Jermaine Dupri remembers when he had to fight for respect for Atlanta music

Denise Truscello/Getty Images for CasamigosGrammy winner Jermaine Dupri is one of the leaders of the Atlanta music scene, but he remembers that back when he began his career, the music industry didn’t respect music from the A-T-L.

“People were fighting me being from Atlanta, then people was fighting that I was 19-years-old,” Dupri tells Rolling Stone. “People weren’t trying to actually believe that they were gonna listen to someone under 21 tell them something or allow that person under 21 to be a force in the music business. Because it had never happened before and people weren’t ready for it.”

Dupri says he finally