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Jermaine Dupri Talks Crazy Freaknik Spring Breaks And How It Made Atlanta The Center Of Hip-Hop
Apr 26, 2024
Jermaine Dupri, like many that hail from the Renaissance known as the 1990s, reflects on the significance of Freaknik, the iconic spring break event born from historically Black colleges and universities in Atlanta. In a chat with Chuck Jigsaw Creekmur, he acknowledges Freaknik's pivotal role in shaping the city's massive Hip-Hop and cultural landscape and the eventual emergence of Atlanta as the epicenter of the genre.
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AllHipHop.com, a powerhouse in the Hip-Hop world, was established and brought to life in 1998 by the visionary CEOs "Grouchy" Greg Watkins and Chuck "Jigsaw" Creekmur. Over the years, AllHipHop has solidified its position as an invaluable hub for all things Hip-Hop on the web. With its daily dose of news, exclusive interviews, in-depth reviews, multimedia content, a newly-minted expanding community, and a treasure trove of other engaging material, it has garnered immense praise and a dedicated following.
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0:00
What's going on world
0:05
It's your man, Chuck Creek, aka Jigsaw. All hip hop is in these virtual streets with Jermaine Dupri
0:11
What's good, my brother? What's happening, how are you? I'm good, bro. Good to see you
0:15
Good to see you. Same here. You in this new documentary, the wildest story never told, Freak Nick
0:23
So I gotta ask you, you were in the A at that time
0:28
You weren't there all the way at the beginning of it all, but what's your perspective on Freak Nick as a legacy
0:35
Well, I mean, I was in Atlanta, I just wasn't of age. You know, like 16, if you're 16
0:40
that's when you become a virgin to Freak Nick. Right, right. So in like 91, 90, 91 is when I kind of got hip to Freak Nick
0:52
and Freak Nick for Atlanta and the culture of hip hop becoming so dominant in this city
1:01
and the city paying attention to hip hop and the Falcons and everything
1:07
Freak Nick created all of those avenues. What people were doing with Freak Nick
1:15
made all of the Fortune 500 companies pay attention to it. Like, damn, Freak Nick is, okay
1:23
You know what I mean? And if you took advantage of Freak Nick the way I did with Social Death
1:29
you also realized that it was companies in this city, music companies that was putting out music
1:34
And that's basically, so I give Freak Nick damn near 60% of the credit
1:43
for catapulting the Atlanta South music scene. Wow, that's incredible. Yeah, P. Frank Williams, the director
1:53
referred to it as a musical documentary. I never took it that way
1:57
Yeah, nah, that's what it is. It's definitely a musical documentary that it's also a hip hop documentary
2:04
That's another thing that people, I noticed that people don't understand that
2:09
It's a hip hop documentary that we haven't had, right? It's a Southern hip hop documentary
2:15
but we haven't had a hip hop documentary in the last 10 years, as far as I'm concerned
2:22
that brings the age group between parents and their kids as close as the age groups are now, right
2:34
And Freak Nick actually deals with these younger parents and having these kids
2:42
And this was that generation where parents start having kids closer to their actual
2:48
this younger age so that they, my mother had me when I was 16
2:52
So, I mean, when she was 16, so that era of kids being born
2:59
when their parents are 16 and this, that, and third, we never really had a documentary or anything
3:05
a hip hop story or anything in the culture that actually relate, that deals with that
3:10
This is the first. Definitely. Who do you think goes harder? Gen X, the Freak Nick generation, so to speak
3:19
or the current day? Freak Nick generation. I mean, the inspiration and motivation
3:26
behind five individuals at a school that didn't have money to go to spring break
3:34
or go home for spring break and see their family, and they decide to create a picnic
3:40
and they didn't just wanna make it a regular picnic. They decided to make it a different type of picnic
3:45
and put a different name at the front of it and make it something special for the rest of the kids on the campus
3:51
that didn't have money to go home. That in itself is a story that
3:58
when I'm trying to get things done and I'm trying to do it for all the money in the world
4:06
these type of stories hit me dead in the face. Like, Jermaine, you gotta figure out another way
4:13
to get this done. You know what I mean? We live in a world where everybody always wanna call
4:19
and get as much money as possible, but if you really want something to happen
4:24
and you don't have no other choice, you'll figure it out. And you don't see a lot of that in this generation
4:31
but that generation did that. And to me, that's motivation for me
4:36
Yeah, no doubt. You talked about hip hop. Do you see parallels to hip hop
4:45
Because the way it started and the way it ended was completely different
4:52
When you say parallels, as far as what? The trajectory. I mean, obviously, if you start something off
4:57
with a few people, they're in on it and then it just slowly gets bigger and bigger and bigger
5:03
And then before you know it, somebody, I think, described it as a monster
5:08
even at one point. Yeah, I did. So what happens is that, at least with Freak Nick
5:14
nobody was having a conversation. I think that was the thing. The city should have at least talked to the DC Metro Club
5:22
to figure out what it was that they actually was doing. And then the city should have blocked off
5:31
that corner of Piedmont Park where they started having a party because now in Atlanta
5:36
this is where Music Midtown is held at. In that same spot that she talks about having that picnic
5:44
that's where Music Midtown is held. And it's a situation where all these people come
5:48
it's a festival, and it's done right, right there. They could have done the exact same thing
5:54
They could have been the first group of people to have a festival
5:59
But they weren't having a conversation with the city and the city didn't go and make a move
6:04
to have a conversation with them. And things just kept going and kept growing
6:09
And if you don't have some kind of communication, things gonna get out of control. Yeah
6:14
Was it all business for you though? Did you have fun and did you indulge at a point in Freak Nick
6:21
Oh yeah, 100%. I mean, it wasn't, it was business for me from a
6:28
I mean, not from a monetary standpoint, it was a business move for me from a fun standpoint
6:35
Like, you know, when you getting your name out there and you're trying to build your brand
6:42
you're not really, you're more so concerned about putting your brand in front of as many people
6:48
as possible, as opposed to you making money, you know? And that might be the wrong way to go about it
6:55
Somebody else might have a different way, but that's the way I went about it. I just was like, and me being from the South
7:01
and already getting flack for the Crisscross record and people trying to treat us like we weren't supposed
7:06
to be in hip hop in the first place. My determination was just like, I'm here
7:11
y'all gotta see me. And I ain't gotta come to y'all city, it's 150,000 people in my city
7:17
They gonna see me when they come here at least. You know what I'm saying? So when you have that energy, that's all I was doing
7:24
It wasn't even about, and I was having fun doing that. Making sure that my company was plastered all over the city
7:31
while the people was here, that was fun. Yeah, what about the, we talk about the DC Metro Club
7:38
and Eric Sermon is in there and there's, the impression is obviously this is a love letter
7:44
to Atlanta, but also there were other forces that were convening in Atlanta at that point in time
7:52
Even myself, I considered moving to Atlanta in the 90s. I was like, yo, I felt like it was either New York
7:59
or Atlanta, you know? Yeah. Ultimately, yeah, I moved to New York
8:03
but it could have gone either way. Yeah, I mean, well, you know, like I said
8:07
this was the rise of Atlanta's musical explosion. It was the rise, like while what I was doing
8:18
I don't think the rest of the country was paying no attention to it. Like Eric Sermon is on P Street
8:23
Jermaine Dupri is in College Park, Dallas Austin's in College Park, Rico Wade and the Dungeon Family, they in the swats
8:30
They creating something, man. Too short, moved to Atlanta, moved to the swats
8:35
And, you know, I don't think people, and by the way, all this stuff is happening
8:40
and Freak Nick is happening. So it's like, you got the energy of Freak Nick
8:45
and then you got this synergy that we putting out and we trying to put out records and we trying to make
8:49
and so all the records and everybody just start connecting it to Freak Nick
8:54
And then the DJs start playing the music, right? That was another thing
8:58
Then we got a radio station in the city. Once we got another radio station, Hot 107.9
9:07
which was 90, what was it at first? It was something else at first
9:12
but it was Hot Something at first, right? And once they came and they started playing hip hop
9:19
and they was playing, and the way that they got in was they was playing more music from here
9:26
more people from Atlanta. Like I remember when that station first jumped off
9:30
I used to have people saying, Jermaine, do you own this radio station? Because they used to play so many of my records
9:37
because they wanted to brand it as the Atlanta radio station. Nice, nice
9:43
You and Luke are in there together talking quite a bit. Luke definitely brought a different energy
9:50
Obviously he's from Miami. Not to shade Luke or anything like that
9:57
but is that ultimately when things started to really shift into some of the other things
10:04
that were not as communal, if you will? Nah, because Luke was here before
10:09
he was at the parties before I was. Luke was at the parties that I couldn't get into
10:14
So Luke actually helped Freak Nick get bigger. You know what I mean
10:21
Because once you came to Atlanta and you was like, yo, we went to this Luke party and you went back home
10:26
and you told your homeboys that didn't go, they couldn't wait to go next year. Right
10:31
So he actually increased the crowd flow. So I mean, it could be a bad thing
10:38
but I look at what Luke did, he increased it and made it really like
10:43
and he put the freak in the word freak. Right. The word freak was not there for that at first
10:49
The word freak didn't have nothing to do with shake off and shaking your booty and Luke Skywalker, none of that
10:54
It didn't have nothing to do with that. They was using the word freak from the Sheik record
10:59
Yeah, yeah, of course. And I notably recall when all the exes were blocked off
11:07
and you just in the highway and that didn't even stop nothing really
11:13
because what that did was it pushed you to the outskirts of Atlanta and where I'm from
11:24
College Park, when they blocked off the highway, you couldn't, I don't think none of the exits was open
11:32
all the way to Old National. So people was getting off on Old National
11:37
and they was going to Frozen Paradise that was down the street on Old National
11:40
and then Old National became Freaknik. Right. And that's where I was at, like
11:45
oh, I ain't got to go downtown. It's right here in my hood. Right, you know what I'm saying
11:49
So it was, like I said, Freaknik was amazing because you couldn't really kill it. Yeah
11:57
You couldn't kill it once it was in the city. Right, right. You know, off topic slightly, you have been
12:07
actually doing like amazing things. I'm shocked, not shocked, obviously you're a talented brother
12:13
but can you give everybody a rundown of what you're working on now
12:17
Oh, rundown now, I'm working, I mean, I'm in Freaknik. I'm in Freaknik mode right now, since this just came out
12:26
but I mean, you know, I got a number one record and number one R&B record in the country right now
12:32
with Money Long. That's a shock. Yeah, and you know, constantly staying in the studio
12:42
That's just what I, you know, stay in the studio, keep making music
12:45
Oh, I got a new single too. I got a new single with myself, Ashanti, Nelly and Juicy J
12:53
I'm forgetting that I got records. Yeah. Didn't you do a song with Rev Run
13:01
Who, me? Yeah. Not recently. Not recently, okay, nevermind. Rev Run got a new record out too
13:06
Oh yeah, yeah, not recently, uh-uh. Okay, okay, okay. Oh, by the way, my niece worked on Freaknik documentary
13:15
as a researcher at Hulu. She works at Hulu. Oh, that's cool
13:19
That's crazy, she sent a text to our group today and I was like, yo, you gotta tell me
13:24
what you're working on. I'm literally about to tell JD right now
13:28
Oh yeah, that's dope. Yeah man, so I wanted to ask you this
13:34
people are always giving me feedback on who I'm gonna interview and you've gone viral for your fits, various fits and socks
13:44
What's your response? Now what's your, like I have a theory on this
13:48
but I wanna know what your mind state is when you go into your closet or whatever
13:53
and then you say that I'm gonna wear this. I mean, personally me, I never even thought
14:01
nobody would say anything about the socks. You know what I mean? Like I've worn these socks before
14:06
and I actually believe that it's because, like I said, a lack of information
14:12
is being given to these kids because if people knew more about me
14:18
they would know I'm a dancer and I come from an era where dancers used to wear
14:24
all kind of different stuff, right? You know, not where it might not have been cool
14:30
for a rapper to wear but it might've been cool for the dancer to wear
14:34
It might've been cool. I mean, like I said, I'm a hip hop kid
14:38
I grew up in hip hop and fashion was a big part of my life
14:45
You know what I mean? I'm also the same person that had the whole world
14:49
wearing their clothes backwards, right? So when people talk about my socks
14:54
I'm like, you know, you do realize like everybody told me that wearing your clothes backwards wasn't gonna work
15:01
Like nobody was like in agreeance with that. Like, Jermaine, you crazy
15:05
What y'all doing that for? Like, you know what I mean? And the fact that Chris and Chris was younger
15:10
I think that kind of smoothed it out a little bit but people weren't with that
15:14
You know what I'm saying? And then it's crazy for me to go fast forward 20 years or something
15:19
People was like, man, Chris Cross was my first tape that I bought and I got kicked out of school
15:23
because I was wearing my clothes backwards. And I'm like, what? You know what I mean? I don't think about clothes like that
15:30
I just put on stuff. You know what I mean? This was something that I wanted to wear
15:36
I didn't have no idea that the world was gonna say it
15:40
And when I came off the stage at Superbowl, my daughter was like, they on your socks
15:44
They on your head about the socks. I'm like, what? Why would they be talking to me about the socks
15:48
So yeah, I wasn't paying no attention to it. Okay, that's what's up
15:52
I thought you might be trolling. I don't know. Is he trying to go viral
15:57
Is he? No, no, definitely not. And then like the other day when I wore
16:01
well, no, I wore the socks again to South by Southwest. And the only reason I did that is because now
16:10
like you just did. So anybody that's watching this, I want everybody that's watching this
16:14
to understand what I'm saying. Because when I say this, people are like, ain't nobody asked you about them socks
16:19
He's right here. He just asked me about the socks. I don't have no socks on today
16:25
And as a person that's in the entertainment business, when you, let's talk about algorithms
16:32
People talk about algorithms and what an algorithm is and what a light does for a entertainer, right
16:41
If you do something in entertainment and the next time people see you
16:47
they ask you about that thing that you did, you better pay attention to it
16:53
Now, whether it's good or bad, you better pay attention to it
16:57
And that's almost the secret to my success. Like I just pay attention to the obvious
17:03
I don't claim to be a genius and all this. I just pay attention to the obvious
17:09
You guys like, oh, okay, people want R&B music. All right, cool
17:15
Y'all want R&B music. I listened to TikTok. TikTok was playing over my Mariah Carey beat
17:22
And I'm like, oh, this is what y'all like. Okay, cool. I'm gonna put a beat like this on this Money Long record
17:27
and let's see what happens, right? It's just paying attention to the signs, right
17:32
It's a red flag. So with the socks, that's what it is
17:36
It was a red flag. Everybody like, oh, I went to Sherri Shepherd and she said I was trending more than Usher
17:41
I'm trending more than the person who actually performed on the Superbowl
17:45
You gotta pay attention to that. Yeah, no, that's a fact, man. Well, congratulations on the documentary
17:50
It was really educational, man. I was shocked, you know, going viral about this, that
17:56
am I gonna be in it? Is my grandma, my mom gonna be in it
18:00
You know, all that, but it was actually an education and very enjoyable to watch
18:06
And yeah, like you said, I think it's really gonna bring people together
18:10
Then brought my family together. My brother gonna watch it tonight. His daughter worked on it
18:14
It's crazy. Yeah, that's dope. Yeah, so much respect, brother. Thank you
18:20
Any last words? Nah, that's it. You know what I'm gonna keep doing
18:24
Just keep looking. Yeah, we definitely will. All right, respect. For sure
18:30
All right
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