Happy New Year from everyone over at New Rory & Mal. Now that the holidays are over and we’re all back at work and miserable again, let's get the year started off right!  Rory & Mal catch up with Jermaine Dupri at his legendary studio compound while in Atlanta. They sit down and start to discuss JD’s early journey into hip hop, starting with his breaking of the duo Kriss Kross (16:42). He goes on to explain how he met the late Lisa “LeftEye” Lopes, and how he helped break the group that would become TLC (25:19). In the middle of his stories, JD gets an unexpected disturbing call from his protege Shad “Bow Wow” Moss, who insists on pulling up and joining the interview to get a few things off his chest (36:20). Bow Wow comes in and joins JD in telling the behind the scenes story of breaking his career, as well as elevating So So Def. JD (and of course Bow Wow himself) start giving Bow Wow his flowers for his career (1:11:06), and this leads into a discussion of what the blogs have against him that they won’t cover his current successes. This also activates JD’s urge to get his shit off, who doubles down on his challenge to Puff Daddy for a Verzuz, and explains why he feels underrated (1:24:16). They also touch on other careers JD has broken, their opinion on aging relevance  in Hip-Hop (and basketball), + more!