Jermaine Dupri defended his comment about the hip-hop industry being filled with “strippers rapping” by insisting he never meant to come across as sexist.
In an interview with People Now, the music producer-turned reality TV star sparked controversy when he was asked how he feels about Cardi B, Nicki Minaj and newcomer Meghan Thee Stallion rapping.
He basically said he was unimpressed with the current crop of female rappers. “For me, it’s like strippers rapping and as far as rap goes I’m not getting who’s the best,” he told People Now.
Cardi took issue with his response, calling on her fans to show their support for unknown female rappers who don’t just rap about sex.
JD was also criticized by social media users who called him sexist for pointing out the obvious: that rapping strippers take food out of the mouths of real female emcees who are yet to be discovered.
“There’s a million artists rapping, there’s a million female artists out there rapping,” he told TMZ Live. “What my statement was, was about the three that she asked me about – it wasn’t a general conversation about female rap. But everyone turned it into that. Everybody was like, ‘He said all female rappers sound like this’. And I’m like, ‘I never said all female rappers, I never said that one time’.
“The one thing I want to make sure I’m clear one, people keep saying (I’m) ‘sexist’, but I’m so far from a sexist – let’s not do that, that’s terrible.”
Jermaine added he believes his comment wasn’t the first time Cardi has heard a similar accusation, explaining: “When I saw what Cardi said, Cardi started her message off by basically saying ‘Now that Jermaine Dupri has said it, I’m gonna address it’. So that means to me that someone else had already said it to her, or she’s heard it before. So I just feel like it’s something that people have already been talking about for some reason mine just became the loudest.”
The musician is now hoping to have his say musically, telling the website that he’s dropping a new beat on his SoundCloud page.
“Anybody that wants to jump on this beat to get into this cipher, this is open for you,” he explained. “And I’m doing this to give these people this push that the women are saying they’re not getting.
Photo by PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
