Via his Atlanta-based So So Def label and his various production work, Jermaine Dupri has worked with a veritable who's who in the hip-hop and R&B world. Dupri has launched the careers of such acts as Kris Kross (his first breakthrough, when he was still a teen himself), Da Brat and Xscape. He's also acted as song-shaper for Mariah Carey, Usher and TLC -- no wonder he was the first producer to reach No. 1 on the pop, R&B and rap charts with separate singles. With the Martin Lawrence film Big Momma's House, Dupri's tackled his first soundtrack as executive producer, a step that might just make him more of a recognizable name like his New York counterpart Sean "Puffy" Combs. Big Momma's House features the twenty-six-year-old Dupri as either writer, producer, or artist of five of the tracks, including the Peter Gabriel-sampling first single, "I've Got to Have It," in which he joins up with Nas and Monica.

Why do the soundtrack to Big Momma's House? Is it just because it was set in the South?

The movie people were looking for a company with ties in the South and could do both sides, rap and R&B. You want to have the music have something to do with the movie, but not too closely tied. What if it bombs? But everyone on the record was on my wish list.

Are there certain artists you prefer to work with?

Some people, I just feel like certain records are meant for them, like, "Damn, they need to be on this." Da Brat is my favorite. We got an understanding. We both want to make the hottest thing possible. I like writing lyrics for women. You can do a lot. But that's all I was doing at first. I looked up and went, "Damn, all I'm working with is girls!"

Is that such a bad thing?

No, it's not such a bad thing [laughs], but after a while, it's like, "Can't you do something for the fellas?" I didn't think guys could sell records, not if you weren't Boyz II Men. But then I got Jagged Edge, and I figured out a way to get them in.

Which artists have you learned the most from working with?

With Aretha Franklin, it was like going to a museum. And when you go into the studio with someone like Mariah, well, artists like that, you can't tell them nothing. Every time I'm around Mariah, she makes me want to come home and fire all my workers and get a whole new crew because her situation is so tight. I love being around everything she does. Of all the people I've worked with, she don't play around. She knows what she wants to do.

Do the artists you work with ever have superstar trips? Or are they generally open to your comments?

When I was a younger, people were like, "What does this little guy know?" It was a little harder for people to be open. But as I got more hits under my belt, people come to the studio and complain if I don't say nothing now. A lot of the time, if a big artist comes to my studio, I might sit back and not say too much . . .

You would be nervous?

Yeah [sheepishly]. I'm probably going to be start working with Janet [Jackson], and I'm nervous as hell to be myself. When I'm in the studio with someone like Usher or Da Brat, I'm dancing around, singing, all off key. But she probably will break me easier by telling me she wants to hear my ideas. Then I won't hold back.

You give lots of direction in the studio . . .

That's because I'm old school. I'm a producer, and what a producer's job is to get the best out of the artist. When we make a record, I already know what I want. When I hear Da Brat, I'm like, "I want you to rap like you rapped on this song." We're not in the studio to mess around and hope and pray that something comes out of it. A lot of people don't understand this, a lot of people resist. They didn't like the songs I wrote for them, but it would turn out to be a No. 1 record. But they weren't digging the record at first.

How much credit can you take at that point?

When a person don't like a record? All of it [laughs]. Usher wasn't feeling it at first. He wasn't 100 percent sold 'til it was done. But I was like, "See, I told ya." Lot of times when I go into the studio, I'll be having a whole idea laid out, and I'll just be wanting people to put their bodies into the parts, into the pieces of the puzzle. It's fun to be part of projects like Janet, but my real joy is making an artist out of scratch. TLC was my group before they got signed with LaFace, so I used to know that group better than anybody else, so it was a lot of fun with them in the studio.

You weren't ever worried that Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes would burn your house down?

Nah. She used to live at my house! I felt like I was the closest person to them, so when they blew up, I was the proud papa. I think everything's happy with them now. They've had had some interesting times in their life. It's like having babies that grow up and go off to college. I just sit back and watch everybody, and I go, "I remember when . . ." They're all having babies, getting married.

And you?

Me? I'm still in the studio.

JENNIFER VINEYARD
(June 3, 2000)