September 26th 2023.
Legendary music producer Jermaine Dupri is claiming to have invented the phrase 'make it rain' back in 1998 with his hit single with Jay-Z, “Money Ain't a Thing”. In a recent interview on Apple Music, Dupri claimed that he used the term when he attended the infamous Magic City strip club in the 1990's.
The So So Def Recordings owner told Estelle, “Talib Kweli talks about the first time that he ever came to Atlanta. He went to Magic City with me and Janet. They’re throwing the money in the air and people seeing that, ‘Make it rain.’ I actually was the person who created this because I did this first in the ‘Money Ain’t A Thing’ video, me and JAY-Z are in the car throwing money throughout the whole video.”
Although the two hip-hop artists do so in the video, the phrase was never mentioned in the song or video. Dupri goes on to say that this practice became his thing when his song was popular. He said, “That became my thing with that song, that became my thing going into these strip clubs. And I remember going to the club throwing the money. The first time I ever threw the money in the air, I probably threw a thousand dollars on the floor. And the girl at the strip club said, ‘You want me to get down on the floor and get my money?’ She didn’t understand what was happening.”
Interestingly, there is a Hip-Hop song titled, “Make It Rain” and it was recorded by Lil Wayne and Fat Joe in 2006. Dictionary.com actually credits the two artists with popularizing the term.
TMZ had a discussion with producer Southside, who has worked with artists like Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Meek Mill, 2 Chainz and Travis Scott, and he gave Dupri props—but disputed the claim, saying gangstas in Atlanta were the ones who started that trend. Southside said, “I ain’t gonna say that Jermaine Dupri invented that because Atlanta has a lot of different cultures of it. There were a lot of people back in Jermaine Dupri and them days who didn’t do music that were making it rain. But they couldn’t broadcast it because of what they did.”
Regardless of who started it, the phrase 'make it rain' has been around for years, particularly in strip clubs. Making it rain involves patrons throwing cash in the air and watching it fall to the ground—like rain. Dupri's recent interview is just his confirmation of him saying he was the first person to do this.
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