New album. New body. Same burning desire. “This is the one that always wants to pop out,” says Janet Jackson of the most famous right breast in the world. “Look, it’s trying to pop out of my bra right now!” And with that, the woman we’ve watched grow from America’s Little Sister to international sex bomb dips into her black bra and adjusts the frisky bosom that forever seared the term “wardrobe malfunction” into the lexicon.
“Sometimes, I really don’t understand America,” the youngest Jackson sighs of her post–Super Bowl brouhaha. “We’re so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to sex. In other places, the body is seen as a beautiful thing God created.” Certainly, he did good work when it comes to Ms. Jackson. With her new album 20 Y.O., the 5-foot-4 singer is again sporting both her trademark six-pack and mile-wide smile—“A lot fits in that mouth,” she confesses—after gaining and losing 60 pounds in the past year for a film role that didn’t pan out. She’s also very happy with her producer boyfriend, hip-hop titan Jermaine Dupri.
“He makes me feel like a woman,” Janet says of Dupri, who is seven years younger than the 40-but-feeling-20 star. “I would have his child. He lets me be me.”
Which, it turns out, is a funny, forthright woman who’s both good as gold and bad to the bone. When Janet kicks off her international tour in support of her album next spring, fans can again look forward to more of the singer’s signature interactive entertainment. At every concert, Janet brings one lucky male fan on stage for a personal pole dance. And that, she confesses, is her favorite part of the show.
“Hey, I’m just doing my job,” she says with a grin. “And it’s a fun job to do.”
Gentlemen, Janet is back.
Do you ever do that “job” for your man, Janet?
When they ask, you give them what they want. They’re asking you; they could easily be asking someone else. So, yes, he’s asked me before and I’ve given.
Exactly how nasty is Ms. Jackson? How much do you need it?
Honestly? I need it as much as I can get it. I know women are usually saying they have a headache because their guy wants it too much, but not me. The other day I was asked, “Don’t you feel that you’re making it difficult on women by saying stuff like that?” And I’m like, “I’m just talking about how I am.” Before now, I had never been in a relationship where the guy is as eager as I am. Until Jermaine came into my life, it was always the guy who was saying, “Not tonight, I’ve got a headache.”
So, to quote lyrics from your earlier work, you want it “early in the mornin’.”
And “late in the evenin’.”
You also want it “any time”?
And “any place.
Did you feel that way when you were recently more full-figured?
Jermaine made me feel that way. He’d kiss me and say, “It needs love too.”
Your bosom must have inflated a bit.
Jermaine would call me Double D. I’d say, “I’m not a double D! I refuse to go up a bra size!” So I squeezed into a C.
And now you’re ripped. Look at those abs of yours.
You know, I didn’t set out for that to happen; I was just working out and got these incredibly strong abs. Genetics, I guess. But then people became all, like, “Where are those abs, Janet? Show us!” In clubs, if I’m wearing a crop-top, girls will come up, put their hands on me and rub my stomach. Seriously! I’m like, “Are you flirting with me right now?”
Maybe. Do guys do it too?
Yes. And sometimes I’ll feel somebody grab my ass. And they don’t just grab it softly—they grab it.
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. 