To commemorate the 20th anniversary of her breakthrough album, 1986’s ‘Control,’ Pop icon Janet Jackson released her ninth studio album – the aptly titled ’20 Y.O.’ – in September 2006.
Famously dating Jermaine Dupri at the time, the LP may have featured contributions from her longtime collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, but its singles were helmed by the So So Def founder (who also served as the project’s executive producer).
Given the fragility of the GRAMMY winner’s career at the time, only two years removed from the infamous Super Bowl incident, fans disapproved of the album’s creative direction and pointed to Dupri’s involvement as the reason it stalled at Platinum status and yielded no sizable hits.
Recently reflecting on the effort’s commercial performance, J.D. took to our friends at Page Six to address why it’s unlikely he’ll reunite with his former boo in the studio any time soon.
His quotes inside:
After hinting that he and JJ would not be collaborating any time soon, he explained:
“The only reason I say that is because I feel cheated in a way from the ‘20 Y.O.’ album that I did … a lot of people discredit me for that album. It has nothing to do with me and her,” Dupri told the outlet.
Elaborating, JD said:
“I saw a lot of fans say, ‘JD messed her career up with that album’ . . . That album almost sold 400,000 copies in its first week and produced a No. 1 hit. I don’t know why that’s not a success,” he said.
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As he indicated, the LP’s lead single – ‘Call on Me’ (featuring Nelly) – may have peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 but it did peak at #1 on the R&B chart and on the Billboard Sales chart.