Jermaine Dupri Talks DJing and Producing on ‘The Breakfast Club’

Legendary producer, rapper, and executive Jermaine Dupri recently paid a visit to The Breakfast Club show. Despite an awkward beginning, in which he was asked about his ex Janet Jackson, JD discussed some DJ and producer topics.

The Atlanta native said it was a “huge honor” to be recognized for the Breaking Barriers Award at this year’s Global Spin Awards.

“It brings me back to my first days of actually even wanting to be in the music business. Even before I wanted to be in the music business, I wanted to be a DJ.”

JD went on to say that he was nervous about DJing live when he was younger.

“[When] you make mixtapes, you can stop and press play and record and start over. But I used to be scared to go live … Because I DJ on turntables … If the needle skip, if the wind blow, if the power go out, it’s a lot of things that you gotta think about when you DJing and you’re the person that controls the crowd.”

When asked about the recent allegations that record labels aren’t fairly compensating producers, JD replied that producers have brought it upon themselves.

“There’s nothing cool about giving someone something that you created, and then they make money off of it, and you don’t. But these producers have to understand that [some of them] started this … .”

JD cited the producer of O.T. Genasis‘ platinum hit “CoCo” as an example. The producer sold the beat online for only $200, according to JD.

“They doing this themselves because they want the world to hear these beats so bad, that they putting themselves in these types of situations.”

“You gotta get the business right from the beginning … Ultimately you don’t know what’s gonna happen with [your] beat.”

Watch the full interview above.

Related: Shawn Prez Discusses the Global Spin Awards on The Breakfast Club

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