Jermaine Dupri has revealed how he began dating Janet Jackson, a relationship that spanned seven years, starting in 2002 and finishing in 2009.
During an interview with the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, the Atlanta superproducer, with Curren$y by his side, discussed with hosts Gillie and Wallohow how he ended up becoming Janet Jackson’s man.
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“How did you pull Janet man?” Wallo asked. “How the fuck do you pull somebody on that level?”
Although the hosts had their own theories, So So Def’s founder was ready to clear the air. Dupri made it clear that his intentions with the legendary pop singer had nothing to do with music.
“I was just on some like hang out [stuff],” he said.”I wasn’t on no music shit.”
In fact, he even admitted that the former couple argued because he didn’t produce for Janet.
“We got an argument about me not producing her because she was around me watching everybody else get hit records,” he said.
Dupri said he didn’t want to “mess up” her relationship with songwriting super-duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis — with whom she worked on various projects, including her critically-acclaimed third album, Control — and felt she “didn’t need him.”
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This was not the producer’s first time mentioning his former relationship with Janet.
While speaking to T.I. for his expediTIously podcast in April 2020, Dupri revealed neither one of them was willing to move to their respective cities. Jackson was living near the sun-filled Pacific Ocean in Malibu, while Dupri was still in his homebase of Atlanta, Georgia.
“I started seeing so many other things that I wanted to do, and so many other places that I wanted to go,” he 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.
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“I feel like that’s a part where you really determine if you’re strong. She wasn’t willing to move to Atlanta. She was willing to come out here for a couple of weeks. But living in Atlanta, for her, just didn’t really seem like L.A. I wasn’t ready to move to Malibu… I like it, I fuck with it. but it ain’t… It’s just something about being here. That stuff didn’t feel like the space where either one of us wanted to be.”
