When it was announced that Justin Timberlake would headline the halftime performance for Super Bowl LII on Feb. 4, his controversial performance with Janet Jackson in 2004, dubbed “Nipplegate,” was back in the hot topics discussion.
Despite some negative criticisms from naysayers, Timberlake insists he and Jackson have discussed what happened and that they are in a good place about it, even though he took much less blame than her.
“Naturally, that’s something we talked about,” Timberlake told Beats 1 host Zane Lowe on Beats 1, referring to the incident where he exposed one of Jackson’s breast on live television. “To be honest, it wasn’t too much of a conversation. It’s just one of those things where you go like, ‘Yeah, what do you want me to say? We’re not going to do that again.’”
He continued: “I had my wires crossed. It’s just something that you have to look back on and go like, ‘Ok, well you know, you can’t change what’s happened, but you can move forward and learn from it.'”
On the relationship, Timberlake insists he and Jackson have long discussed and resolved any animosity despite what others may think. “Absolutely,” he says about them mending their relationship. “I don’t know that a lot of people know that. I don’t think it’s my job to do that. You value the relationships you do have with people.”
Timberlake also opened up about another controversy; he described why he has not worked with The Neptunes since 2002’s ‘Justified’
“I don’t want to blame anybody, but it did change the course of things for a minute,” he said. “Clipse was signed to Jive Records, which I was signed to…I don’t know what went on with their deal, but I do remember that Pharrell was very adamant about getting them out of the deal. So it became, from my understanding, it became challenging for him to work with any Jive artist at that point. If I’m being totally honest about it, I was extremely hurt being caught up in the middle of it.”
“But at the same time I had a shitload of money stolen from me by somebody else when I was in the group,” he added. “I had already gone through legal troubles, and I kind of felt like, I’m at this point where I feel like I have so much ahead of me, I don’t want to be in the middle of the record label and somebody that I consider a friend. So I feel like I kind of removed myself from the situation.”
Timberlake’s upcoming album, Man Of The Woods, is set for release on February 2. Headed by the Timbaland and Danja-produced single, “Filthy,” the LP provides a self-reflective look at Timberlake’s journey into fatherhood, and offer up personal insight into his layered life experiences.
He is also set to launch the 27-city “The Man Of The Woods Tour” on March 13, 2018 in Toronto.
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