“Oooooooh…. What’s the very first thing that involves mind once I see that?” Janet Jackson asks as I delay the enduring cover of her 1993 album, janet., the world-shaking affirmation of sexuality that upended her public persona. “She was trying to come back out of that shell, and be accepting of herself and of who she was physically,” she says after reflecting for a beat.

Janet Damita Jo Jackson is indulging me in a game. I’ve put all of her album art in a tote, and now I’m getting her quick read on the ladies before her. She has no idea which cover I’ll grab next—and nor do I—and the grin that stretches those famous high cheekbones of hers is each mischievous and suspicious. I draw the subsequent album, Discipline. “Only a hot mess,” Jackson says, wrinkling her nose for dramatic effect. “I’m joking, but truly,  what really involves mind once I take a look at that’s Jermaine [Dupri].” I draw a number of more. Control. “Innocence.” All for You. “Someone who was glad—and able to move on.” 20 Y.O. “A troublesome time, a troublesome period in my life,” she says, her voice fading away.

Jackson is curled up in a leather armchair inside a personal lounge at Heathrow Airport, in London, town where she’s raising her 5-year-old son, Eissa. She’s wearing baggy black sweats, her waist-length locs are pulled right into a sleek high bun, and he or she’s serene and measured throughout our hour-long conversation. Just a number of days before her fifty-sixth birthday, she’s flying to Las Vegas to honor her friend Mary J. Blige on the Billboard Music Awards.

A risk-taking innovator who revolutionized Black cultural expression within the Nineteen Eighties and broke barriers for ladies in music, Jackson is a capital “S” Superstar. A worldwide icon and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer with incomparable impact, she’s built musical universes that centered pleasure, personal agency, self-esteem, spirituality, identity, race and social justice. She’s been a singular force for near 4 a long time—but she can also be an enigma. We see her, we hear her, we feel her, but we don’t truly know her.

She’s kept us at arm’s length by design. Jackson’s fame and ancestry reside in such a rarefied space that it feels silly to supply a sizzle reel of the triumphs, scandals, rumors and lore which have shaped our perception of her. The ways through which we’ve thought or talked about Jackson’s profession—and her interior life—have largely been informed by the half-century of mythology surrounding her family. But currently we’ve been reconsidering her legacy: What it will need to have cost her to interrupt ground as a Black woman in America. What she endured because the youngest in a family as scrutinized and idolized as hers.

Our eager for Jackson to lift the veil and allow us to in has never faded. It’s why her four-hour, self-titled documentary,  which debuted in January, brought in record views. The project was her way of reclaiming a narrative lost to gossip, cultural critique, media coverage and her own preference for keeping the world at bay. It was also her way of telling us what she desired to—on her terms.

There’s more to be said, after all. There’s at all times more to be said on the subject of Jackson. And we all know her at the very least well enough to know that anything more she chooses to share will make it into her music—not that she’s entirely able to tell us when to expect it. Still, for the subsequent hour with ESSENCE, she drops a few unexpected gems. Listen in.

Did the documentary allow you to higher understand anything about your past selves?

I noticed certain patterns I had in my personal life, in my profession. Certain things I never considered. Five years is a very good period of time to have someone follow you around like that.

I imagine making the documentary woke up rather a lot in you. How did you process that? Have you ever processed that?

For me, it was what it was—whether you liked it or not. It’s my life story and my family. It was essential for me to do it, because I had the chance to inform my story and never have someone tell it for me. I do know I got it right. I used to be being completely honest—but still,  even in that honesty, my mother could have called and said, “Oh, baby, I didn’t like this part.” And that was the nervous part, since you never wish to disappoint, you realize?

Yeah.

And when she called? Ooooh. She said, “Baby, I saw your documentary. I loved every minute of it.” That was all the things for me, right there.

You’re back on stage and performing live at ESSENCE Festival of Culture this 12 months—but how are things stepping into the studio? Where are you with recent music?

It’s so funny because I see the fans asking, “When are we going to get Black Diamond?” “Will you please release?” Sometimes things occur that you just don’t expect to occur, and you will have to figure things out—otherwise you’re in an area in your life when you will have to take a step back and take a break for a minute. Despite the fact that it’s something that I absolutely love, it still is my work, my job. There will probably be music in some unspecified time in the future. Exactly when? I can’t say just yet, but there will probably be. I find it irresistible an excessive amount of to not do it. That is all I do know. There’s a lot that I need to do—but my primary job is being a mama.

I need to return to 1986 to Control—and the way it pioneered Latest Jack Swing. Because the album got here together, was there a moment when either you or Jimmy Jam or Terry Lewis thought the music was breaking ground?

No.

No?

I can truthfully say, no. It was stepping into and just creating. Being thankful and enthusiastic about creating. Ideas flowing left and right. I remember Jimmy telling me something Teddy [Riley] had mentioned, that when he heard “Alright” it gave him this spark—this concept of this Latest Jack Swing. Nevertheless it was never like, “Oh, that is going to be a game-changer.” I liked doing things in numerous registers, not at all times singing in the identical key. Even when it’s uncomfortable, let’s try other stuff.

Do you are feeling you’ve got your proper due as a songwriter and producer, particularly on the subject of innovating R&B?

I’ve heard Jimmy and Terry tell me we haven’t. I’ve heard fans tell me we -haven’t. Other artists have said the identical thing. That never crossed my mind. That’s not essential to me, whether I did or didn’t, to be quite honest. It’s really the body of music touching people and the way it impacts their lives that matters to me. It’s not the accolades. I truthfully don’t take into consideration that stuff.

What felt particularly revelatory concerning the documentary was getting a glimpse of the way you reacted to your ascent within the industry. Has your idea of success evolved from if you were just starting out?

I’ve never been that person to have my awards on display. There’s nothing flawed with it, that’s just not me. With the ability to get up and see my baby one other day. The space I is perhaps in at that moment inside my soul. What I’ve achieved inside myself. How far I’ve come from that child there to the girl that I’m today. That’s success. If you happen to got here to my home, you’ll never know—in case you didn’t know who I used to be—that I’m an entertainer. I don’t have one award on my wall.

So where are your entire awards?

At a warehouse. I’m just saving them for my baby, whatever he desires to do with them. I remember when Jermaine and I were together, he said to me, “Where are your Grammys? Why don’t you will have your Grammys?” So I had them brought over, because he wanted them out, in order that’s what I did. Just the Grammys, nothing else. After we went our separate ways, they went back within the warehouse and haven’t come out since.

Do you are feeling like you will have an album that’s underrated?

Underrated? I don’t know if I can say underrated. With The Velvet Rope, lots of people were expecting something that was more up. Fun and glad. I remember driving on the freeway and this automobile honked. It was a lady, and I looked over and he or she pulled up her CD and it was The Velvet Rope. I just smiled and said, “Thanks.” I appreciated her acknowledging the incontrovertible fact that she had it—and feeling that she understood it, she got it and it spoke to her.

It’s such a freeing album to take heed to.

I believe so too, but people didn’t get that as I used to be hoping they’d, because they simply wanted a certain a part of me—or I should say, the opposite me.

What’s something that individuals still get flawed, still don’t understand about you?

Oh, gosh. Oh, that’s a very good one. Relating to my personal life, I believe mistaking my kindness for weakness. Relating to my skilled life, I’d say it might need to be not liking to listen to the word “no.” Especially being a lady, and someone telling you, “No, you’ll be able to’t because…”

I began our conversation by asking you to reflect in a short time on some album covers and who you were then. What’s the very first thing that involves mind concerning the woman sitting in front of me right away?

Sometimes, if you see what’s in front of you and you’re thinking that one thing could also be happening, something totally different is happening behind the scenes. I do know that’s so vague. I do know. I’m not saying that what you’re seeing now shouldn’t be me—but you never know what’s occurring within the person’s mind.

Gerrick D. Kennedy (@gerrickkennedy) is a cultural critic and creator based in Los Angeles.

Read the total cover story within the July/August 2022 issue of ESSENCE on newsstands June 28.

Fashion In Order Of Appearance:

Jackson wearing a Amiri blazer, amiri.com, WNU shirt, withnothingunderneath.com, MM6 Maison Margiela sweater, maisonmargiela.com, Balenciaga @ End Clothing track pants, endclothing.com and Balenciaga boots, Balenciaga.com.

Jackson wearing a Diesel coat and jeans, diesel.com, Uniqlo T-shirt, uniqlo.com, Patcharavipa rings, patcharavipa.com and Eera earrings, stylist’s own.

Jackson wearing a Esaú Yori coat, esauyori.com, Wolford top, wolfordshop.com, Greg Lauren trousers, greglauren.com
and Loewe boots, loewe.com.

Jackson wearing an Issey Miyake Pleats Please hat and top, isseymiyake.com, and Esaú Yori blazer, esauyori.com.

Photo/Production

Photographer: Yu Tsai @yutsai88 

Fashion: Georgia Medley @ The Only Agency @georgiamedley @theonly.agency 

Hair: Larry Sims @ Forward Artists for Flawless @larryjarahsims, @forwardartists 

Makeup: Preston Meneses @prestonmakeup 

Props: Jemima Hetherington @jimmy_frank 

Videographer and Editor: Giancarlo Decastro  

Team ESSENCE

SVP, Creative Corey Stokes @coreytstokes 

Senior Creative Director: Ally Brown @AllyBees 

Creative Director: Nia Lawrence @nialawrence_nyc 

Senior Entertainment Editor: Brande Victorian @Be_vic 

Style & Beauty Editor: Blake Newby @blakelawren 

Graphic & Motion Designer: Imani Nuñez@profoundly_imani 

Social Media Director: Charisma DeBerry @charismatessa 

Supervising Video Producer: Yazmin Ramos @ @jazzolina