Young, Rich, and Dangerous by Jermaine Dupri & Samantha Marshall

Author:Jermaine Dupri & Samantha Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

9

A JAGGED ERA

The funny thing about success is that it never feels exactly how you think it will. Your song could get nominated or win a Grammy and it’s nice for about a minute, then you ask yourself, “Okay, what now?” In this business, you’re only as good as your last record. You have to keep it moving to stay in the game.

The problem is that it’s not always a clear lane ahead. You think all the arrows are going to go straight and everything is going to connect with all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed. But the reality is there’s constantly some kinda glitch or roadblock somewhere. Things never go the way they’re supposed to on cue, they only go right when you don’t expect it. By then it’s probably too late.

By 1996, you might say business was good. I was spending a lot of time up at the Columbia offices in New York, learning what was expected of me at a big label. By then my dad’s career managing platinum acts like the Fugees, along with some of my artists, was getting him a lot of credit. The higher-ups were impressed enough to make him executive vice president of a new black music division.

The machine driving that unit was pretty much me and So So Def, and I was delivering plenty enough hits to keep Columbia’s boss, Don Ienner happy. I wasn’t cranking out a steady stream of new artists, but their caliber was always high. I had Brat, Xscape, and Kris Kross on my roster and everything they released was going platinum. It was a pretty good batting average.

I was earning my $10 million and giving everybody else a big return on their investment. Even though the executives at Columbia and Sony still saw me as a kid, I was a big part of the story of the label’s turnaround. After they lost Def Jam, they didn’t have anything going on in urban music until I gave them some traction.

But that period seemed more rough than smooth. I wasn’t feeling like I was successful. I was dissatisfied with where I was and all I knew was the pressure I was putting on myself. I needed more hot acts to be the kind of hit machine I wanted to be. It still felt like I had a long way to go. The fear in me was deep that I’d lose my edge. It stays with me to this day.

When I get to feeling like that, or when I have to think through something real hard, I start writing. I was never a big talker, so when I have something I need to express it tends to come out of me in the form of lyrics and rhymes. Sometimes, when it goes deep enough, what’s on my mind turns into poetry. This is the poem I wrote one time when insecurity was biting my ass:

Fightin’ for my life,

I wake up in the morning feeling like I’m being

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.