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JANET JACKSON: FROM VIRGIN TO DEF

It has been announced that Janet Jackson has officially dropped her long-time partnership with record label Virgin Records for Island Urban.

Island Urban belongs to her husband/ record-producer Jermaine Dupri, a division of the Island Def Jam group. With Dupri leaving Virgin and Jackson's low record sales within the past few years, it was expected for her to follow Dupri's moves.

Her record sales in 2004, for her 8th studio album Damita Jo featuring singles: "Just a little while/ I want you/ All Nite (Don't Stop)", merely reached 400, 000 copies in it's first week of release and followed in 2006 with Janet's 20 Y.O. album, sales diminishing, managing to sell a total of 296,873 copies in a week.

Although both albums respectively topped number 2 on the Billboard charts, Janet's career of success was not defined nor justified in her recent record sales.

Dupri stated the following: "She's on Island, but it's more or less [Def Jam CEO Antonio 'L.A.' Reid's] project... I let him deal with that on a day-to-day basis. He's going to A&R that project, too.”

Dupri continued, "I don't really know what he's got in mind at this point. His past record isn't shabby so I'm going to let him do what he's going to do. I'm going to do [the new] Mariah [Carey album], and we're going to make it seem like we're in competition to see who's going to have the biggest album of the year."

No release date has yet been established for Janet's new album, but it’s been speculated by Billboard to be set for release the end of the year.
Words Daniella V Robbins