Jermaine Dupri has been under scrutiny following a recent appearance on People TV where he said that current women rappers rap “about the same thing” and compared current mainstream rappers to “strippers rapping.”
After receiving criticism from both fans and artist like Cardi B, Doja Cat and Ari Lennox, Dupri has decided the floor for women rappers to show off their skills in a cypher hosted by his iconic record label.
“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,” he tweeted.
Social media has been divided on whether Dupri’s intentions are pure or not. 6lack responded to the plans, stating that JD’s cypher sounds more like a response to the backlash than an original idea to uplift women rappers.
“Women in hip hop don’t need representation/approval from men (ya cypher sounds more reactive than proactive),” he tweeted. “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.”
During a conversation on Instagram Live with Hot 97’s program director TT Torez, Dupri said he has been championing women in hip hop since signing Da Brat to his So So Def label over 20 years ago, and the issue is the women artists aren’t getting the spins on the radio. “I do female rap and I do it at a level that not many people can do it at. So, I don’t ever look at female rap as a problem. I can take any one of those females that are out here that’s complaining about not being on the radio and put them in the studio with me and give them a hit record. That’s a guarantee.” He also said he wasn’t prepared for the question since he was initially there to promote his upcoming documentary on We TV.