An interview with Janet is available to watch now on the website of French radio station NRJ (pronounced ENERGY). It was recorded on Janet’s last promotional visit to Paris on July 28th. In it, Janet talks about several topics including firing her dad as her manager, 20 Y.O. and her upcoming appearance at NRJ‘s Back To School concert in Lille on September 9th. Watch the interview in full now.
Entertainment Tonight speaks with Janet on the set of the W magazine photoshoot that hits stands September 22.
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Billboard.com has posted an extended version of the recent Q&A session they held with Janet. In the interview, Janet mentions the ongoing problems behind the scheduling of her duet with Mariah as well as the possibility of staging a Control concert in the near future where she only performs songs from the Control album. She says she hopes that the concert will take place this year sometime and that the idea came about from fans’ suggestions.
Read it in its entirety below:
How would you assess your career to this point?
It’s still a great ride. Along the way there have been highlights but thankfully not a dull moment. Looking back, the highlights include the albums “Control,” “All for You,” “janet.” and “Rhythm Nation 1814.” Hanging with Tupac, Regina King and Joe Torry while filming “Poetic Justice.” Then there’s “Velvet Rope,” where I showed more of my feminine side. That was a crossroads for me: sharing what I’d been going through personally and how I felt about what was happening in the world. That turned out to be a very intimate record.
Then there’s this new album. It’s a highlight not just because I’m celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Control.” Once again, as back then, I’m making my own decisions.
This will sound corny, as if it’s not me talking, but it hasn’t always been easy, and I’m proud of “her” [Jackson refers to herself in the third person]. This is my private celebration because truly, for the first time in my life, I’m very happy.
Was the creative process for this album any different from its predecessors?
No. This time it was four of us collaborating — Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jermaine and myself. But it was the same process: Everyone getting all of their thoughts and ideas out on the table, then talking about which ideas to keep or throw out. [Singer/songwriter] Johnta Austin also played a part in the album.
It was really a collaborative effort, and that’s what made it so nice. Jermaine would run into the studio and talk about the songs Jimmy and Terry had done on someone’s album. Then Jimmy would start playing the song, and Jermaine would say, “You know what? Let’s do something kind of along those lines as a base.” He understood them, he understood me and vice versa.
How would you describe the musical mind-set of “20 Y.O.”?
This album takes me to a place where I haven’t been in a while: R&B and dance. I give that credit to Jermaine. I like to say he brought the country to the album, while he says he brought the ghetto [laughs].
But the dance element was the one thing I was adamant about having. The album also features samples from music that inspired me 20, 25 years ago. There are also some midtempo songs and some of what everyone calls my “baby-making songs.”
Basically, the album is everything that’s always been a part of me, but with freshness to it.
The “Call on Me” video carries a retro vibe. What inspired its concept?
Hype Williams was the director during the 10-day shoot. All the visuals you see in the video are how Hype hears the music; it’s very colorful. The idea was to do something different from what you see on TV; to go back to the way we used to do videos.
A lot of videos seem the same to me. And that’s fine. But young kids don’t get the opportunity to see the way it was done before and where imagination can go. That takes money, and labels aren’t doing that now.
So what was it like working in the studio for the first time with Jermaine?
It was just absolutely wonderful, very easy, not one hiccup. When we’re at home in Atlanta, I’ll sometimes go to the studio with him. But I’ll never, obviously, walk in and disturb him while he’s at work creating. So this was my first time actually seeing him at work, and I loved it. Sometimes I’d just peek in there. His back would be to me, and he never knew that I was in the room. I’d just sit and watch him.
Jermaine has said the album will include a duet between you and Mariah Carey. Is that still in the works?
We want to do something together, and we’re trying to make something happen. However, it’s been really tough since she’s on tour. But it’s something we definitely desire to do.
As featured artist of the month, Billboard.com are running a series of articles about Janet and her upcoming album 20 Y.O. The following, entitled Janet’s Juggernaut, looks at how the album took shape.
Don’t call it a comeback.
Janet Jackson conceived her new Virgin Records release, “20 Y.O.” (due Sept. 26), as a celebration of the joyful liberation and history-making musical style of her 1986 breakthrough album, “Control.”
That album has sold more than 5 million copies in the United States alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Jackson’s musical declaration of independence launched a string of hits, an indelible production sound and an enduring image cemented by groundbreaking video choreography and imagery that pop vocalists still emulate.
Jackson reunited with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and was joined by Jermaine Dupri to craft a musical reflection of who she is today and how the artistic promise of “Control” has been fulfilled some two decades later.
Creating a project with such lofty goals was a relatively smooth process, Harris and Dupri say. Conversations that began before Christmas 2005 between Jackson and the producers narrowed down the theme early, and songwriting and recording began in earnest in February.
The discussion turned to how Jackson was feeling at the time “Control” was recorded (when, incidentally, Dupri was just 13).
“I started asking questions like, ‘What was the feeling of life when you were 20?’ I was so intrigued with what was going on in her life then that I just thought her album should be called that,” Dupri says.
Harris adds, “It made sense as a concept because, obviously, the 20 years since the ‘Control’ album, but it also means — for her — a sense of rejuvenation. A sense of that excitement that you have when you are 20 years old, when your life is beginning and you’re striking out on your own. She has that same sense of hunger and excitement.”