Jermaine Dupri recently shared his thoughts on the state of hip-hop in an interview with VIBE magazine. The legendary producer was asked why he’s been focusing more on producing R&B songs instead of rap songs in recent years.
“I feel like Hip-Hop is definitely hurting and needs reviving,” Dupri said. “I have to go ahead and say this: For the last 20 years Atlanta’s always had at least five to six top rappers at one time. Right now, Atlanta’s dropped down to two top artists: Lil Baby and Future.”
However, despite his criticism, he said that there is still a lot of talent in Atlanta. “There’s a lot of talent in the city still. I don’t want anybody to screw what I’m saying, but that top tier where you have Ludacris, Jeezy, 2 Chainz, Migos, Future, Lil Baby – I mean, at one point, all of this was Atlanta. This was where all the top-tier rap artists came from.”
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He added: “I’m not talking about artists that just make records, but No. 1 songs. Artists that people feel like define the game. Rap to me became a little stale, but I’ve never stopped making rap records. As a producer, people continue to want me to produce R&B records.”
Dupri did say however that he does have a rap project with Curren$y slated to drop soon. “I do want to say this: I’m dropping a rap project with Curren$y. So you got it here first.”
