Jermaine Dupri Voices Frustration About Lack of Hip-Hop Celebrations in Atlanta

Since the turn of the century, Atlanta has been one of the most fruitful and busy hubs for hip-hop. Whether it be 2000s icons like OutKast, T.I., Ludacris, Waka Flocka Flame, Jeezy, and Cee-Lo Green, or 2010s trap-rappers like Gucci Mane, Migos, Future, Young Thug, Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Playboi Carti, and more, the city has given as much to hip-hop in the last two decades as any other city in the U.S.

Recognizing this, Jermaine Dupri, who was born in North Carolina and raised in Atlanta, called out the lack of celebrations for Atlanta this year as part of the Hip-Hop 50 festivities. Dupri, who was a prominent R&B and hip-hop artist from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, noticed how most of the concerts and events put on to commemorate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary have not been in Atlanta and have excluded Atlanta artists.

“Just for the record! no brands have done any dinners or get togethers in Atlanta celebrating the 50 anniversary of HipHop,” Dupri tweeted Friday (August 18). “That’s Crazy!!!”

Dupri’s tweet comes just a few days after Florida icon Uncle Luke shared similar sentiments about his home state. In the aftermath of the widely-publicized Hip-Hop 50 Live show in New York, Luke posted on Instagram about how the Florida hip-hop community, one he helped pioneer, has been largely ignored when it comes to hip-hop’s 50th.

“Hip-hop fans from Florida. Don’t be upset they don’t recognize your favorite Floridian artists as part of hip-hop’s 50th year celebrations,” he wrote Sunday (August 13). “This industry has never considered us as hip-hop from the time I started hip-hop in the south. You can only imagine the names they called us. Country booty music trash, music. I can go on and on the disrespect towards Florida hip-hop. Still to this day, we fight for our respect, and you have stood behind us every step of the way.”

[RELATED: Uncle Luke Rants About Hip-Hop 50 Celebrations Excluding Florida]

Currently, Dupri is helping craft a new docu-series titled Magic City: An American Fantasy, a strip club in Atlanta that’s been referenced several times in hip-hop music and pop culture. Dupri has enlisted the help of Drake to help produce the series.

(Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)