Jermaine Dupri is done with people saying he fumbled Janet Jackson. In his eyes, that narrative never existed.

Sitting down with Nessa on Hot 97, the producer was asked about losing Jackson after their eight-year relationship ended in 2009. His response came quickly: “I don’t know what a fumble is. I be trying to figure out why y’all don’t say she fumbled me. I’m not something that you just let roll down the street.”

The back-and-forth over who really lost out has followed Dupri for years. In 2023, a fan on X told him, “We not answering questions from anyone that fumbled Janet Jackson.” Instead of clapping back, he laughed it off with a simple, “Whew whew you just said something!!”

Speaking to Atlanta’s own T.I. in 2020 for his expediTIously podcast, Dupri broke down one of the biggest strains on their relationship. Jackson was living near Malibu while he was based in Atlanta, working on music. The distance, he admitted, became hard to ignore. “I started seeing so many other things that I wanted to do, and so many other places that I wanted to go,” he said. “I started thinking like marriage for me wasn’t gonna work. I was in the space. I’m not gon’ front and say that I wasn’t. I felt married… I think the only thing that created a difference for me was the fact that we didn’t live together. We had an eight-year, nine-year relationship, but we didn’t live with each other.”

The cracks showed years later. In her 2022 documentary, Jackson revealed she wanted to start a family with Dupri but shifted course after hearing about his infidelity. He admitted to being “reckless,” pointing out that attention from women only grew because of who he was dating. “Girls wanted to talk to me more because I was dating her,” he said.

Fans may perceive the breakup as a fumble or not, but Dupri is standing firm that the story doesn’t play out the way social media tells it.