If there's one thing Jermaine Dupri knows—besides writing amazing, timeless R&B songs—it's how to mold the careers of young hip-hop and R&B stars. Just take a look at the careers of Kriss Kross, Xscape, Bow Wow and TLC (yep, it was Dupri who advised T-Boz to sing in her lower-range octave).
He's putting those star-making skills to good use. He and Queen Latifah are producing a reality show on Lifetime called The Rap Game that's going to follow the lives of five artists between the ages of 12 and 16 who want to make it big in the rap game, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The reality show will be based in Atlanta, and big shots like Usher, Ludacris, Da Brat and T.I. will be making guest appearances.
Shakim Compere, Queen Latifah's producing partner from her production company Flavor Unit, commented about his and Queen Latifah's involvement.
"Hip-hop is where Latifah and I came from, so it’s great to be able to produce a television show that is derived from our roots. The show is going to be a lot of fun," Compere said.
The show will be eight episodes long, and Dupri is set to appear in every episode. The Rap Game will premiere New Year's Day and will air every Friday at 10 p.m. EST.
For more of black Twitter, check out The Chatterati on The Root and follow The Chatterati on Twitter.
Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.