Dame Dash Says Jermaine Dupri Blocked His Janet Jackson Pursuit

Dame Dash said he once asked Jermaine Dupri for Janet Jackson’s phone number, even though Dupri was dating her, and claimed the producer still held it against him.

The Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder shared his version of the exchange in an interview with The Art of Dialogue.

Asked whether he had ever tried to pursue Jackson, Dash gave a blunt answer.

“Of course. I try to get everybody,” he said. “Jermaine was hating. You still mad about that stuff up there.”

Dash said he had obtained Jackson’s number before and wanted it again. But by that point, he said, Dupri was with her. Dash recalled seeing the producer around Jackson while doubting that the two were a couple.

In Dash’s telling, Jackson directed him to Dupri when he asked for her number. Dash said he then went to Dupri and asked him to pass it along. The request did not get him what he wanted.

“He was like chill chill,” Dash recalled. “I was like you’re not messing with her anyway. Give me the number but he wouldn’t give me the number.”

Dash framed the story as an example of how he approached dating when he was younger. He described himself as a man in his twenties who felt confident about his place in the music business and his appeal to women.

“I’m trying to get at everything. Just bottom line in the most respectful way. I was doing my big one,” he said.

Jackson and Dupri’s relationship became one of music’s best-known pairings in the 2000s.

They split in 2009 after years together. Their history also included work in the studio, with Dupri contributing to Jackson’s music.

For Dash, the story centered on his refusal to believe Dupri was dating Jackson. He defended his actions by pointing to how young he was.

“I was young. You know that’s what you’re supposed to do if you’re a heterosexual man and you’re the coolest in the world and all the women like you. What I’m supposed to do?” Dash said.