On that record there were a lot of metallic sounds, a lot of trash cans and glass breaking - the sort of things that were the sonic landscape of the streets.ĭid we worry about front-loading the album with a big social message? No, we weren't concerned. We were trying to do something like Marvin Gaye's What's Going On - although we never could hope to achieve that - but we wanted to make people aware of what was going on, in a way where you could dance to it. Among them is State of the World, which captures Janet's growing horror as she witnesses homelessness, drug dependency and prostitution right on her doorstep. The Rhythm Nation album opens with a triptych of songs calling for action against poverty, racism and illiteracy. STATE OF THE WORLD (from Rhythm Nation 1814, 1989) So, with Nasty, with Control, with a lot of the songs on the album, we tried to bring that out: Really aggressive tracks, really hard-hitting tracks, because we knew she could pull them off. She always had a lot of attitude in the parts she played on TV and we thought that was missing in her previous albums. The concept was basically, 'he used to do nice things for you, but what has he done for you lately?'Īll of the songs we did with Janet on the Control record had a lot of attitude. The lyric came up because of a relationship Janet had gotten out of. The rest of the Control album was totally done but John McClain said: 'Hey guys, I just need one more song.' Originally, What Have You Done For Me Lately was going to be a track on an album Terry and I were working on - our own album. 'You ought to be thankful for the little things,' she scolds, 'but little things are all you seem to give.'

Janet's first single with Jam & Lewis, What Have You Done For Me Lately presents the singer as a fierce, independent woman, ruthlessly dismissing her feckless boyfriend. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY (from the album Control, 1986) Speaking to the BBC from New Orleans, Jimmy Jam revealed the stories behind the star's signature songs, and picked his highlights from the new album. The record reunites Jackson with producers Jam and Lewis, who rescued her from bargain bin ignominy in 1986, and masterminded all of her most successful albums, from Control to janet and beyond. James 'Jimmy Jam' Harris III and Terry Lewis at the Soul Train Awards in 2011

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