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Jermaine Dupri has shared more details about his seven-year relationship with the iconic Janet Jackson.
During a recent interview with the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, the So So Def label head gave the scoop on how he ended up dating the “Rhythm Nation” singer.
“How did you pull Janet man?” Wallo, one of the show’s hosts, asked the super producer, according to HipHopDx. “How the fuck do you pull somebody on that level?”
Then, Wallo and his co-host Gillie Da Kid began to speculate how the famous hip-hop star scored the youngest Jackson family member. But Dupri swiftly shut down the duo and finally set the record straight. The Grammy winner said when he first met Janet, his intentions with the legendary pop singer had nothing to do with music.
“It wasn’t about no music shit,” he explained. “I was just on some like hang out. I wasn’t on no music shit, though. I never wanted to produce for her. We got in an argument about me not producing for her because she was around me watching everybody else get hit records.”
Dupri, 50, continued, “I never wanted her to think that’s what my agenda was. ’Cause so many people was saying that… When Janet met me she got picked up from the airport in a [Bentley] Continental T. It wasn’t never no situation where I wanted her to believe that I was trying to do this.”
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According to the star, he was careful during the early stages of their relationship because he didn’t want to “mess up” her career. At the time, Jackson was working closely with legendary producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The producer duo was largely responsible for hits off her 1986 Control album. Dupri felt like she didn’t need him.
“You don’t need me, but in her eyes… It didn’t sound right,” Dupri said. The Atlanta native added that his hesitation to produce for the star caused “a little bit” of a rift throughout their relationship.
Eventually, Jackson got her wish in 2006 when the producer contributed to multiple songs on her album 20 Y.O. alongside Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
The “Money Ain’t a Thang” hitmaker and Jackson began dating in 2002 but their relationship came to an end in 2009.
Why did Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri break up?
During an interview with T.I. on the expediTIously podcast in 2020, Dupri claimed that he and the singer parted ways because they both weren’t willing to move to each other’s respective cities. At the time, the record executive and rapper was still living in his hometown of Atlanta. Jackson was located on the west coast in Malibu.
“I started seeing so many other things that I wanted to do and so many other places that I wanted to go,” the star said at the time.
“I started thinking like marriage for me wasn’t gonna work. Just, something about it. When you feel like you’re ready to get married, you don’t have no answers, you just know what it is. I was in the space. I’m not gon’ front and say that I wasn’t. I felt married… I think the only thing that created a difference for me was the fact that we didn’t live together. We had an eight-year, nine-year relationship, but we didn’t live with each other.”
In 2022, Dupri sent the internet spiraling when he confessed to cheating on Jackson in Lifetime’s four-part documentary about the legendary pop star.
“One of the weird things about dating Janet is that dating Janet attracts other women,” he explained. “Girls wanted to talk to me more because I was dating her, which was really weird…and uhh, just ya know…I was a man,” the producer added.
Black Twitter had a lot to say about the shocking tidbit. Read up on the drama below.
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