Dallas Austin Remembers The Studio Chemistry Behind Two Damita Jo Standouts
Today’s Way Back Wednesday takes us inside the studio with producer extraordinaire Dallas Austin, who opens up about what it was really like creating music with Janet Jackson.
The pair joined forces during the making of Janet’s 2004 album Damita Jo, producing two songs INYIM has adored and kept spinning ever since: the playful, provocative “Sexhibition” and the guitar-charged “Just a Little While.”
Austin’s recollection offers something better than a distant celebrity anecdote. He remembers Janet as a creative partner inside the room—an artist bringing her instincts, identity and point of view into a session with one of pop and R&B’s most adventurous hitmakers.
It also reveals how close the sessions came to beginning in a completely different way. Janet initially told Austin she did not want to write and preferred to step aside while he handled the material. His response was immediate: if she had written on the records that came before, why was she suddenly going to leave him standing out there alone?
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Return To The Damita Jo Sessions
Revisit Janet Jackson’s bold 2004 album and the Dallas Austin collaborations that still deserve a louder spin.
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A Box Of Tantric Sex Books Changed The Entire Session
Janet explained that she was in a genuinely good place. She was happy in her relationship with Jermaine Dupri, life felt different and she did not have the kind of pain or negativity she associated with some of her earlier writing. Austin challenged the idea that a good place meant there was nothing worth saying.
His answer was simple: they could write about positive sex—pleasure, intimacy and the things that make somebody feel good without turning the song into a story about betrayal, resentment or getting played.
Janet took the suggestion very seriously. The next day, she returned to the studio carrying a box filled with tantric sex books. She began pulling them out, showing Austin and engineer Rick different positions and ideas while Austin sat there wondering how he was supposed to remain professionally composed through what he jokingly described as an entirely new level of torture.
Now the assignment was unavoidable: they had to make a tantric song. The result was “Sexhibition.”
Two Songs, Two Very Different Sides Of Janet
“Sexhibition” arrives near the front of Damita Jo with a restless, flirtatious pulse. Janet co-wrote the track with Dallas Austin and Gregory “Ruckus” Andrews, while Austin handled production and contributed keyboards, guitar and beats.
Austin remembers Janet as one of the easiest and most enjoyable artists he had ever worked with. She was attentive, open to direction and willing to follow a musical idea wherever it led. There was no ego battle and no constant resistance—just Janet listening, experimenting and asking whether he wanted a line or performance delivered one way or another.
At the opposite end of the album sits “Just a Little While,” the bright, guitar-driven closer co-written by Janet and Austin. He also produced the recording and played keyboards, helping give the song its pop-rock lift without sanding away Janet’s unmistakable rhythmic delivery.
The two tracks do not sound like copies of one another, and that is exactly the point. One is sleek and teasing; the other bursts forward with guitars and romantic urgency. Together, they show what happened when Austin’s studio instincts met an artist who had already spent decades proving she could move between sounds without losing herself.
Damita Jo Deserved More Than The Noise Surrounding It
Released on March 30, 2004, Damita Jo arrived during one of the most aggressively scrutinized periods of Janet’s career. The surrounding media storm frequently swallowed the actual music, leaving an ambitious 22-track album to fight for attention beneath everything being said about the woman who made it.
Time has been kinder to the record. Its mix of sensual R&B, dance music, ambient interludes, pop-rock and deeply personal character work now feels far more deliberate than the conversation surrounding it allowed. Austin’s contributions remain part of that breadth.
“Sexhibition” and “Just a Little While” are also reminders that Janet did not enter these sessions as a blank canvas waiting for a famous producer to create an identity for her. The collaboration worked because both artists brought something recognizable—and neither disappeared inside the other person’s style.
Austin’s larger songwriting philosophy comes through in the story. A great record, he says, is often a recording of an event that just happened to you. Language changes. Slang changes. Technology changes. The details of everyday life change. The writer’s job is to recognize the live wire inside a moment and turn it into something other people can feel.
That is precisely what happened here. A conversation about Janet being happy became a challenge to write from happiness. That challenge became a box of books. The box became a studio experience. And the experience became “Sexhibition.”
For INYIM, both songs remain essential Damita Jo cuts. “Just a Little While” still delivers that rush of carefree pop-rock energy, while “Sexhibition” remains one of the album’s cheekiest, most immediate jammers.
Watch Dallas Austin Recall Working With Janet Jackson
Dig into the TmrO Network clip from Dallas Austin’s Studio Secrets & Untold Story as he recalls Janet’s box of tantric sex books, the making of “Sexhibition” and why the best songs capture something that just happened in the room.
Source: TmrO Network, Apple Music and Qobuz.
