Jermaine Dupri Says Record Labels Aren't "Doing Half The Work" They Did In The '90s

by DANIELLE HARLING

Jermaine Dupri calls Berry Gordy his idol, says people running the music business are no longer making music.

Record producer and So So Def Recordings founderJermaine Dupri shared his thoughts on the status of the music industry, during a newly-released interview with Vlad TV. According to the musician, it’s still possible to make as much money as artists did back in the '90s, the only difference is those at the record labels are lazier than they were in the '90s.

Dupri, who’s worked with artists like Kris Kross and Mariah Carey, shared that even though he started his music career in 1992 he still practices the same business motto when it concerns the artists he works with.

“I actually feel like you can make more money as an artist and label nowadays than you could back then,” Dupri said. “I also feel like—I hear what you’re saying. And I hear you saying you see it, but I also—What I see is record labels not doing half the work that they did in the '90s…I think that one thing people should understand about me being here at this—Doing this interview with him [Royce Rizzy] is that my motto about breaking artists is the same as it been since '92. If you can pull up an old interview with Jermaine Dupri and Kris Kross I’m doing the exact same thing that I did in '92 that I’m doing in 2014. I’m breaking a new artist and I’m actually the person that’s being the vehicle to drive that person to where they got to go. I believe that niggas that is on my status or people that get to a certain level in the music business they become on this certain status. And they want the same results, but they want to do less work. And that’s what’s going on at all these record companies. They want the same results, but they want to do less work.”

Dupri went on to name Motown Records founder Berry Gordy as one of his idols due to the way Gordy was able to work in the office and also the recording studio. He says that’s a trait many in the music business no longer hold.

“Nobody’s making music,” he said. “Berry Gordy he’s my idol because he was in the studio and in the office. You take the music in the office and you’re fighting for the music that you made. It’s a difference. When you in the office and you’re fighting for something that you ain’t have no connection to the fight ain’t the same. And I think that that’s what’s going on in the music business. The people that are running the music business are no longer the people that’s making the music. And that’s not where the music business was built. And that’s not the way that the big companies became the big companies. The big companies became the big companies based on a creative person making multiple music and finding somebody. You won’t even have that no more.”

In a past interview with Vlad TV, Dupri clarified rumors that he was fired as Mariah Carey’s manager after the release of her most recent album, Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse.

“Nobody else has a mind to say ‘You know what? I don’t really wanna do this shit no more. I got other shit I want to do. But I’m not that smart, right? I couldn’t do that. That’s impossible,’” he said. “That’s what I’m saying. It’s crazy that people just make these stories. I wasn’t dropped. I chose that—I chose to do this because me and Mariah are friends.”