Jermaine Dupri

Jermaine Dupri Mauldin was born on September 23, 1972 in Asheville, North Carolina, United States, to parents Tina and Michael Mauldin. His father is an executive at Columbia Records. The record producer has a daughter, Shaniah, whose mother’s name is Pam Sweat. Dupri started dating singer Janet Jackson in 2001. However, the couple separated in 2009.

Jermaine Dupri started his musical career at a very tender age. He began as a dancer and used to perform for the hop dance group Whodini at the age of twelve. After this, he started performing around the country. Then in the year 1990, Dupri produced his very first act ‘Silk Tymes Leather’, a female hip hop trio. Soon after this, he made a group ‘Kriss Kross’ with Chris Smith and Chris Kelly and released an album ‘Totally Krossed Out’ in 1992. The following year, he created his own label ‘So So Def Recordings’. He soon discovered the R&B group Xscape and got them signed to the label. The group’s first album named ‘Hummin' Comin' at 'Cha’ then came out and went platinum.

After this, Dupri’s label collaborated with Columbia Records and started working hand in hand for distribution. In the year 1997, the American rapper cum record producer produced several songs for Usher's album ‘My Way’. The album’s tracks ‘You Make Me Wanna’, ‘Nice & Slow’ and ‘My Way’ all became super hits and charted at appreciable positions on various charts. Dupri then released the lead single ‘The Party Continues’ from his debut album ‘Life In 1472’. Soon after this release, the contract between the rapper’s label and Columbia got terminated and this made Dupri switch to Arista Records.

Following this, he worked with famous artists like Mariah Carey and DJ Chuckie. Then in 2004, Dupri collaborated again with Usher for the album ‘Confessions’, co-writing as well as co-producing its singles, namely ‘Burn’, ‘My Boo’ and ‘Confessions Part II’. One year later, he again worked with Mariah Carey for her track ‘We Belong Together’. He also worked with Bow Wow for ‘Wanted’ the same year. In 2007, he co-wrote and co-produced ‘Success’ and ‘Fallin’. In 2015, Dupri, alongside Queen Latifah, developed the reality TV series named ‘The Rap Game’. All these contributions made by the rapper have earned him immense fame. He even won the prestigious Grammy Award for his R&B song ‘We Belong Together’ in 2006.