Brown Sista

Part3
STARTING FROM SCRATCH

Starting her musical career at age 16, Jackson released her first five albums through A&M, including her self-titled 1982 debut and her 1986 breakthrough “Control,” on which she first started collaborating with Jam and Lewis. But it wasn’t until 1989’s “Rhythm Nation 1814″ that multiplatinum sales started becoming a norm. For 1993’s “janet.,” which has sold more than 7 million copies, Jackson relocated to Virgin and revealed a sexier image, with more sensual music to boot. The reinvention yielded her most successful single, “That’s the Way Love Goes,” which topped the Hot 100 for eight straight weeks. Subsequent albums “The Velvet Rope” and “All for You” each sold more than 3 million units.

While Jackson’s record sales have gradually declined through the years, the most drastic dip occurred in the aftermath of her infamous “wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. This is, of course, another hurdle—perhaps the hurdle—from which Jackson has been struggling to recover.

Though the incident is a bygone, it is still the elephant in every room she enters. Its aftershocks were felt not only in the FCC’s crackdown on censorship, but also in her album sales.

Despite bowing at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, “Damita Jo” was largely overshadowed by the Super Bowl fiasco. According to Jackson, the project was poorly handled.

“Not to badmouth Virgin, ’cause it was my family for a very long time, but they kind of just lost touch,” she says. “To only have support of the urban department and for [those two albums] to sell what they did, there’s a lot to say for that. [At Island] they all come together, and one department knows what the other department is doing. You need that to really move forward. It’s teamwork, and that’s what Virgin lost.”

Back when Dupri was president of urban music at the label, he’d expressed similar sentiments of nonsupport, which was part of the reason he left once the dust of “20 Y.O.” had settled. According to him, the label felt it was the music that was the barrier. “It was described to me that the music wasn’t appropriate and that’s what was making these outlets or certain places that usually would support her not willing to play the record,” Dupri says. “I know better than that. In the music business, you at least get a shot.”

But sources close to “20 Y.O.” note that since Dupri was president of Virgin’s urban department at the time of the album’s release, he controlled virtually every aspect of the marketing and promotion of the project. (Virgin did not respond to a request for comment by press time.)

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