*Jermaine Dupri is pushing back on talk that he missed an opportunity to cash in on Latto, the 2016 winner of his television competition series, “The Rap Game.”
The show followed aspiring teen rappers facing each other in weekly challenges in pursuit of a released single and record deal with Dupri. But Latto turned down the deal offered by Dupri after winning her season and dropping the single.
Dupri explained to HipHopDX that Latto, born Alyssa Stephens, is not the same rapper that she was when appearing on the show.
He said: “People keep always saying ‘Jermaine you dropped the ball on Latto. And what I don’t think people understand is I put Latto’s record out. The deal was if you win on ‘The Rap Game’ you get a single from Jermaine Dupri on So So Def.”
Dupri continued: “That single came out. The problem was that Latto was 16-years-old and the outlets didn’t support it and nobody was speaking on it, nobody talked about it. If you watched the TV show you saw it.”
He added: “People didn’t start talking about Latto ‘til she started making more vulgar records, dressing more sexual, being an adult. So it made me be like ‘d*mn, so [are] these kids not accepted?’”
Since winning “The Rap Game,” Latto has forged her own path apart from Dupri to become a bona fide hip hop star. She was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards, and for Best Melodic Rap Performance for her hit song “Big Energy,” and she won an IHeartRadio Music Award for Best New Hip-Hop Artist.
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