After uproar on hip-hop ‘stripper’, comment Jermaine Dupri tries to offer olive branch
Cardi B was part of the backlash against the So So Def label founder after his take on women in rap, but he says there's a way forward
Hip-hop producer Jermaine Dupri recently came under fire for his comments about some of the top female rappers, suggesting they are “strippers who rap,” but on Friday he sought to clean it up with what he thought would be a constructive solution.
On Thursday, Dupri sat down with People TV and expressed his disappointment with female rappers and when he was urged to pick a favorite, he responded with a critique of women in the rap game today.
“For me, it’s like strippers rapping,’” Dupri criticized. “As far as rap goes, I’m not getting who is the best rapper. Oh, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club. OK, all right.”
Dupri was met with an almost instant backlash from many people in the hip-hop community, including Cardi B, who has had three number one singles in the last year. In a video, Cardi defended her right to rap about whatever she wanted to and noted there is not a lot of support for female rappers that do not talk about sex. She also shouted out new artists Tierra Whack and Rhapsody and criticized Dupri for not recognizing them.
Afterward, Dupri took to Twitter on Friday to announce the creation of a cypher to uplift women coming up in rap.
After all the calls,DMs, angry tweets and other messages saying “I am a major gatekeeper in the hip hop world,why don’t I invest in a female who is out here hustling and making a name for herself?” I decided to create the #SoSoDefFemalecypher, details coming soon pic.twitter.com/Nyxl5KpPXZ
— Jermaine Dupri (@jermainedupri) July 12, 2019
According to UPROXX, though he tried to redirect the backlash, some in the Hip Hop community were still not satisfied. 6lack responded to Durpi’s tweet by calling the cypher “reactive.”
“Women in hip hop don’t need representation/approval from men (ya cypher sounds more reactive than proactive),” 6lack wrote on Twitter. “if u don’t have a fav artist that hits on the subjects u wanna hear, u could solve that wit a quick search & some support. plus, IF they do wanna talk about sex, they can.”
