Jermaine Dupri reminisces on a warning his “Pleasure Principle” girlfriend told him when they were still going out. As the world gets ready for the upcoming A&E documentary “Janet,” a two-part, four-hour glimpse at the life of music’s first Black pop princess Janet Jackson, Dupri can’t help but reflect on it.
Janet Jackson’s proclivity to pop out on him at any time and a warning she gave him before they become an official couple were highlighted in a recent interview on “Ryan Cameron Uncensored” by the So So Def music mogul. The megastar warned him not to be slick because her brothers were the ones who introduced her to the game.
During the interview, Ryan Cameron reminded Dupri of something he told him years ago about how different Jackson was from the other girls he had dated.
The producer said, “You can’t really play with rich women. They can do whatever they want to do. … You hang up on the phone with a rich woman and call her all kinds of names and she calls you all kinds of names. You think you hung up the phone and then the doorbell rings. You’re like ‘What? What’s going on? And that person be at your house,’” he shared.
“Because they got it like that!” Cameron laughed, adding that one can’t play with rich women like the five-time Grammy winner. “They have access to the G4’s and G5’s.”
“Access?” Dupri quipped. “They got a G4! You can’t play with rich women, man. You can’t do that. … You can’t play with a poor woman, but you can’t play with a rich woman. Not them games.”
“Jermaine, I got six brothers,” Ms. Jackson told him, according to the visionary behind the careers of Da Brat, Bow Wow, Xscape, Kriss Kross, and hitmaker to Mariah Carey and Usher.
“‘Like, there’s nothing you can tell me that I ain’t heard. So make sure you think about what you say before you say it, because I done heard it all,’ and I was like damn. … That’s a crazy statement. She got six famous brothers, not no little regular dudes. … She’s heard every lie that a man could possibly tell,” he told the host.
Cameron responded, “Was that like a warning?”
“Yeah, of course it was,” Jermaine remarked. “One hundred percent it was a warning that ‘you won’t get away with anything because I’ve heard it all.’”
Dupri and Jackson dated for about a decade, running from 2000 until 2008. According to reports, they separated ways because neither of them wanted to move to the other’s hometown so that they could live together.
Dupri denied rumors of the two dating following her divorce in a 2018 appearance with “The Breakfast Club,” saying he hadn’t seen her in years. “Why?” Dupri responded to Charlamagne Tha God’s suggestion that he was being coy and keeping their revived connection hidden. ”
“I know her better than the dude she married,” he stated. “Why I have to sneak around?”
“I was never sneaking when I was with her. I would take Janet to The Tunnel,” he said, putting their coupling in context. “We were equal in our relationship. I know she is from the Jackson family. … I was never the thirsty guy.”
The first episode of the two-part, four-episode “Janet” documentary will air on the A&E and Lifetime networks on January 28.
