Jermaine Dupri

Jermaine Dupri (born Jermaine Dupri Mauldin on September 23, 1972 in Asheville, North Carolina) is an African-American record producer and rapper.

He grew up in the College Park community of Atlanta. (He took his m

Jermaine Dupri (born Jermaine Dupri Mauldin on September 23, 1972 in Asheville, North Carolina) is an African-American record producer and rapper.

He grew up in the College Park community of Atlanta. (He took his mother's maiden name as a teenager.) Dupri was introduced to the music business at an early age by his father, a concert promoter and manager of rap and R&B groups. Starting out as a teenage breakdancer for artists such as Diana Ross and Cameo, Dupri became the youngest charting producer in the history of music at age 14. Dupri went on to produce a number of hits for artists such as TLC, Jay-Z, and Ludacris. He is founder/president/CEO of his own label, So So Def Records, which has been the home to artist such as Da Brat, Jagged Edge, and Xscape. Juvenile rap acts such as Kris Kross and Bow Wow have been some of his biggest successes; Dupri earned significant amounts of songwriting royalties by ghostwriting for such acts.