And she was saying that MARIAJH. Just like
at that period of time, Mariah was, you know, this
was a different type of success life at this point. Yeah,
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 in the house and she just wanted to

(38:01):
get out, and Brat was her her person that was
ready to go escape and do it.

Speaker 6 (38:06):
So what did that level of freedom you provided her?
That's what I'm called the emancipatient.

Speaker 5 (38:11):
Yeah, A MEI.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Nah, just I just think I think I make Mariah comfortable, right,
and I don't. I don't.

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
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 that they heard before. And
that's always a hard fight with artists.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
Did you ever take the Magic City?

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

Speaker 3 (39:10):
Now back to Usher, you said she didn't like make
me want to? Yeah, why not?

Speaker 4 (39:14):
Was the problem with that?

Speaker 2 (39:14):
I don't know?

Speaker 4 (39:15):
And how'd you get him? How did you force him
to finally do it?

Speaker 7 (39:17):
Well, I mean I have to force him, but he
also just let me know it wasn't like, that wasn't
what he felt.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
He should be coming with.

Speaker 7 (39:25):
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.
He ain't gonna be like, I don't fuck with that.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
Song right now. He don't care if he don't like it.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
No, it's not even gonna get cut even now. 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. Us should turn his phone off.

Speaker 6 (39:51):
Like, when you look at this new generation of Atlanta rappers,
do you feel they understand the history of the city
sound I.

Speaker 5 (39:59):
Know all about what's hot? Right?

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Well? I think they do, but I don't think they respected.

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
And it's funny because it wasn't that I wanted to
be from New York.

Speaker 7 (40:38):
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.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Right.

Speaker 7 (40:46):
It wasn't no place in Atlanta that even gave me
what I felt 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 7 (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 7 (41:25):
Understand that move as much as they want to try
to make it seem like I want to be from
New York.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
I was trying to be the.

Speaker 7 (41:32):
First person to push us forward and make sure that
Atlanta exists the way it does in hip hop?

Speaker 4 (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 7 (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. So you know, we just were just
an even swap.

Speaker 6 (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 the way it should have.
That's why I'm glad you did the Freak Nick Doc
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 7 (42:11):
Outa 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 two

(42:31):
three four million records.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Point blank, ain't no if and butts about it, right.

Speaker 7 (42:35):
But when we start having a conversation about Chris Cross,
people start trying to make it seem like it's kitty rap, right.
But then when I start saying something about me making
a record, the niggas starts saying, jad o g it's.

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

Speaker 7 (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 nah, it can't be these kids. But that don't
make sense, right it don't you one minute it's for
the kids, then the next minute the kids. You don't
want to get the kids to credit. And I think
that's the biggest mistake in Atlanta h hip hop is

(43:15):
that niggas don't give Criss Cross the credit for pushing
the door open. Like t I definitely says that he
started rapping because he saw Crisscross 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. He
saw some little niggas from his hood making music and
he was like, I can do it right. Even Killer

(43:38):
Mike says the same thing. 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 conversations 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 6 (43:56):
What's the biggest differ between being a music mogul in
the nineties versus being in one now.

Speaker 5 (44:01):
They don't look the same.

Speaker 7 (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. Andre

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

Speaker 2 (44:37):
If I'm gonna have this company, I'm gonna have it
like this.

Speaker 7 (44:39):
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 always used it.
I might be that person that people look at 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 Prince was

(45:00):
doing what he was doing in Houston. They not doing
that no more in Houston, right, So the niggas ain't Houston.
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. It's like the new j Prince.

Speaker 5 (45:13):
That's true, you know.

Speaker 6 (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, Like I love
Metro booming out and the stuff you got on the
on the Magic City soundtracks sound like that too. Why
is that era it seemed like coming back?

Speaker 7 (45:29):
Well, I mean mine is because it's connected to the dock, right.
I think Metrom was onto 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 like all

(45:50):
the jatoven beats, that's the Pluto song when Wami was
a zatoven beat right.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
Like I said, the.

Speaker 7 (45:57):
Girl bank Roll Now that I worked with, she got
a bunch of these records that they 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 make music, always try to get into
the tempo and what's gonna go with the next song.
As a producer, I mean, that's what I do. So

(46:19):
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 to make a
record that sound like leaning with it. 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 no attention to that tempo.

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

Speaker 7 (46:38):
No, that ain't that ain't never been hip hop. So
I just think that it's just a wave. Like I said,
these girls they started, and I just feel like you're
seeing people just follow the wave.

Speaker 6 (46:47):
It's gonna be address that take me through their record. Yeah,
with that with that influences.

Speaker 7 (46:52):
Yeah, but I'm saying that's why kto 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 Jamaine wants to
do that he hasn't done yet?

Speaker 4 (47:08):
Like, because you.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
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 7 (47:18):
Just continue, man, I think that, Like it's a lot
of stuff that I did that I didn't know what
I was doing, right, So it 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 what was going to
come from that show. I ain't know. I don't know
what was going to happen.

Speaker 7 (47:36):
Right now, I know now people know that show would
be accepted, you know, and received so much better now because.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
People when it wasn't accepted back then, like like I
think it would be now, Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
It's proven though, 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 7 (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 don't fuck with that?

Speaker 4 (48:20):
Right?

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Also wanted that song, so I'm not gonna just say
pushed it on them.

Speaker 7 (48:33):
But at the same time, I learned in that process
they got a fan base, right, and they make love music,
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. So
this new project. We put out two new records last week,

(48:54):
and all I see is people online saying, this is
the division we wanted. This is what I'm talking about,
you know, Joe Budden's so you just learned.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
I just learned. So I don't know.

Speaker 7 (49:02):
I feel like, you know, I just have 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 6 (49:16):
What's the hardest personal sacrifice you 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 7 (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.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
That's what it is. I don't care about nothing else.

Speaker 5 (49:43):
You enjoy the money, you don't go on vacation.

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

Speaker 7 (49:49):
Like my chase is to be you know, like what
they said on the Billboard, I get number one, I.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
Feel like I feel like I finally did something by
getting number one on that list.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
But that it's never enough because you one more, not
but now it's like but it's but it's also like fighting.

Speaker 7 (50:03):
It's like boxing, you gotta you gotta can you can
you stay in that space?

Speaker 5 (50:09):
Right?

Speaker 2 (50:10):
You know what I'm saying. It's like watching Floyd and
Tyson tug while they gonna fight.

Speaker 7 (50:14):
It's like Floyd retired, but he still want to be
the He wants to be the best.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
You know what I'm saying. It's like, I'm not saying
I'm retired. I'm out here.

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Right, So if you start doing shit that 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. You know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (50:51):
It's funny. I wonder if hip hop had limits you
may do for you.

Speaker 6 (50:54):
And what I mean by that is when people start
talking about, yo, who's the greatest producers of all time?
You'll start you 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, And I think
the conversation is a little bit different.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (51:11):
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 talking
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.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
This nigga was money anything.

Speaker 7 (51:41):
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 7 (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 6 (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 this top lyricists all the time, and some producers
from the South should be getting mentioned this top.

Speaker 7 (52:13):
I just think that, and I want to I want
to get I want to shoot Bank a shout out
because I feel like his interview with.

Speaker 5 (52:20):
Doug Fantastic pushes brilliant.

Speaker 7 (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.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
And talk to. If you that guy in hip hop
and he just made himself that person.

Speaker 5 (52:43):
If you asked, I'm glad you said that. I said
it on the air.

Speaker 6 (52:47):
Regional identity matters in media and everything, and Atlanta has
been the hip hop capital for so long, but have
never had that media Prince Luther Gray screening on, but
they've never had that person You've got to go.

Speaker 7 (53:00):
And I think that's the problem, is like every time
somebody from Atlanta that's popped, they always had to come
to New York. And no disrespect, but I've been saying
it should have been somebody that did what he did
with Future Ludacris Ti I got out of jail. We
know had so many artists that have so many stories
or they missed the opportunity like what just happened with

(53:22):
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 know what, I want to do?

Speaker 2 (53:40):
What Charlamagne doing? Man?

Speaker 7 (53:41):
I want to do what Envy doing? 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 nigg rapping niggas 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 7 (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 6 (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.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
I agree with that. But it took thirty years, That's
what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (54:21):
It took 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. Somebody gonna see 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.

Speaker 7 (54:44):
Me 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 I
was going to all of them. I mean, carmeloed them
out in Brooklyn. It's a podcast everywhere.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
I was just like this, this bug ain't hit Atlanta yet.

Speaker 6 (55:06):
N they got them in Atlanta because you got big facts,
you got bank, got eighty five South shows in Atlanta.

Speaker 5 (55:10):
You got poll Mind podcast based out of Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Four y'all have about twenty out there. I mean, you
know what I mean. It's just and they moving. Y'all
got y'all got twenty out here. That's moving.

Speaker 7 (55:23):
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.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
Gotta talk to Poor mind is big.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
You ain't got to talk to them. That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (55:36):
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 wrect company,
like jo Jamaine, who you wanna have an in depth
conversation with your name? Your name is gonna come up?
And then who's the competitor to Charlemagne in Atlanta?

Speaker 4 (55:59):
From Atlanta too? You know if.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
So, I just feel like I feel like Bank put
himself in the category to get there, you know, the
Gucci man. It's all of these people that we want
to hear calling Bank right now.

Speaker 6 (56:12):
Gunna should be calling Bank like I need to come
sit down with you and just to reas reply.

Speaker 7 (56:17):
But yeah, I mean, but it ain't even never heard
this side. 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 no bullshit all hill right?

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Is he gonna let you know you running some bullshit?

Speaker 4 (56:41):
That's what I love he was. He wasn't afraid to
push back.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Nah. 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.

Speaker 7 (56:54):
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 of on that interview, he did.

Speaker 6 (57:01):
It fantast They have two more questions. What's the one
misconception about JD that you wish people would let go.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Of that I'm anything like any of these other people
that we talk about. I don't do none of the.

Speaker 7 (57:18):
People talking about they got a case with Chris Krustin.
I don't do none of that ship all that shit.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
People don't know.

Speaker 7 (57:24):
I ain't got time for all that 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.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
World, I'm not your guy for free coss whatever you
want to call it, like not freaks.

Speaker 7 (57:38):
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 seen so many people do and get in
trouble for things. You know, it's like, well, JD part
of that system.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
Too, JD, I ain't never hear your name bullshit.

Speaker 7 (57:56):
Nah, But I'm saying like that. I mean, you know,
I'm been around a 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.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
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.

Speaker 7 (58:15):
Nigga to be out here doing that besides Bobby and Whitney,
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.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
So I don't know, I just think I think that's
the one.

Speaker 7 (58:32):
I think people just they want me to be in
that shit, but I'm not going in that direction.

Speaker 5 (58:38):
Yeah, I mean, you wanted a few.

Speaker 6 (58:40):
It seems like yo, you jay Z, like y'all planes
are landing with the wheels out of a lot of people.

Speaker 5 (58:47):
Planes did not land with the wheels.

Speaker 7 (58:48):
I mean, well, I had this conversation with Chad because
Chad Ellie shout out to Chad Alley, that's my best
friend 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. I used to
live with him in Brooklyn, Easton Park where and we
was we used to make you know, we go buy
records and we ain't know what he's doing, was just

(59:10):
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 the other night. Was I was like, yo,
we got a toast. I'm number one producer, right And
he was like, man, just sitting 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,

(59:33):
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 6 (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 2 (59:53):
I don't know who the artist is.

Speaker 7 (59:55):
Somebody great, I mean I think, you know, I think
like watching Mariah get Van Gold Award and her performing
in that piece to of 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 to make people damnar believe that

(01:00:15):
I had something to do with her success. And that's
a that's a that's a to me, that's a mean
accomplishment because I didn't have anything to do with her
becoming who she is.

Speaker 5 (01:00:25):
That's not true. I mean it's a second wave.

Speaker 7 (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 6 (01:00:37):
Yeah, but it says something you me. I mean, I mean,
best album I get it me me is brock Carey's
best album.

Speaker 5 (01:00:43):
Absolutely, that's probably the definitive album of her whole career.
That's her thriller.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
It is.

Speaker 2 (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.

Speaker 7 (01:00:56):
They got yeah, I think because I've been I had
a lot of sample clearance issues.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
We're supposed to.

Speaker 7 (01:01:00):
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 and I'm
supposed to turn it in by four o'clock.

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

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
What my phone is doing, all right, well, JD Jermain
Dupre may make sure you check out the Magic City
Doc and of course the album.

Speaker 4 (01:01:21):
We appreciate you always for joining us.

Speaker 5 (01:01:23):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
It's the Breakfast Club.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Its j oh No every day up week ago. Click
your ass up the Breakfast Club.

Speaker 5 (01:01:30):
You'll finish for y'all. Done it.