Jermaine Dupri is staunchly pushing back against recent media coverage on one of the late Michael Jackson’s most iconic bodies of work.
On Monday (February 24), the Atlanta native issued a strongly worded rebuttal responding to a recent Rolling Stone report which asserts that Jackson’s groundbreaking Thriller album deep cut “The Lady In My Life” had “no business” being on the LP. Not only did Dupri refute the notion, he used it as an example to explain why he believes R&B as a genre is on the decline.
“Like this is the reason R&B music no longer gets the love that it’s supposed to,” Jermaine Dupri started off in the tweet he shared featuring a screenshot of the article in question.
Like this is the reason R&B music no longer gets the love that it’s supposed to, the Grammys, don’t televise the categories and then one of our longest lasting music publications @rollingstone prints some b####### like this, who eva wrote this needs to be thrown out the building,… pic.twitter.com/wg9vYdLmLJ
— Jermaine Dupri (@jermainedupri) February 24, 2025
He continued, “The Grammys, don’t televise the categories and then one of our longest lasting music publications @rollingstone prints some b####### like this, who eva wrote this needs to be thrown out the building, like Eddie Murphy and Beverly Hills cop.”
In the comments section of the Instagram post Dupri shared expressing the same sentiments as his tweets, a number of recording artists chimed in, seemingly in agreement with the So So Def music mogul.
“What Jermaine said!” Rapsody wrote in a comment, which Killer Mike followed up with a remark in which he declared, “They Tripping lol.”
Jamie Foxx also threw his hat into the ring, staunchly defending Jackson while highlighting Dupri’s sound assessment on the matter.
“Quit talking about the greatest go talk about these lames that you put in the top 10 I ain’t never like none of the music,” Jamie Foxx wrote in the first comment he shared.
He doubled down in another comment, criticizing the media outlet for what he perceives as the “artistic assassination” of iconic artists such as Jackson and Beyoncé.
“My grandmother used to say they playing in yo face,” Foxx wrote. “Why are you even critiquing Michael Jackson? You wanna go after one of the most talented people to ever walk the Earth as opposed to these lame artist that get on just because of what they look like read between the lines it’s artistic assassination attempts. Look how they went crazy on Beyoncé.
Jackson’s Thriller album has achieved an unprecedented level of success since its release in 1982, becoming the first album in history to be certified 34X multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Regarding the track “The Lady in My Life,” it was not released as a single and does not have an individual RIAA certification. The song remains one of the two tracks from the “Thriller” album that were not released as singles.