Who has had a bigger impact on Atlanta: OutKast or Jermaine Dupri? When The Breakfast Club asked the latter recently, the hip-hop impresario didn’t have to think twice. “As far as culture, me,” he said. “I brought people to Atlanta that had never seen Atlanta. I showed everybody in the world Magic City, before anybody was coming out here thinking about it. … I was the person who started throwing money first in the club.”
That may sound bogus to those who associate newer acts like Future with the famed strip club. But long before Magic City became a tourist trap, the So So Def founder and recent Atlanta Falcons spokesman was among the first documented artists to test out unreleased music there. “If the girls really like to dance off one of your records, nine times out of 10, it’s gon’ be a hit record,” he said in 2004, a bit of wisdom that has been repeated ad infinitum since.
As Dupri reminds The Breakfast Club, he was building So So Def right during Atlanta’s heyday as a nightlife hotspot. Of course, he credits himself for building that reputation, too.
“I had to pay for all the magazines to come to Atlanta. They weren’t out there, it wasn’t like nobody was paying attention to what was going on. I would fly all these people out to Atlanta and take pictures and see what is happening, what was going on in the city. So as far as culture goes and having parties, bringing Puff [Daddy], bringing [DJ] Clue and Envy and all these people to Atlanta, that was all me.”
Dupri says that he is used to being overlooked, when people revisit Atlanta hip-hop history. “I don’t get the flag for selling 8 million records with Kris Kross — I guess that wasn’t hip-hop,” he said. “People leave that out though, right? OutKast ain’t sell 8 million records with their first album.” (He is partially correct: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik is only certified platinum, though that 8 million count with Kris Kross must include single and album sales.)
Still, you’ll hear Dupri distinguish between local music and culture, as if to suggest that OutKast did more for the former. See for yourself below.
