What do you do when the album you back and produce flops? Normally you can just try to get the next one. In the case of Jermaine Dupri, you resign.
Jermaine Dupri resigned from being president of Virgin Record’s urban music division when his girlfriend’s latest album “20 Y.O.” bombed. The Grammy award winning music producer and rapper took on the position in January of 2005 but apparently feels it is time to walk away. He states, “I was not forced out of the company, I made a decision that it was in my best interest to leave.”
According to Nielsen soundscan, sales of Janet Jackson’s album have hit a mere 443,000 since it was released on Septemer 26 of this year. Dupri and Jackson had been looking to use this allbum to stage Janet’s comeback. Dupri has had previous success with brining back singers as seen when the record sales of Mariah Carey’s multi-platinum award winning “Emancipation of Mimi”.
While he has not explained what led to his decision to leave the recording company, rumors abound that it has to do with the way management and the rest of the company supported the album. As close as the singer is to his heart, he is said to have been frustrated with the way marketing and promotion was handled for 20 Y.O.
At least Janet is still getting a boost from all this. Though no confirmation has been made, people are looking forward to Janet and Justin performing on stage again. Hopefully this time there will be no scandal.
[tags] music,news,Janet Jackson,Jermaine Dupri,resign,Virgin Records [/tags]
Originally posted on October 26, 2006 @ 9:36 am