20 Y.O. Jackson's 11th album has now been released. The Album begins with Janet declaring on the spoken intro to 20 Y.O. that she wants to "keep it light" and "have fun," and to that end the album boasts plenty of club bangers. "So Excited" and "Get It Out Me" are cases in point, with each sporting the spare, electro grooves ubiquitous in the early 2000s. Such tracks dot the disc, thanks to top-shelf producers like Jermaine Dupri and Terry Lewis, among others, but Jackson's way with a slinky ballad hasn't diminished, as "Call On Me," a duet with rapper Nelly, proves. Jackson's music sounds fresh and modern, with its pop instincts in tune with the contemporary market, almost as if she were, herself, 20 years old.

Janet Jackson has never been afraid to expose some skin. The 40-year-old singer, newly svelte after losing some 60 pounds, appears on the cover of Vibe magazine wearing a skimpy bikini bottom and a necklace made of large shells. Her right arm covers her breasts. Will she ever stop posing for sexy photos? "Of course. When I'm 80," she tells Vibe. "That's when I'll call it quits."

Two years ago, Justin Timberlake pulled off a part of Janet Jackson's bustier, briefly exposing one of her breasts, during the Super Bowl halftime show. In an interview in the magazine's September issue, on newsstands Aug. 15, Janet says the incident — variously referred to as "Nipplegate" and the "bra-ha-ha" — is history. "It's just over and done with. It's old. It's the past. It's history. I'm onto something new. Everybody got their licks in — those who wanted to — and it's done," she says.

Janet Jackson credits her boyfriend, 33-year-old music producer Jermaine Dupri, for giving her self-esteem "a little boost". "I came to realize that younger men had less of a problem with who I am than older men," she says. "With the younger guys, there was less ego. Things were less competitive. They weren't threatened by who made more and who made less." She says that with Dupri, she feels as if she's met her match. "When I look at Jermaine, I see myself," Jackson says. "I feel as if I'm looking in the mirror. The connection I feel with him I have never felt with anybody else."

Her new album, "20 Y.O.," is slated for release Sept. 26. Dupri produced a few tracks, and longtime collaborators Jimmy "Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis pitched in on the disc as well.

The pop star recently said she had packed on extra weight for a role in the upcoming movie "Tennessee," which she ultimately had to pass on because of her new record.

The cover of Janet Jackson's new album, 20 Y.O. (Changed from the original name 20 Years Old), due out September 26, will be designed by a fan. On July 18, Janet launched a contest giving fans an opportunity to create the artwork for her ninth studio set.

The Design Me contest requires participants to download images of Janet, create proposed album covers, and to post the creations on the contest page. Contestants will vote for their favorite submissions, and Janet will select her top four favorites, which will be used for the first one million copies of the album.

Janet and her beau Jermaine Dupri, President Virgin Records, Urban Music, came up with the idea for the promotion. "We were going on the website and looking at all this creative stuff the kids were doing, and it amazed us," Janet says. "They were taking old pictures and they were just very creative with all the designs. We said, 'Let's have these kids design our album cover.'"

Janet hand-picked dozens of images, new and old, to be used in the contest. "They told me that I should pick maybe 20, 30 photos, but I think I went a little crazy," Janet says. "I picked way more than that. I gave them some of the new stuff I just shot for the album cover shoot. So they have some really recent photos as well as some stuff from 20 years ago."

Janet does not give participants any parameters for their designs. She wants them to be uninhibited and to "go for it". "That's what it's really about," Janet says, "for them to manipulate it and get creative, and go wherever their images takes them."

To enter the contest, contestants should visit: click here!

To see a video of Janet explaining the contest click here!

20 Years Old celebrates the 20th anniversary of the release of Janet's 1986 breakthrough set, Control, that includes hit singles, the title track, "Nasty," and "What Have You Done For Me Lately." "I wanted to do something that paid homage to the Control album," Janet says. "And I thought of different titles like Out Of Control, but I settled on 20 Years Old (20 Y.O.) because it's the anniversary of the Control album."

The album is co-executive produced by Janet, Dupri, and longtime collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, with whom she first began working with for the Control album. They wanted to make the recording reminiscent of their first studio sessions, but they did not record in the studio they used more than two decades ago. "Are you kidding?" Janet jokes. "In order to do that we'd have to go back to Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis to the first studio they had, the little hole in the wall, where we recorded the Control album. What we did do, we brought back some of the keyboards that were used on 'Nasty,' 'Control,' and 'What Have You Done For Me Lately' and used some of the same sounds. So that was nice."

Janet Jackson’s eighth album is an affectionate lick of the ear with pillow talk and sighs, but Damita Jo is as much about love as lust. And thanks to the Dallas Austin, current producer du jour Kanye West, and Jackson perennials Jam and Lewis, there’s a lot going on.

The invitations to the dance, as has been the case for most of Janet Jackson’s career, take their cues from other artists, but tart things up irresistibly. The singsong, Jay-Z-biting hip-hop of “Strawberry Bounce”; “R&B Junkie,” an ’80s synthfunk stomp that could have come from big bro Michael’s old songbook; and “Just A Little While,” which shamelessly reworks Prince’s “When You Were Mine,” each allows Janet to equal her betters while throwing down. But she’s also never been presented a set of ballads this deep and sweet; West’s ’50s sockhop pastiche “I Want You,” in particular, is a total delight.

Janet Jackson knows sexy — from her topless Rolling Stone cover to videos like the Herb Ritts-directed "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" — but producer Dallas Austin promises her new album is "easily the most sexy thing she's done."

"Guys won't know what to do with themselves after this," he said, laughing at the prospect. "It's one of the best records she's made."

Austin said he's produced five songs with Janet already, having worked with her over the last few months at his DARP Studios in Atlanta. Janet's still-untitled album is due March 30, according to a spokesperson for her label. Austin said he and Janet will record for another month before deciding which songs make the final cut. Janet is also working with longtime executive producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

The overriding theme of Austin's collaborations with Janet is her bubbling sexuality. "To me, this is her Dirty Mind," Austin explained, referring to the Prince album that established him as a hormonally charged pop star. "It's a really sexy record, but not in a sensual way. It's bold, it's fun, it's really positive. Nobody's sad, nobody's mad. It's just really fun songs where she happens to be talking frankly about sex."

Austin said the direction came from the energy she gave off from her when they first started working together. "She always shows what's going on with her life through her records, reveals the phase she's in with her life and brings out that experience," he said.

Early on in the recording process last May, producer 7 Aurelius said he and Jackson had crafted some "cutting edge, hard-hitting dance music" for the LP, and he predicted fans would be surprised by the final product (see "Janet Jackson Recording 'Hard-Hitting Dance Music' For New LP").

Austin, meanwhile, has also been spending time working with another alluring talent — Gwen Stefani. The bulk of the songs they've worked on were finished before the holidays, he said.

If you're wondering when Janet Jackson will hit the music scene again, look toward sometime in 2004. One of her longtime producers, Jimmy Jam, says that's probably the most logical timetable for Miss Jackson to drop her latest LP.

"The record is really in its infancy, which means that we've done probably six or seven songs," Jam said of the album last week. "There is no distinct musical style yet. It's all over the place, from songs that I would call classic Janet songs, meaning that they could've been on any of her [earlier] albums. Some of the songs have a definite sort of ambient quality to them. We've been listening to a lot of everything from Zero 7 to Télépopmusik, [so] there's a little bit of that. There's some house stuff, which there always is [on her albums]. There is going to be some more guitar-flavored things.

"It's kind of the way [her] albums always start," he added. "There's not a clear direction yet. We see what sticks. We're doing a bunch of songs and seeing what we like. We've already thrown some [songs] out. It's sort of still the discovery process. We're not going to [put the album out] till next year most likely anyway. We've been working in New York the past couple of weeks, we're going to work in L.A., in Miami, we're probably going to work in Minneapolis. So I think the music will take on different elements as we take on different environments and work with different people."

Jam said that since they do not expect to put the album out until next year, they can work at a leisurely pace and really focus on penning good lyrics.

"The approach we're taking is that we're trying to write really good songs and worry about the production later," Jam said, "because production is one of those things you want to be up-to-date [on], cutting edge. The way we produce a record now isn't necessarily how we'll produce a record six months from now. That's how fast things change. But the song, if [the lyrics are] great, is gonna be timeless and work."

So just what is Janet going to be singing about when we hear the project? Whatever comes to mind.

"Her albums are always what she's thinking at the moment," Jam said. "Her thoughts may change six months from now. Her biggest thing is to be honest with her fans. Whatever stuff she wants to talk about, it's coming from her heart. I anticipate that we'll be working on the record for the next three to four months. Then we'll have a direction and finish it off. The record will be done by the end of the year and [will] probably come out next year. If we felt we had something strong enough as a single, I would guess we could have a single out before the end of the year and the album at the beginning of next year."

Jam said it's too early to discuss Janet's collaborations with people other than him and partner Terry Lewis. Producer 7 Aurelius has said that his handiwork may pop up on the album as well.

Janet Jackson and producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are taking the singer's contribution to the "Chicago" soundtrack very seriously — and they're not the only ones.

"Harvey Weinstein actually flew into town the other night and we had a good meeting with him," Jam said of the Miramax chief who is producing the movie musical. "We're really trying to come up with something that is not only compatible with the movie — because obviously all the songs are already written in more of a 1920s style of music — but melding that in with something contemporary."

They don't have a title yet for the song, which will likely appear in the end credits of the ensemble film, but Jam said they are well into a tune that is "hot and danceable.""If you think about some of the sounds and videos that she's done, like the 'Alright' video with the zoot suit thing, or any of that, she's a girl that grew up on musicals," Jam explained from his Minneapolis studio on Monday. "It's important that we try to marry those types of things."

Before being curtailed by the "Chicago" song, Jackson was working on tracks for her next album with Jam and Lewis and even completed one song, tentatively titled "Truly in Love.". "It's a very straightforward love song," Jam said. "The thing we said about it when we did it was that it could have been on any of her albums. There's nothing trendy about it. It's a very simple love song with few instruments and finger snaps and a lot of harmonies. It's very reminiscent of her style over the years." Jam said not to read too much into the timeless tune, however, as the album could break out into any direction.

The Diddy mix is one of two new versions of the song that appear on the release — Janet's longtime producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis also remixed the ditty, which is based on Simon's 1972 hit "You're So Vain."