Jermaine Dupri

Jermaine Dupri, born Jermaine Dupri Mauldin, is an American rapper, producer and songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia, who became one of the architects of Southern hip-hop and R&B production in the 1990s and 2000s. Inspired as a child by producer Teddy Riley, he began writing songs as a teenager and worked around performers such as Run DMC and Whodini before launching his own career.

Dupri is best known for founding the record label So So Def, through which he developed or boosted the careers of artists including Kris Kross, Da Brat, Xscape, Bow Wow and TLC. As a producer he shaped hit singles for major stars such as Mariah Carey, Usher, Jay-Z, Nelly, Ashanti, Ludacris and Fabolous, winning a Grammy for his work on Mariah Carey's «We Belong Together».

As a solo artist, Dupri is closely associated with the crunk-influenced Atlanta sound of the early 2000s, exemplified by hits like «Welcome To Atlanta» (with Ludacris) and «Money Ain't a Thang» (with Jay-Z), both of which helped cement Atlanta's status as a hip-hop hub. His combination of performing, songwriting and label-running led to his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018, one of relatively few hip-hop artists to receive that honor.