Janet Jackson's Playlist

The songs that I have chosen for this list have all played a very important part in my life in one way or another: very unforgettable moments, and very unforgettable songs, for me... MiTunes

1. "Lets Get It On" - Marvin Gaye: The yearning, the sass, the soul, the sexiness of this song. No one can do like Marvin. From 'I Heard It Thru The Grapevine' to 'Sexual Healing,' Marvin always moves me.

2. "Get Off" - Foxy: This track takes me back 2 my childhood when I was n jr high n hangin' out on the football field @ school watching all the kids dance @ lunch time. Such great times...I miss those days.

3. "Wings On My Heels" - Eddi Reader: The late, great make-up artist, Kevyn Aucoin, introduced me 2 this artist n this song in particular. It makes me think of him n the great times we had 2gether. Its soothes me.

4. "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" - Ryuichi Sakamoto: I'm so attracted to his melodies, such as this one. All so simple, so beautifully written. What talent!

5. "Closer" - Nine Inch Nails: Makes me wanna *%$#! The imagery of the video is incredible.

6. "I Want You Back" - Jackson 5: This is the beginning. The beginning of the boy bands, the beginning of music for me. I hear talent, nothing but pure, God-given talent. So innocent, so young, so carefree, so amazing, so missed.

7. "Can You Feel It" - The Jacksons: This is the beginning. The beginning of boy bands, the beginning of music for me. I hear talent, nothing but pure, God-given talent. So innocent, so young, so carefree, so amazing, so missed.

8. "Secret Love" - Kelly Price: Not very many women touch me with their voice. Kelly Price is definitely one of them. Such power, such control and grace. I love this 'Secret Love.'

9. "Hot Fun In The Summertime" - Sly & The Family Stone: What this man did changed music for an entire generation. So many he has inspired and continues to inspire. For me, he was the funkiest in his time and one of the funkiest of all time.

10. "Rapper's Delight" - The Sugarhill Gang: I jus wanna dance when I hear this.

11. "Destiny" - Zero 7: It's just a great song...I love the vocals - both leads and backgrounds.

"Contrary to what has been reported, Khia WILL be featured on the new Janet Jackson album. I can verify that the song, "So Excited," which features Khia, is in the process of being mixed and will appear on Janet's highly anticipated release, 20 Years Old, when it hits stores on September 26th."

Jermaine Dupri Promises Mariah, Janet Duet On New Album

06.20.2006 6:00 AM EDT

Earlier this month, Jermaine Dupri demonstrated he's a true showman by bringing out Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson during his set at the Summer Jam radio festival in New Jersey. Now, Dupri is thinking about how to pull the ultimate trump card and get the two legends on the same song.

In April, Carey hinted that she was very open to the collaboration. "He never talked to me about that, but if Jermaine has a concept, we should go and write something," she told MTV Radio. "I love Janet. I've been a big fan of Janet since 'Con-tro-ol!'"

On Friday, JD said he is, in fact, developing an idea for Carey and his longtime girlfriend to do it up right on a song.

"It's gonna happen on this record," he said about the collaboration. "Please believe that. I got a mean idea, so look for it. We definitely gonna do a repackage on [Janet's 20 Years Old] once it comes out. Hopefully it's successful and people buy into it, then I'm going back in the studio.

"What happened was, when I was working with Janet, I got into the zone. This was my first time ever working with her. When I get into my zone with artists, I just want to create and create and create. That's what happened with me and Mariah [on The Emancipation of Mimi]. We don't run outta ideas; we keep coming up with sh--. The closer I get to that idea [for Janet and Mariah], the more I know where it should be at. It's feeling like it's gonna happen."

Dupri also said the Janet and Mariah record - if he pulls it off - could appear on the initial run of 20 Years Old.

"It depends on how quick my mind moves," he said. "We're mixing records for [20 Years Old]. We're not done yet. When I did Usher's My Way album, the last record I created was 'You Make Me Wanna ... .' I'm thinking I might go back in, and I might tamper with it. ... We gotta try to figure it out."

JD hopes to have the Janet and Mariah duet mapped out and recorded before Carey goes on tour this summer. Dupri also said he's accepted Mariah's invite to go out on the road with her. He won't be at every single date, but he promises to pop up here and there and support his homie.

"I'mma go to the hot spots," he said of the tour. "She's going to Miami first. I'm definitely gonna be at that show. I'm definitely gonna be in New York, in Atlanta. That's my partner. Whatever she needs me to do, I'm there."

When he's not onstage, Jermaine already has a full plate of production scheduled for the rest of the year. He's working on a slew of his So So Def artists, including Johnta Austin, Manish Man, T. Waters and Young Capone. Bow Wow's next album is on Dupri's to-do list, as are records from 3LW, JoJo, Ludacris, Young Jeezy, Frankie J, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Nelly, Usher ("We gonna start on his record at the end of the year") and Mariah Carey once she gets off tour.

Janet's JD-produced "Call on Me," is the first single from the September 26 release 20 Years Old, and made its official debut Tuesday (June 20).

"It's a duet between her and Nelly," Dupri said. "It's the jump-off. It's really just a record about when you need a friend, somebody you need to talk to, just call on a person. It's a friend record. It ain't really a boyfriend/girlfriend record. The way Nelly and Janet is talking is more girlfriend/boyfriend, but it really goes out to friends."

Nelly being a close friend of JD made him a perfect candidate to rap on the song. Well, that and the fact that Nelly and Dupri have a super-smash under their belts already.

"Nelly, I try to do what I do with my friends," Dupri explained. "Me and him had just come off the success of 'Grillz' at the time I made this record. He was the person on my mind. "Especially since Janet only made records, not to disrespect Q-Tip or Heavy D, but as far as popular rappers in this day and time, Busta Rhymes was the only one. We was trying to go to the radio and not do the typical R&B featured record. I was trying to be more creative and find somebody who can do melody as well as rap on the record. Nelly don't really rap on this song, he's singing. He has that different style. That's kind of what the record is. We see that enough: R&B with a rapper feature. That's why I call this a duet as opposed to a feature."

With new singer/rapper collaborations in abundance, like Beyonce and Jay-Z's "Deja Vu" and Ciara and Chamillionaire's "Get Up," JD said he really wanted Janet and Nelly to have their own lane.

"I never really pay attention to anybody else's record when I'm doing what I'm doing," he said. "I was just trying to give her the look she hasn't had in a minute. That would be both an incredible look on TV as well as a star moment, as well as a big record on radio. That's all the elements I was putting into making this record. We don't just have a record that's just a Nelly and Janet record. I believe this record is gonna be one of the biggest records on radio this year. Outside of who it is, it's a well-put-together song."

- Shaheem Reid

Call On Me

(Janet)
I don't know if I've ever felt like this before
But I'm sure that the way I feel, I don't want it to go
'Cuz I've cried my share of tears
And I've sang my share of blues
But to keep you over here, I'll do what I got to do

(Janet)
So baby, call on me
Whether day or night, I'll never leave
(Nelly)
See you don't have to be alone
I'll come anywhere you want
Baby just pick up the phone and call on me
(Both)
So you ain't know
I wanna be your homie, lover, friend
See there it go, see there it go

(Nelly)
See I never met a girl that could break me down
It's like I get caught in the middle
I get caught up a little anytime that she's around
I be posted, waitin' on standby
Lookin' to catch the hint
I'm doin' whatever, whenever
Never forget I said I'd be here when you want
To get what you need, if you wanna recieve
Oh, please believe you could

(Janet)
Call on me whether day or night
I'll never leave
(Nelly)
See you don't have to be alone
I'll come anywhere you want
Baby just pick up the phone and call on me
(Both)
So you ain't know
I wanna be your homie, lover, friend
See there it go, see there it go

(Janet)
Call on me
When ya need someone who cares
Say the words and I'll be there
I can meet you anywhere
Call on me
Anytime that you please
Babe, whatever you want
Be whatever you need
Because you're the one I love baby, yeah

(Janet)
Call on me whether day or night
I'll never leave
(Nelly)
See you don't have to be alone
I'll come anywhere you want
Baby just pick up the phone and call on me
(Both)
So you ain't know
I wanna be your homie, lover, friend
See there it go, see there it go, mama

(Nelly)
It don't matter where you go
I'll come anywhere you want me to

(Janet)
It don't matter near or far
It's like anything you say I'll do

(Both)
It don't matter where you go
I'll come anywhere you want me to
It don't matter near or far
It's like anything you say I'll do

Hey u guys, it's me again, how are u? I can't tell u how great u all have been. Showing me so much love with all of your notes on the website. I love reading what u have to say. And guess what? You made my US Magazine cover the biggest selling cover in the history of the magazine! Thank you soooo much.

I'm excited for everything that we have coming up. You know my new single, "Call On Me," will be released this coming Monday, June 19th -- don't forget to call the request lines. I've also had so much fun hanging out in New York going to the CFDA, a Cartier benefit and LA Reid's birthday party. And I'm still here preparing to be the cover girl for both FHM and Giant Magazines. Then I'm off to LA to start shooting the video with Nelly. It's going to be an amazing video -- directed by Hype Williams. I can't wait for u to see it...and I can't wait to see u!

So let me know how things are going.....I love hearing from you.

Until next time...
Much Love
J

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today... Janet Jackson's "20 Years Old" Released September 26, 2006 on Virgin, Set to Recapture the Magic of Landmark 1986 Album "Control"

Music Icon Janet Jackson Re-Teams With Legendary Hitmakers Jimmy "Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis and Album Executive Producer Jermaine "JD" Dupri

NEW YORK CITY, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 06/12/2006 -- Few albums in the history of American music have ever had the far-reaching and lasting artistic impact of superstar JANET JACKSON's 1986 "Control." From its empowered message and songcraft, to its genre-defining production, and the extraordinarily compelling emergence of the singer as a musically complete artist, "Control" was immediately greeted as the watershed album -- and Jackson the definitive artist -- in no less than three distinct musical categories -- pop, R&B and hip-hop.

With the hotly anticipated release of the new JANET JACKSON album "20 YEARS OLD" scheduled this September on Virgin Records, her new work promises to be no less influential, as Jackson teams with the most successful pop/R&B producer of the post-2000 period, Jermaine 'JD' Dupri, and longtime friends and hitmakers Jimmy "Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis, her original collaborators on "Control." The four now make up an unparalleled dream team of talent behind the microphone and the mixing board. Just as "Control" marked a personal rebirth and a smashing creative achievement twenty years ago, "20 YEARS OLD" celebrates, at once, two decades of continued growth, as well as the essential newness of creativity. The set's lead single, "Call on Me," featuring St. Louis hip-hop star Nelly, will arrive at radio on June 19th.

The six powerful and innovative hit songs and videos that came off "Control" -- "What Have You Done for Me Lately," "Nasty," "When I Think of You," "The Pleasure Principle," the title track, and "Let's Wait Awhile" -- were minutely examined by fans and young performers, and they launched a thousand admirers and imitators through the balance of the Eighties and the Nineties. Jackson's revolutionary video clips have continued to be acknowledged as the true classics of the music video era, whose dance style and cinematic production values set the bar higher than anyone had ever dared attempt. Still, for young female listeners, it was the imaginative and liberated lyric content that resonated most -- just the way that the producers and co-writers Jam & Lewis realized it would, as Jackson's witty, honest and intimate poems took shape as songs in their Minneapolis-based Flyte Tyme studio in late 1985. "Control" sold over 5 million copies in the U.S. alone in just three and a half years -- at which time Jackson and Jam & Lewis rocked the world again with the follow-up album, "Rhythm Nation 1814."

With the collective track record involved, there's no way to avoid high expectations for the upcoming album -- and no reason to. "20 YEARS OLD" is a sure thing to throw down the new standards, blow a new generation of minds, light a fire under every young artist, and rock the party. "Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are musical powerhouses," says Dupri. "Our individual success have been unparalleled and have kept music fans bouncing to our beats and singing our songs for years. The world has no idea what they are about to experience -- Janet has the best production trio possible -- and I guarantee, we will deliver!"

SOURCE: Virgin Records