-Thank you for coming back to our show.
I'm so excited that you're here,
and I just read some amazing things about you, all true.
And there was more stuff I wanted to talk about.
I didn't know -- you have an Oscar nomination
for Best Original Song. -Yes. Yes.
-You're the first woman to be nominated
for a Producer of the Year Grammy.
-Yes. -You have 27 top ten hits.
-Yes. [ Cheers and applause ]
-You have the record for most consecutive Top 10 hits
on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart by a female artist.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And you're the first and only artist in history to have
seven top five hits from one album.
You are unbelievable. [ Cheers and applause ]
You're iconic.
Just to tell you some nice things about you.
-Thank you. -Is it embarrassing?
-Yes. [ Laughter ]
-Sorry about that.
I want to talk about so many things.
"Control" was your first number one album.
-Yes. -Before that, you were more,
like, into acting and doing that.
But what made that album different?
And what do you remember about that album?
-Oh, gosh, that was me coming into adulthood.
-Yeah.
-Being a kid, a teenager, going to Minneapolis.
Being with Jimmy and Terry and --
-Oh, yeah. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
-Yes. -Absolutely.
What would you guys get into over there in Minneapolis?
[ Laughter ]
-I was very sheltered,
and I went to Minneapolis with a friend, a school friend.
And -- a good kid, good kid.
Didn't get into much trouble. -Okay.
-But I had my moments,
or they gave me my moments, I should say.
-How did they give you your moments?
-You know, the drinking age I think is 18, 19
in Minneapolis.
So we went out one night and they gave me some ice cream.
I think it's called Brandy Alexander ice cream.
-Wow.
-Well, it had a lot of brandy in it.
[ Laughter ] -Really?
-Yes, and I -- I got messed up. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -I -- I --
-You know, I never had a serious drink until I was 23.
-Is that right? -Yeah, that's --
-Did you get any work done that night?
-No. [ Laughter ]
-Didn't work out? -No.
-Not a good thing to do at all. -No.
-Do you have a favorite line or favorite lyric?
Is there one lyric that everyone always just yells to you?
-Oh, gosh.
"Miss Jackson if you're nasty."
-Yeah. That's it right there. [ Cheers and applause ]
It has to be, right? It has to be that.
-I get it from everybody. -...Miss Jackson!
-"Miss Jackson." [ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
It is iconic. That is a great line.
-I get it from everyone. -Really?
-It doesn't -- entertainers. -Everyone.
-Everyone.
-Did you realize it was going to become iconic when you sang it?
-No, I mean, you're just creating music.
No, I never did, and the story is crazy.
-What was the story?
-Once again in Minneapolis,
and my friend and I, we were on our way --
I had never taken a dance class.
So she had this great idea to take a dance class.
We were staying downtown at a hotel, at a loft.
And walking out of the hotel there were, like,
five or six older guys up against the -- you know,
standing up against the wall, and they just basically
started messing with us.
And -- -Cat-calling and stuff?
-Yeah. -Ooh.
-And I didn't like it very much. -No.
-And I was pretty embarrassed and I was actually pretty upset.
And I came back to the studio that night
and told Jimmy and Terry about my experience,
and it turned into the song "Nasty."
-Wow. That is a crazy story.
Yeah, cause "My first name ain't 'Baby.'"
-"It's Janet." -"Miss Jackson if you're nasty."
[ Cheers ]
It's the best. [ Applause ]
We asked your number one fan in the world, Questlove...
[ Laughter ]
I was wondering if he has any questions for you
that he would like to ask you.
Quest, do you have any questions you would like to ask
Miss Jackson? -Yeah, I always --
I always wanted to know, for years you wore
a key in your earring.
I guess for your animal cages or whatever, but...
-Yes. -Where is that key?
Like, what happened to it?
-I'm pretty sure it's in storage, in my storage.
Yes. -Wait, what? So what is this?
Why would you wear a key --
-I never kept a -- what --
-Key chain? -A key chain.
So, and I took care of the animals.
We had so many animals growing up.
-Really? And that was your job?
-Yeah, we had fawn, mouflon sheep,
peacocks, a giraffe,
just all kinds of animals. [ Laughter ]
-No, that's just -- no, it's totally relatable.
Every kid had that. [ Laughter ]
-So it was my job to feed them, to clean them,
to clean the cages.
That was my, you know, my chores.
-So this is a working key. -That's a working key.
-That's amazing. That's a good question, Quest.
I like that. I never knew that.
-So all through school I wore hooped earrings.
-Yeah. -And I would keep the key
on my earring so I wouldn't lose it.
-Any other questions, Quest?
-Yeah, in the "Miss You Much" video, you do that --
that dancing with the chair and the hat...
-Yes. -...that lands on your foot.
-Yes.
-How many takes did that take for --
-Oh, gosh. [ Laughter ]
Well, you know, it's really funny that you ask me that
because we shot -- I don't know how many days,
'cause that was the long-form video that we were shooting
for "Rhythm Nation."
And I think we shot maybe two, three days for "Miss You Much."
But that I think was like the second day of shooting.
And it was the 23rd hour,
something like that, of shooting.
-Oh, my gosh. -And we were so delirious.
They brought breakfast. We were eating pancakes.
We were laughing like crazy.
And then suddenly we had to do this routine.
So it didn't take many takes to --
obviously in rehearsal you get it right.
But we had some mishaps.