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Jermaine Dupri: Kanye West Is The Reason Janet Jackson's album didn't sell
No wonder Atlanta's man in the spotlight, Jermaine Dupri, just opened a health-minded restaurant.
This is no time to be sluggish.
After all, this is the songwriter and producer industry people are patting on the back for reviving the career of pop superstar Mariah Carey.
He's the 32-year-old who's propelled Atlanta rapper-actor Bow Wow back into the "win" column after the relatively disappointing sales of the teen pinup's last album.
Carey's and Bow Wow's Dupri-produced singles "We Belong Together" and "Let Me Hold You," respectively, are Billboard's No. 1 and No. 2 R&B singles in the country this week. And that's the second time in two years Dupri's accomplished such a feat. (The first was with Usher's "Burn" and "Confessions.")
For his next trick, the new president of Virgin Records' Urban Music division plans to help breathe life into the career of another embattled superstar — girlfriend Janet Jackson.
Meanwhile, he's got his own top 20 single with singer-songwriter Johnta Austin called "Gotta Getcha," which is from the "Jermaine Dupri Presents . . . Young, Fly & Flashy Vol. 1" compilation he released this week. And he'll headline the annual Hot 107.9 Birthday Bash concert Saturday.
Whew. This guy is busy.
And Dupri still found a moment before his surprise Fusion Flash concert at Centennial Olympic Park Saturday to discuss it all. Below are excerpts from his conversation with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Q: With everything that's happening with you, it's kind of hard to figure out where to begin. How about the newest — and maybe most surprising — title on your résumé: restaurateur. Did something specific happen that made you say, "Hey, I need to start eating and providing healthier foods?"
A: Actually, yeah. I was at [legendary producer] Quincy Jones' house, and he was talking to Ray Charles. And he and the doctor were trying to tell Ray Charles, "You know, if you would have eaten better and paid closer attention to your health . . ."
Q: And not done drugs.
A: Well, yeah, that's got a lot to do with it, too. But Quincy Jones and the doctors were telling him that if he had paid attention to things like diet and exercise and just gone to the doctor regularly, he wouldn't have so much wrong with him now. . . . And, I don't know, it was something that spoke to me that day. I don't think that there are such things as coincidences. Somebody is trying to tell me, "J.D., you've got a chance right now. Clean it up. Stop eating all that junk food. You running around too much."
Like, I've been on planes every other day [recently]. And if I was still eating like I used to eat — Wendy's and all that — I would be so sluggish right now. But I'm not.
Q: That leads to another unusual thing happening with you these days — performing. Why are you? It seems like you've always preferred being behind the scenes.
A: Right now I'm performing a lot because I'm trying to put together a tour. A "Welcome to Atlanta" tour [also the name of his 2001 single with rapper Ludacris]. I'm going to bring all of my [So So Def and Virgin] artists, as well as Ludacris, Young Jeezy, the Ying Yang Twins. We've just got to take advantage of all of this local success now while Atlanta is in the spotlight. . . .
And from the reaction to my new record, people, I guess, like when I make records.
Q: Speaking of your record, be honest now: Wouldn't you rather see "Gotta Getcha" at No. 1 and Bow or Mariah at 17?
A: Oh yeah, if I saw that, that would be the ultimate.
Q: Does it bother you that your biggest successes haven't been Jermaine Dupri records or records on your label, So So Def?
A: Naw, because it's all part of the whole So So Def movement.
As a producer, I guess it doesn't really get any better than right now. It's like a continuation of last year with Usher . . . probably the best years of my career [in terms of] coming at people with huge hit records.
Q: All right, let's get to the next high-profile project you're serving as executive producer on: Janet Jackson. What do you think happened to her last record, and how are you going to help her win this time?
A: Janet just needs to do what she's always done. Listen, I'm about to give you a secret to music right now: Half of the kids listening to music and buying music right now, they don't know anything. Like, half of the kids that are signed to So So Def now, they've never seen a Run-DMC concert, and they will never see a Run-DMC concert. That's why no rap shows are good these days, unless you go see Jay-Z or probably 50 Cent. These kids don't have the foundation. So all you've got to feed these kids is what's already happened.
So I'm saying with Janet, all Janet has to do is do what she does. But do what she did earlier.
Q: Huh?
A: Like really come with the videos. Really come with the dancing. Cause nobody does it. Right now with these tours and these shows, like nobody who performed on the [recent] BET Awards had over three albums.
Q: Wait — Mariah was on there.
A: OK. Right. Career artist. And she strengthens my point: Everybody's looking at [her] like, "Yo, she came back!" She just did what she's always done. Already done. Always does. Have a good song. Sing the song. And do you. It's not really [appropriate to say] "J.D., you're a lifesaver!" I mean, I might be being modest, but I don't look at it like that. I look at it like, I told her: "You're gonna make a real record. You're gonna sing the song full voice. And people are gonna love you." And that's what we did and it worked.
Q: You still haven't really addressed what you think went wrong with the last Janet record. That couldn't have been all about a wardrobe malfunction.
A: What went wrong [was having hot young producer Kanye West work on her first single]. Because he doesn't know anything about why Janet Jackson is Janet Jackson.
[The record label's] not even showing any respect to [Jackson's longtime producers] Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. With Jimmy and Terry and Kanye, it's a big musicians' gap. Kanye samples [records]. These guys play. The creativity and sound of the record is going to be completely different. But nobody was thinking about that. They were just thinking that Janet needs to be fresh: "You need Kanye!"
Q: Hot 107.9 reported that in an upcoming King magazine article, you strike back at comedian Chris Rock for making a joke about Janet dating you.
A: Oh yeah. It's just that, when people say stuff like that, [pause] like, it ain't no joke about who you're dating. That's not a joke. You don't say something on the MTV Awards like, "Come on Janet, you picked Jermaine?" What does that mean? That's not a joke. Like, I like jokes. If you say something about me that's funny, if you give me a short joke, yeah OK. But if you really start going into, "Janet, you picked him?" You're really almost like, "Baby, you overlooked me?"
But you're married! Why are you even on this? Maybe you're not married to the right person or something. That's jealousy, that's not a joke. It's a different "J" word. I mean [R&B superstar] Beyoncé's a beautiful woman and nobody's been like, "Beyoncé, why you pick [rap giant] Jay-Z?"
Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution
This is no time to be sluggish.
After all, this is the songwriter and producer industry people are patting on the back for reviving the career of pop superstar Mariah Carey.
He's the 32-year-old who's propelled Atlanta rapper-actor Bow Wow back into the "win" column after the relatively disappointing sales of the teen pinup's last album.
Carey's and Bow Wow's Dupri-produced singles "We Belong Together" and "Let Me Hold You," respectively, are Billboard's No. 1 and No. 2 R&B singles in the country this week. And that's the second time in two years Dupri's accomplished such a feat. (The first was with Usher's "Burn" and "Confessions.")
For his next trick, the new president of Virgin Records' Urban Music division plans to help breathe life into the career of another embattled superstar — girlfriend Janet Jackson.
Meanwhile, he's got his own top 20 single with singer-songwriter Johnta Austin called "Gotta Getcha," which is from the "Jermaine Dupri Presents . . . Young, Fly & Flashy Vol. 1" compilation he released this week. And he'll headline the annual Hot 107.9 Birthday Bash concert Saturday.
Whew. This guy is busy.
And Dupri still found a moment before his surprise Fusion Flash concert at Centennial Olympic Park Saturday to discuss it all. Below are excerpts from his conversation with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Q: With everything that's happening with you, it's kind of hard to figure out where to begin. How about the newest — and maybe most surprising — title on your résumé: restaurateur. Did something specific happen that made you say, "Hey, I need to start eating and providing healthier foods?"
A: Actually, yeah. I was at [legendary producer] Quincy Jones' house, and he was talking to Ray Charles. And he and the doctor were trying to tell Ray Charles, "You know, if you would have eaten better and paid closer attention to your health . . ."
Q: And not done drugs.
A: Well, yeah, that's got a lot to do with it, too. But Quincy Jones and the doctors were telling him that if he had paid attention to things like diet and exercise and just gone to the doctor regularly, he wouldn't have so much wrong with him now. . . . And, I don't know, it was something that spoke to me that day. I don't think that there are such things as coincidences. Somebody is trying to tell me, "J.D., you've got a chance right now. Clean it up. Stop eating all that junk food. You running around too much."
Like, I've been on planes every other day [recently]. And if I was still eating like I used to eat — Wendy's and all that — I would be so sluggish right now. But I'm not.
Q: That leads to another unusual thing happening with you these days — performing. Why are you? It seems like you've always preferred being behind the scenes.
A: Right now I'm performing a lot because I'm trying to put together a tour. A "Welcome to Atlanta" tour [also the name of his 2001 single with rapper Ludacris]. I'm going to bring all of my [So So Def and Virgin] artists, as well as Ludacris, Young Jeezy, the Ying Yang Twins. We've just got to take advantage of all of this local success now while Atlanta is in the spotlight. . . .
And from the reaction to my new record, people, I guess, like when I make records.
Q: Speaking of your record, be honest now: Wouldn't you rather see "Gotta Getcha" at No. 1 and Bow or Mariah at 17?
A: Oh yeah, if I saw that, that would be the ultimate.
Q: Does it bother you that your biggest successes haven't been Jermaine Dupri records or records on your label, So So Def?
A: Naw, because it's all part of the whole So So Def movement.
As a producer, I guess it doesn't really get any better than right now. It's like a continuation of last year with Usher . . . probably the best years of my career [in terms of] coming at people with huge hit records.
Q: All right, let's get to the next high-profile project you're serving as executive producer on: Janet Jackson. What do you think happened to her last record, and how are you going to help her win this time?
A: Janet just needs to do what she's always done. Listen, I'm about to give you a secret to music right now: Half of the kids listening to music and buying music right now, they don't know anything. Like, half of the kids that are signed to So So Def now, they've never seen a Run-DMC concert, and they will never see a Run-DMC concert. That's why no rap shows are good these days, unless you go see Jay-Z or probably 50 Cent. These kids don't have the foundation. So all you've got to feed these kids is what's already happened.
So I'm saying with Janet, all Janet has to do is do what she does. But do what she did earlier.
Q: Huh?
A: Like really come with the videos. Really come with the dancing. Cause nobody does it. Right now with these tours and these shows, like nobody who performed on the [recent] BET Awards had over three albums.
Q: Wait — Mariah was on there.
A: OK. Right. Career artist. And she strengthens my point: Everybody's looking at [her] like, "Yo, she came back!" She just did what she's always done. Already done. Always does. Have a good song. Sing the song. And do you. It's not really [appropriate to say] "J.D., you're a lifesaver!" I mean, I might be being modest, but I don't look at it like that. I look at it like, I told her: "You're gonna make a real record. You're gonna sing the song full voice. And people are gonna love you." And that's what we did and it worked.
Q: You still haven't really addressed what you think went wrong with the last Janet record. That couldn't have been all about a wardrobe malfunction.
A: What went wrong [was having hot young producer Kanye West work on her first single]. Because he doesn't know anything about why Janet Jackson is Janet Jackson.
[The record label's] not even showing any respect to [Jackson's longtime producers] Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. With Jimmy and Terry and Kanye, it's a big musicians' gap. Kanye samples [records]. These guys play. The creativity and sound of the record is going to be completely different. But nobody was thinking about that. They were just thinking that Janet needs to be fresh: "You need Kanye!"
Q: Hot 107.9 reported that in an upcoming King magazine article, you strike back at comedian Chris Rock for making a joke about Janet dating you.
A: Oh yeah. It's just that, when people say stuff like that, [pause] like, it ain't no joke about who you're dating. That's not a joke. You don't say something on the MTV Awards like, "Come on Janet, you picked Jermaine?" What does that mean? That's not a joke. Like, I like jokes. If you say something about me that's funny, if you give me a short joke, yeah OK. But if you really start going into, "Janet, you picked him?" You're really almost like, "Baby, you overlooked me?"
But you're married! Why are you even on this? Maybe you're not married to the right person or something. That's jealousy, that's not a joke. It's a different "J" word. I mean [R&B superstar] Beyoncé's a beautiful woman and nobody's been like, "Beyoncé, why you pick [rap giant] Jay-Z?"
Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution
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