Jermaine Dupri isn’t convinced he “fumbled” Janet Jackson—in fact, he says he doesn’t even know what that means.
In a sit-down with Nessa on Hot 97, Dupri was asked about his split from Jackson back in 2009 after their years-long relationship. “I don’t know what a fumble is, though,” he said. “I be trying to figure out why y’all don’t say she fumbled me.”
“I’m not something that you just let roll down the street,” he continued. “I don’t look at it like that. I look at it like it’s a relationship, and we were together for eight years.”
Dupri’s comments come in around the 13-minute mark of the interview.
Dupri’s latest take contrasts with what he said just last year when a fan on X accused him of fumbling Janet Jackson. After he asked followers a question about event sales, one user fired back, “Jermaine we not answering questions from anyone that fumbled Janet Jackson.” Instead of clapping back, Dupri simply replied, “Whew whew you just said something !!”
He’s spoken openly about the relationship before. On Million Dollaz Worth of Game, Dupri explained that when he and Jackson first linked up, he wanted to keep things personal, not professional.
“It wasn’t about no music shit,” he said. “I was just on some like hang out. I wasn’t on no music shit, though. I never wanted to produce her. We got in an argument about me not producing her because she was around me watching everybody else get hit records. I never wanted her to think that’s what my agenda was. ’Cause so many people was saying that… When Janet met me she got picked up from the airport in a [Bentley] Continental T. … It wasn’t never no situation where I wanted her to believe that I was trying to do this.”
Back in 2022, Dupri appeared in Jackson’s self-titled documentary, where both addressed their romance and eventual breakup. Jackson revealed she had wanted to start a family with him, but reconsidered after rumors of infidelity surfaced. Dupri admitted he was “reckless.”
“Girls wanted to talk to me more because I was dating her, which was really weird,” he said. “And I was a man.”
