Jermaine Dupri Maulidin better known by his stage name Jermaine Dupri or J.D., is an American record producer, rapper and Grammy winning songwriter.

Dupri discovered the child rap duo Kris Kross in 1991 at a mall in Atlanta, Georgia. Dupri worked on various other Mariah Carey songs including Always Be My Baby in 1996. So So Def, a label specializing in Southern hip hop, Contemporary Soul, and R&B music, was originally distributed through Arista Records and Sony Music Entertainment. He appeared on a special "Hip Hop Stars" edition of The Weakest Link, being the first one voted off. JD became involved in a dispute against Eminem and Dr. Dre in 2002. This beef is mainly between Dr Dre and Jermaine Dupri, but Eminem has stuck up for Dre, and along with Xzibit, joined the beef against Jermaine Dupri. It started when Jermaine Dupri claimed that he was the best producer in the game, better than Dre and Timbaland during an interview with XXL magazine. Dre retaliated in Eminem's song, "Say What You Say", saying: "Been here longer than anyone in the game And I ain't got to lie about my age (But what about Jermaine?) F**k Jermaine! He don't belong speakin mine or Timbaland's name And don't think, I don't read your lil' interviews, and see what you're sayin I'm a giant, and I ain't gotta move 'til I'm provoked When I see you I'ma step on you and not even know it You midget, Mini-Me with a bunch of little Mini-Yous runnin around your backyard swimmin pools Over 80 million records sold And I ain't have to do it with ten or eleven-year-olds."

At the end of the song, Timbaland can be heard saying "Yo, this's Timbaland. Tell him I said 'suck my dick'" and Eminem follows it up with collaboration diss songs with xzibit such as "My name" and "Grindin" in xzibit's Restless album. Eminem also made reference to Dupri in his unreleased song "Canibitch." In it he and Dr. Dre run over Dupri on their way to confront rapper Canibus, and Dre stomps JD presumably to death at the end of the track. In 2003, Dupri was appointed president of Arista Black Music and moved So So Def and its artists there. In 2004, Dupri was appointed President of Urban Music at Virgin Records and moved So So Def over to Virgin. Meanwhile, Dupri also expanded his business ventures, buying into Chicago-based distillery 3 Vodka and opening his own boutique restaurant, Cafe Dupri.