Multistripe satin blouson jacket, Sacai; smooth spacer pullover hoodie, LululemonPhotograph by Alex Martinez This summer, Jermaine Dupri received a distinctly Atlantan honor: He became the fourth music artist ever to be turned into a Braves bobblehead. “What does it take to get a bobblehead of you rself made?” I ask him during an interview at the Castleberry Hill studio where he’s being photographed for the Atlanta magazine cover. I am interested in the logistics. Did he have to model for it? How long is the process? But Dupri takes it in a different direction. “I think you gotta put a lot of work in,” he chuckles. For someone who has compared himself to Motown founder Berry Gordy and called himself the “Mayor of Atlanta,” Dupri, 54, is in person low-key about his legendary status. When I meet up with him, he is mild-mannered, his voice quiet amid the hive of photographers, stylists, and makeup artists, while his greatest hits blare through speakers. Then again, the facts speak for themselves. As a producer and founder of So So Def Recordings, Dupri helped turn Atlanta’s rap sound into a signature of American music, “laying the groundwork for modern rap and RB business in Atlanta,” as The New York Times’ culture reporter Joe Coscarelli writes in Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story. Dupri got teen rap group Kris Kross on tour with Michael Jackson, launching them to international fame. He produced No. 1 hits for Mariah Carey and Usher and made stars out of artists like Lil Jon and Bow Wow. Then there are his own classics, from “I Think They Like Me” by Dem Franchize Boyz to his hometown anthem with Ludacris, “Welcome to Atlanta.” Dupri is still at it: Last year, he released his first album in two decades—the soundtrack for the 2025 Starz docuseries Magic City: An American Fantasy, for which he also served as executive producer. A native of College Park, Dupri practically grew up in the music industry: His father ran a tour-production company and promoted music festivals. In 1988, when he was 16, Dupri helped the all-girl rap group Silk Tymes Leather sign with Geffen Records and produced their debut album. A few years later, he wrote and produced Kris Kross’s debut album, whose single “Jump” spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. Dupri says his experience with Kris Kross left him no choice but to become a music exec—never mind that he was practically a teen himself. “Everything that Columbia [Records] was doing for Kris Kross was basically me telling them what to do, and I’m like, Wait a minute.” From the beginning, both behind the scenes and on the mic, Dupri was determined to boost Atlanta’s reputation as a music capital. “Atlanta still wasn’t looked at as a city that people even included in the conversation,” he says. “And I kept saying . . . Why? Do y’all realize how fly Atlanta is? That was actually the motivation for [2001’s] ‘Welcome to Atlanta.’” Throughout the aughts, Dupri helped shift rap’s center of gravity from the East and West Coasts to the South. But for all that he and his hometown have accomplished, Dupri feels Atlanta has only “halfway” met its potential. “The music business is in Nashville,” Dupri says, pointing to record companies like Warner, which in 2009 skipped over Atlanta in favor of Music City. “I just want to see the pool stay as full as it was in the late ’90s, early 2000s,” he says. “You had T.I., you had Jeezy, you had Ludacris—all these artists out at the same time having an impact.” Atlanta is still fostering new talent; Dupri points to SwaVay, one of the only newcomers included on the Magic City soundtrack. But many emerging artists, SwaVay included, opt to strike out independently rather than be tied to a major label, which Dupri says slows the output of new local talent. “Putting out your own music is a lot more difficult, and it takes a bit more time than when you’re dealing with the majors,” he says. “The majors move faster than independent artists.” Even as Atlanta works to find its footing in the current industry, Dupri’s legacy is secure. His influence ripples through music today. For example, Summer Walker and Future are sampling and interpolating Dupri’s Usher productions, and SwaVay references Bow Wow in his videos. In recent promo photos, Playboi Carti appeared wearing his jersey backwards, as Kris Kross once did. “I feel like a majority of everything that happens today is affected by So So Def,” Dupri says. “You can hear it in the music.” Biggest hit as a producer Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” from The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), which spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Year inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame 2006 Betcha didn’t know Catch a 12-year-old Jermaine Dupri popping at the beginning of the music video for Whodini’s “Freaks Come Out at Night.” Dupri got his start as a warm-up act for the hip-hop group. Instagram @jermainedupri Back to “Legends Look Ahead.” This article appears in our November 2026 issue. The post Jermaine Dupri built Atlanta’s sound. He’s not done yet. appeared first on Atlanta Magazine. ...read more read less