Ella Ferguson sits before a golden microphone that once captured the voice of Mariah Carey. She looks over the mixing board, covered with equipment from a busy recording session the night before, and starts to ask Luccas Perez, a fellow Emory student intern, about a new album by R&B singer Coco Jones. A sudden voice across the room interrupts her.

It’s Jermaine Dupri, Atlanta hip-hop icon, Grammy Award-winner and founder of the major record label So So Def Recordings.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” he says, pulling out his phone. He fiddles with the screen so he can broadcast the conversation on Instagram Live, where he often showcases his Emory interns discussing the latest music news.

Dupri likes to add his own musings to the videos, too: “This is why I think it’s important to have interns,” he says to his worldwide digital audience, “because some things you don’t know, and they will keep you abreast of what’s going on. I didn’t even know she dropped the album.”

“Well, Coco Jones is a presence,” responds Ferguson, a business major from Fort Worth, Texas. “I think a lot of women, especially, who are tapped into the R&B scene enjoy her.”

It’s a typical day at the studio: The students learn from Dupri, and Dupri learns from the students.

The first cohort of Emory So So Def interns included rising juniors Ferguson, Perez, and Emmett Roth, and David Qiu, who graduated in May from Goizueta Business School. Though the group completed their internship at the end of the spring semester, they have continued to visit the studio throughout the summer.

The internship program formed as a collaboration among So So Def, Emory’s Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement, the Emory Pathways Center and the Oxford-based Center for Pathways and Purpose, which hosted a class to help the interns process and contextualize what they learned at the studio.

Dupri announced the internship last fall at the inaugural Ideas Festival Emory, where he also headlined the festival’s keynote event: an onstage recording of the “Sing for Science” podcast.

The internship reflects Emory’s commitment to partnering with the most impactful industries in Atlanta, says Bridgette Gunnels, associate dean at Oxford and director of the Center for Pathways and Purpose.

“Atlanta is an incredibly historic space,” she says, “and I think we’re beginning to wrap our arms around bringing our academic work and the public together. So So Def typifies and personifies Atlanta hip-hop history, and our relationship was formed due to the collaboration across campuses and centers at Emory.”

The cornerstone of the partnership, Gunnels adds, is that “So So Def is interested in different generations and what they bring to hip-hop.”

“It’s a test study for me,” Dupri says. “I pay attention to what the interns are talking about, what they’re listening to and what type of people they are. I definitely hear things that my friends and I aren’t talking about every day, and that’s the beauty of it. I love having young people around me. They have figured out they can take this experience and be a part of teaching other people and helping them discover new things.”

Dupri is inspired by his interns’ youth and energetic approach to music. He can relate: He started young, too, leaving organized education in sixth grade to tour as a band roadie with his father. He was homeschooled on the highway.

“I’ve always seen things from a young perspective,” Dupri says. He started So So Def in 1991, at age 19, and signed his first artist that same year: the hip-hop duo Kris Kross. He said it was important for him to find his voice as a young person, “and I want the interns to do the same.”

He also wants to use his decades of industry knowledge to guide them.

“I don’t think there are currently a lot of people in the industry like Jermaine Dupri, who really care about the next generation and about the history of hip-hop and nurturing our careers,” says Roth, a business major from New York City.

Occasionally, Dupri allows the interns to observe and discuss his creative process. They ask whatever questions come to mind, whether about the minutiae of sound mixing or the industry as a whole.

“It’s a great time to have these conversations,” Dupri says. “This internship is about learning and getting them to a space where they eventually know how to make moves in the industry.”

At So So Def, run-ins with hip-hop royalty are an everyday affair.

“You never know who you’re going to see,” Roth says. He sat in on a recording session with Dupri and Killer Mike one day, then met members of Dem Franchize Boyz another.

To facilitate connections outside the studio, Dupri took students backstage at State Farm Arena for the Millennium Tour, a concert featuring major hip-hop acts Trey Songz, Omarion and Bow Wow. Perez says it was his favorite moment of the internship, and the group shared many of their green room experiences on social media.

The central corridor that runs through So So Def is lined with framed vinyl records — albums Dupri produced that went gold or platinum. Perez, a political science major from Florida interested in entertainment law, eyes the records as he walks down the hall for another day at work: Usher, Destiny's Child, Ludacris.

The studio contains shelves of records that Dupri, or “JD” to the students, peruses when in search of musical inspiration.

“Whenever JD is creating a song, he’ll pull one of these records and play it to see if he can find a sample,” Ferguson says.

The interns’ main project for the semester was to create a magazine, titled — what else? — “Young Perspective.” Its pages include music reviews, a section exploring Atlanta cultural hotspots for food and fashion, and a list of the most exciting events and concerts around town.

“It’s been a great teambuilding opportunity, and we have a good group,” Roth says of working with the other interns. “It’s been a real experience. This is a workplace environment, as opposed to a classroom environment. My biggest takeaway is: Know your stuff.

“JD will grill me on hip-hop history,” Roth adds, “and he once had me redo a video album review almost 10 times. I learned about being professional, and how you want to set the best standards for yourself.”

Ferguson agrees: “We’ve been learning to work quicker and produce output. He’s a results-driven person. No talk, just do.”

The magazine’s eclectic structure is representative of Dupri’s general counsel to the interns: Be omnivorous.

Qiu, from the Bay Area of California, says Dupri encouraged them to learn as many facets of the industry as possible and to “always be listening to new songs and new albums.”

As he explored his own taste and voice, Qiu was inspired to write an Emory-themed rap, which he recorded at a studio on campus. At So So Def, he played the song for Perez and Ferguson. Soon, the group was up and dancing to his words.

Being close to the Atlanta music industry was a major reason why Roth chose to attend Emory.

“The number of concerts I’ve been to here in Atlanta probably equals the amount I’ve been to in New York,” Roth says, “which is crazy because I’ve been in Atlanta for two years and was in New York for 18. Atlanta has a great, great music scene.”

After graduating, he hopes to manage musicians. Goizueta’s music management concentration was another significant draw, he says.

“When I started the internship, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do in the music industry,” Roth reflects. “Being at So So Def has helped me realize what I could do for an artist and what I could do for people. Because that’s my goal: to bring people joy through music.”

The course accompanying the internship — taught by Emorja Roberson, Oxford assistant professor of music and African American studies — explores the ethics and history of hip-hop and provides a space for students to reflect on what they’ve learned.  

“These are the critical thinking skills they need to have,” Roberson says. “They’re building an understanding of the music industry, the skills and the people and the history, and how an artist can take their lived experiences and channel them into a three-minute song,” just as Dupri did in his 2002 hit single with Ludacris, “Welcome to Atlanta.”

“This internship is deeply connected to the heart of Atlanta industry,” Gunnels says. “If you can show students what Atlanta feels like, they can take that anywhere — the understanding of how important community can be. You can choose to be a part of that community through your work, but also through learning its history and how you fit into the cultural puzzle of where you are. You can sink your teeth into that. That’s what they write books about. That’s what they write songs about.

“That’s Jermaine’s anthem,” she adds.

Story and design by Daniel Christian. Photos by Kay Hinton, Emory Photo/Video, except where noted.