LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Few artists can sustain an extraordinary career that, despite a few bumps along the way, has fans anticipating your every move after 20 years.Two decades after the debut of Janet Jackson's career-making album, "Control," fans are eagerly awaiting the September 26 release of her new Virgin Records set, "20 Y.O." (formerly titled "20 Years Old"). The album reunites Jackson with original "Control" collaborators Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and pairs her for the first time with Grammy Award-winning producer Jermaine Dupri (who is also her boyfriend).Some would expect a super diva to possess an exalted sense of self. After all, this is the singer behind an album that yielded no fewer than six crossover hits that exuded female empowerment, songs like "What Have You Done for Me Lately," "When I Think of You" and "Let's Wait Awhile."Then, three years later, with 1989's "Rhythm Nation 1814," she became the first artist to produce seven top five hits from one album, trumping big brother Michael.After jumping to Virgin from A&M for a reported $32 million, Jackson continued her platinum-selling ways with "janet." (1993), "The Velvet Rope" (1997), "All for You" (2001) and "Damita Jo" (2004). Along the way, there have been movies ("Poetic Justice," "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps"), TV ("Good Times, "Diff'rent Strokes," "Fame"), sexy and provocative (read: topless) magazine covers (1993's Rolling Stone and Vibe this September), a bout with depression, a legal battle over her musical income and the now-infamous "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.Yet the Janet Jackson who sat down with Billboard fits anything but the diva prototype. The baby sister of the Jackson family was shy but forthcoming with her answers, at various times humorous and self-deprecating.She says she's at the happiest time in her life, but still in control and determined to take her career even higher, with one proviso: "I've got to have some fun," she says.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.
FROM THEN TO NOW, HOW HAVE YOU EVOLVED ARTISTICALLY IN THE LAST 20 YEARS? I think you hear it lyrically. And I think you can hear the maturity as time has progressed. Still from time to time you'll hear that kid come out, too. That's still there, somehow. I'm also just more relaxed, more confident. My family would tell me to just relax and enjoy what's going on. I'd say, "OK," but wouldn't do it. But time goes so quickly. I'm doing that now, because there are things that allow me to do that.
AND AS AN ARTIST, ARE YOU STILL HAVING FUN? Yes. I can't sit here and take credit for everything. I've been fortunate to have a strong team behind me. Some people may do this because they think it's a great way to make a lot of money. But I really love what I do.
Janet Jackson conceived her new Virgin Records release, "20 Y.O." (due September 26), as a celebration of the joyful liberation and history-making musical style of her 1986 breakthrough album, "Control." That album has shipped more than five million copies in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America. (Her most recent album, 2004's "Damita Jo," shipped a million copies, according to the trade group.)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.On "20 Y.O.," 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, Jam 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.Jam 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."For Jackson, recruiting Jam & Lewis was a no-brainer. Working creatively with her boyfriend Dupri, who is not only a distinct hitmaker in his own right but also president of Virgin's urban music division, was more of a risk. Although they have been together for five years, during which time Dupri crafted Mariah Carey's comeback project "The Emancipation of Mimi," the couple had never collaborated professionally."I didn't know how we would jell, if we were gonna get in an argument," notes Dupri, who admits that he can be a bit ruthless in the studio. "I didn't even want to walk down that path with her, because we're such good friends. I never wanted this business part to get between us."Rather than contribute separate tracks for "20 Y.O.," Dupri and the Jam & Lewis team decided to collaborate. The process could have caused ego and procedural conflicts. But Jam & Lewis give high marks to Dupri, who Jam says knows more about the Jam & Lewis style than the Minneapolis-bred moguls themselves."The great thing about working with Jermaine, he came in with total respect for us, we had total respect for him," Jam says. "The fact is that we were fans of each other and for Janet."The entire team of Jackson, Jam, Lewis and Dupri created the tracks, with occasional contributions from songwriter Johnta Austin. The project was recorded chiefly at Jam & Lewis' Flyte Tyme Studios in Los Angeles and Dupri's Southside Studio complex in Atlanta, with some sections undertaken at Village Recorder in L.A. and the Hit Factory in Miami.All the parties note that Jackson is an extremely focused in the studio. "She's one of those you literally have to kick out the studio. She'll never tell you her voice is getting tired, she'll just work and work," says Jam.The first single, "Call on Me," pairs Jackson with St. Louis rapper Nelly, with a video directed by Hype Williams. Dupri notes that other than her 1998 outing singing hooks on Busta Rhymes' "What's It Gonna Be," Jackson had not worked with any contemporary hip-hop artists."If Janet had just come out, people wouldn't be asking that question. Of course she don't need Nelly, but in today's market, half the kids watching (BET music show) '106th & Park' don't even know what 'Control' sounds like."While "20 Y.O." celebrates "Control," the album does not reference songs from that project. Instead, there are subtle cues that hark back to the 1986 smash. "There are little pieces of ear candy in almost all of the songs that references something over the past 20 years, but you really have to be a fan or someone who had listened to a lot of her music to recognize it," Jam says.Jam & Lewis also left behind one of their signatures: building new songs from the rhythm beds of classics, as they did using Sly Stone's "Thankyoufalettinmebemicelfagin" for "Rhythm Nation" and Change's "Glow of Love" for "All for You." Lyrically Jackson examines her life today, with upbeat grooves, sexy ballads and a positive outlook. "It's a lyrically confident album," Jam notes. "She talks about a whole lot of different subjects, but it's not anything heavy. It's not (1989 album) 'Rhythm Nation,' it's not (1997's) 'Velvet Rope,' there's no pain, no bitterness, no suffering. It's more confident woman lyrics." Other tracks from the set include "Show Me," which Jam calls a "happy record"; "With You," which Dupri calls a bona fide smash; "So Excited"; a sexy fantasy called "My Body"; and "Get It Out Me." Key to the project is reconnecting Jackson with her urban base without losing the strong core of pop and dance fans she has built during the last two decades. "Times have changed from when (elder brother) Michael (Jackson) and Janet were out in the '80s," Dupri notes, pointing to the fact that urban artists no longer have to cross over to pop before achieving maximum exposure and sales. "Janet shouldn't be changing or trying to change to get on pop radio."
Although she has only a handful of national treks under her belt, Janet Jackson is one of the most successful female touring artists of all time. Numbers back it up. Between 1993 and 2002 (when she last toured), Jackson grossed $94 million and sold nearly 2 million tickets to just 161 shows reported to Billboard Boxscore.So as Jackson prepares for the September 26 release of her new Virgin Records album "20 Y.O.," marking the 20th anniversary of her landmark "Control" record, fans can look forward to her return to the road around March 2007."My three choreographers and I are working on ideas now for a world tour," Jackson says. "It's always a visual thing for me as we start planning; I can see it on the stage. I don't want to share those ideas yet, because nothing is etched in stone. But we'll begin rehearsing at the end of the year."Jackson's concert fan base is primarily a "white, suburban audience," according to Brad Wavra, touring VP at concert promoter Live Nation, which handled her 1998-99 Velvet Rope tour and 2001-2002 All for You tour.Still, he says, the audience crosses racial lines."Everything we ever did with her was strategically planned to be promoted on both sides of the equation, pop and urban."According to Wavra, Jackson "always understood that the African-American part of her life and her audience was an important part, and she made sure her songs, her live show and her ticket prices appealed to both segments."Wavra thinks the upcoming Jackson tour will be "wildly successful," despite negative publicity surrounding the Super Bowl flap of 2004, when she revealed her breast during a performance with Justin Timberlake."I think that Janet got a bum rap," he says. "She's the antithesis of that person that was created in the media. If it hadn't been an election year I doubt it would have gotten played like it did."