Jermaine Dupri seemed to rub folks the wrong way with his tweet about brands not honoring Atlanta’s contributions during Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary. “no brands have done any dinners or get-togethers in Atlanta celebrating the 50 anniversary of Hip Hop,” he wrote on Friday (August 18). His comments sparked a firestorm of controversy as his tweet made its rounds on social media.
However, not a ton of folks seemed to agree with Jermaine Dupri. Since the post, he’s received an onslaught of criticism, with fans asking why doesn’t he do it himself. “Nigga ain’t YOU a brand from Atlanta?! Why YOU ain’t do nothing,” one person commented. Another fan wrote: “I’m not even trying to be rude. I consider you a legend. So I’m wondering why don’t you do one?'” Conversely, on Monday (August 21), Dupri returned to Twitter to address the negative feedback.
Dupri also made it clear that he has no beef with New York and that his sentiments were regarding business. “I see someone is trying to take my tweet and create the narrative that [I’m] mad about what’s been happening in NY for #HipHop50 compared to what’s been happening in Atlanta, lol that’s completely false,” he tweeted. “My statement was all [business] related.”
In other related news, Jermaine Dupri and Drake have teamed up for a docu-series about the iconic Atlanta club, Magic City. The series will detail the back story of the famous venue and its decades-long influence on rap. Charles Todd will serve as the director of Magic City: An American Fantasy. 2 Chainz, Nelly, Shaquille O’Neal, Quavo, Killer Mike, and Big Boi, among others, will all be making appearances. “Magic City is a second home for me. It’s the one place where celebrities, hustlers, politicians, and Atlanta locals all come together. I’ve watched it evolve over the years from a local joint to an internationally recognized spot. It’s about time we tell this story the right way,” executive producer Dupri said in a statement.
Reneé Rapp is seen as a “huge inspiration” by SZA.
The 25-year-old artist performed SZA’s Good Days in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, accompanied by two acoustic guitarists and a harp player. SZA, 35, was deeply moved by the rendition.
She posted a short video of the moment on Instagram Stories and wrote: “Renee is a HUGE inspiration, energy, voice spirit.”
During her chat with the BBC, Renee shared her thoughts about the track. She said: “I mean, I love SZA. I mean, she was one of my favorite artists in high school. And she's remained one of my favorite artists to this day. I think she's amazing. She's also, I mean, she's an incredible songwriter, but I think because she has so much swag. People don't realize how good of a singer she is. She's a fantastic vocalist and is really, really, really articulate. And I don't cover a lot of songs anymore. So I wanted to cover something that was, like, slightly challenging and also really vocally impressive, and frankly, hard for me to do.”
Renee is currently in the middle of promoting her second album, Bite Me, and opened up about how much more enjoyable it was to create compared to her first project.
She explained: “I mean, I feel like everything was incredibly different. I stopped listening to people that don't make music, because if you don't make music, then why the hell am I listening to you. And I also think the biggest difference, I think I just got a lot better. I think I have just become a better songwriter. I think I understand how to make pop music now in a way that I didn't really before. And I was very sure about what this album was and thematically, what it needed.
“So I felt like I was quite like, headstrong in like, what was gonna work and what wasn't. Because, nobody knows something better than yourself. I think a lot of things were different. I also just, like, had a lot of fun making it, like, I made it with like, three people, mostly, like, it was always like, four of us in the studio all the time, and we got so close, and some of us were already so close. So it was also just like a mess. It was such a mess, like we were just tweaking every day. It was so fun. And I don't think I enjoyed making the first one as much.”
