We live in an era where social media reigns, and when famous figures find their comments being criticized online, they often backpedal in order to keep the peace. Behind closed doors that stand by the things that they’ve said, but in order to play nice with the public, celebrities are known to issue apologies or explanations that will place them back in consumers’ good graces.
Not Jermaine Dupri. He was put through the wringer recently after he made controversial comments about female rappers. He told PEOPLE TV that he didn’t have a favorite female rapper right now because there wasn’t any one artist standing out more than the others. He also said much of the music sounded the same as if it was “strippers rapping.”
In a sit down with Atlanta Black Star on Wednesday, the So So Def CEO doubled down on his remarks by once again explaining himself. “She said, ‘Who’s your favorite out of those people?’ I said, ‘I don’t have no favorite.’ A favorite, I can’t give you a favorite because I feel like they’re all talking about the same thing. I was talking about these people’s names they gave me. I said, ‘It’s like strippers rapping,’ and it went crazy.”
“What people don’t understand is I actually believe that these women that do this type of music should start calling it strap,” Dupri said of creating a genre title from the words “Stripper” and “Rap.” He added, “I think just like we have trap [music], they should call it strap. It’s the stories of their life.”
“So, people ask me, ‘Do I regret what I said?’ No,” he stated. “When stuff like that’s happening and people in the streets are saying something like, ‘JD, I’m glad you stood up and said it,’ I feel like I did something…I’m getting press for talking about music. I would never change that for nothing in the world — I’m talking about music…To be a number one trending topic on Twitter [talking] about music, I didn’t plan it, but I’ll take it.”
