The Story Of So So Def Recordings

The Story of So So Def Recordings

During the early 1990s, successful music producer Jermaine Dupri started So So Def Records. The Atlanta-based label began at a time when Southern hip-hop music was just beginning to get a lot of attention. Dupri signed distribution deals with much-larger record companies like Columbia and Arista. This allowed him to focus on what he did best: finding talented unknown artists and producing hit music. Some of So So Def's biggest stars included Da Brat, Lil Bow Wow, and Jagged Edge. Today So So Def Records is completely independent, and Jermaine Dupri is working hard to introduce a new generation of hip-hop stars.

The Story of So So Def Recordings

A Sacred Storm

Christopher Michael Jones shares the parallel wisdom learned from the worlds of hip hop and church: the good news of “Can’t stop, won’t stop” preached by hip hop in the ashes of Reagan-era turbulence, and the good news of God’s faithfulness to teach resilience in the wake of radical disruption. "I was pulled back to a time when black youth and young adults like Biggie and I expressed our creative genius through a cultural movement that arose out of the ashes of poverty: hip hop. To us, hip hop was the church. The MC was the preacher. The DJ was the worship host. The B-Boys, breakdancers, and pop-lockers were the liturgical dancers. The journalists and graffiti artists were the scribes. The concert arena was a sanctuary. The bodies who danced to rhythmic anthems of classics like “La Di Da Di,” “Oh, My God!,” “I Know You Got Soul,” and “Fight the Power” were its members."