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No comment: Jackson 5 celebrate NYE at Studio 72

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

The bloggers and press snubbed Jermaine Dupri, and he snubbed them back by making it nearly impossible for working press to get into his much-hyped Jackson 5 New Year’s Eve reunion party at his suburban Atlanta club, Studio 72.

The certified hit-maker Jermaine Dupri has never gotten the industry respect he feels he deserves. When urban superproducers are mentioned, his name rarely comes up. And when it does, it always runs a distant second to guys such as Dr. Dre, Timbaland and Diddy. As a result, J.D. has developed a bit of a Napoleon complex.

When CL called (after sending several unanswered e-mails) Studio 72 manager Solo, he said Dupri wasn’t planning on giving up any press passes. He went on to mention something to the effect of Dupri being the only person big enough to pull something this huge off in Atlanta.

And for the record, he did pull it off. Dupri deserves major kudos for that. But if he really wanted the nonbelievers to eat their words, he should’ve opened the party up to more press. Hate to sound all self-righteous here, but J.D., you could’ve really used us on this one.

Check out the grainy YouTube footage above to see Jackson brothers Tito, Jermaine, Jackie and Marlon in the minutes leading up to the countdown. While the crowd ogles them as if they’re fish at the Georgia Aquarium, the brothers awkwardly stand in place looking like they haven’t been on a stage together since the Victory tour. Janet was also in the house, playing it cool, though she isn’t seen on the video.

And Michael Jackson is believed to have been absent, though there were reported sightings of him around town. Maybe he decided showing up at the club wouldn’t be worth his time once he realized there wouldn’t be any photo op.

Believe me, dude didn’t become the Thriller without knowing how to work the media. MTV can vouch for that.

Another one bites the dust: Da Brat wilds out on waitress at Studio 72

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

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LIMELITE, LUV & NITECLUBZ: Da Brat’s last studio release in 2003

Just when CL contributor Kaycie Newbern raves about Studio 72 (you can read her review in this week’s Nightcrawler column), Shawntae “Da Brat” Harris hauls off and shatters a bottle of rum over a waitress’s head in the club. Those are the alleged charges she was arrested under Wednesday night at the DeKalb County nightspot owned by Jermaine Dupri, who signed Da Brat to So So Def over a decade ago.

She became the first platinum-selling solo female rapper when she dropped her debut, Funkdafied, in 1994. Since then, she’s had a knack for doing something extremely bratty every few years or so.

The moral of the story: Be careful, future rappers, when picking your hip-hop pseudonym; you may never live it down.

For more details on her arrest, click here.