Jermaine Dupri Suggests Strippers-Turned-Rappers Should Start a Genre Called ‘Strap’

Jermaine Dupri continues to defend his controversial comments about “strippers rapping.”

During an interview with People TV this month, the hip-hop mogul seemingly dismissed the new wave of female MCs, claiming none of them have proven to be the best in the game. He believes today’s women rappers have failed to distinguish themselves from one another because they all rap about the same sexual subjects.

“I don’t think they’re showing us who’s the best rapper,” he explained. “For me, it’s like strippers rapping. And as far as rap goes, I’m not getting who’s the best rapper. I’m getting like, ‘OK, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club.’ It’s like, ‘OK, who’s going to be the rapper?’ At some point, somebody’s going to have to break out of that mold and just show us⁠—talk about other things, just rap about other things besides that.”

Durpi’s comments were met with criticism from a number of female rappers, including Cardi B. But about a week after the controversy began brewing, Dupri told TMZ he was not trying to generalize nor was he dissing specific rappers. The So So Def founder doubled down on his defense in a recent interview with Atlanta Black Star, claiming the women who rap about stripping should start their own genre.

“What people don’t understand is, I actually believe that these women that do this type of music should start calling it ‘strap,'” he said. “I’m telling you. Like, for real. I think just like we have trap [music], they should call it strap. It’s the stories of their life […] It’s just like crunk. When somebody said ‘crunk’ nobody was like, ‘Crunk, what is that?'”

Dupri went on to say he was not the only person who believed today’s female rappers were too similar and insisted he had no regrets for sharing his opinion.

“When stuff like that’s happening and people in the streets are saying something like, ‘JD, I’m glad you stood up and said it,’ I feel like I did something,” he explained. “I’m getting press for talking about music. I would never change that for nothing in the world—I’m talking about music.… To be a number one trending topic on Twitter [talking] about music, I didn’t plan it, but I’ll take it.”