Janet Jackson’s Surprising Credit—and Non-Credit—on Cardi B’s ‘Am I the Drama?’ (And How She Gets Paid for Both)

(September 23, 2025) – Janet Jackson fans thought they were getting a new collaboration on Cardi B’s long-awaited album Am I the Drama?.  Instead, they got two samples, one credit line, and a whole lot of confusion.

Janet Jackson fans were understandably excited when Cardi B announced the list of features for her new album Am I the Drama? before its long-awaited release last Friday (Sept. 19).  Janet, who hasn’t released a new album herself in ten years (2015’s Unbreakable) was listed as a featured artist on the track, “Principal.”

Miss Jackson did not sing a note or provide new vocals of any kind on the new song.  Instead, “Principal” heavily sampled Jackson’s 1987 hit “The Pleasure Principle,” which topped Billboard R&B and Dance charts that year (and which was the last single released from her 1986 breakthrough album Control).  Cardi’s new “Principal,” despite using the homonym of Janet’s titular word, is the same demand for respect in relationships that Janet’s hit was nearly 40 years ago, told through the Bronx rapper’s more unapologetic 21st century reframing.

Meanwhile, another Am I the Drama? song, “On My Back,” features a Janet Jackson sample for which she was not given a featured credit (but singer Lourdiz was).  “On My Back” begins with the opening lines from the coming-of-age Control ballad, “Funny How Time Flies (When You’re Having Fun),” where a 19-year-old Janet famously coos in French, “Il me plaît d’être avec toi/ Je ne sais pas où.”  

Further complicating matters, Janet has an original co-writing credit for “Funny How Time Flies” but no such tie for “The Pleasure Principle.”

So, why the “featured” credit for the one song she didn’t write and not for the other, which she did, and exactly how would Janet and others get paid for the use of either Control tune on Cardi’s new album?

Well, it certainly benefits Cardi to have an icon of Janet’s stature as a feature on her new album, so it’s reasonable to assume that the folks in Cardi’s camp paid Janet nicely for the use of her name as a “featured” artist on “Principal.”  And it’s just as probable that the fee would have been heftier had her name been featured on both “Principal” and “On My Back” (even though just one Janet name-drop is surely enough to create the kind of buzz Cardi was seeking). But the payments likely end there for “Principal,” for which Janet was neither the owner of the song’s original master tapes nor its publishing rights.

In music law, publishing rights cover the song itself (lyrics and melody), while master rights cover the actual audio recording.

“The Pleasure Principle” was written by Monte Moir, former member of the band The Time who, along with Jackson’s then-producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, was affiliated with Flyte Time Tunes publishing.  It was one of only two Control tracks that were not penned by Jam & Lewis or Jackson (the other being the track “He Doesn’t Know I’m Alive”).  There is no record of the publishing rights for “The Pleasure Principle” being transferred from Flyte Time Tunes, so it appears that the company – which is jointly owned by Jam & Lewis – still controls those rights.  Moir likely gets paid songwriting royalties from Flyte Time’s licensing earnings.  

Then there’s the issue of the master recording itself.  The sound recording – or master – for “The Pleasure Principle” was originally owned by A&M Records, the label to which Janet was signed at the time.  The specific ownership has changed over the years due to corporate mergers and licensing but, as of 2025, the A&M master recordings are held by a subsidiary of Universal Music Group (UMG) – one of the Big Three record company conglomerates in the U.S.  It is not evident through a search of public records whether Janet ever negotiated a share of the ownership of the Control masters, so it’s probable that complete ownership of the master tapes still rests with UMG.

Related Reading: The 20 Funniest Lyrics From Cardi’s ‘Am I The Drama?’

This means it’s likely that Janet was paid for use of her name only on “Principal,” while the master copyright and publishing rights owners for “The Pleasure Principle” – Flyte Time Tunes, Inc. and UMG, respectively – were paid for Cardi’s use of the song sample itself.

But it’s a different story for the song on which Janet was not given a “featured” credit, “On My Back,” and its sample source, “Funny How Time Flies.”  Jackson, Harris and Lewis were the co-writers of that ballad, and its licensing was handled through Flyte Time Tunes and Janet’s first publishing arm, Black Ice Publishing, Inc.  This means that both companies were likely paid along with UMG for the use of “Funny How Time Flies” on Cardi’s “On My Back.”

It’s possible Janet got one check for her name, and another for her publishing.

So, Janet likely got a check for name-use on “Principal,” and a check for publishing royalties on “On My Back.’”  And while the terms of the agreement will likely never be disclosed, I’m sure Janet’s team ensured that she gets not only the upfront fees associated with the mere use of her name or the recordings, but also a cut of the royalties from any sales and streaming of the two new Cardi tunes.

There’s also this other benefit: by being credited as a featured act on “Principal,” Janet has a chance to extend her Billboard chart history to five consecutive decades.  If the song debuts on the Hot 100 next week, it would be her first entry since 2018’s “Made for Now” and make her one of the few artists to have had a chart hit in the ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s, ‘10s and ‘20s.

So, all appears to be good for all parties involved in this mixed-up institution we call the music business, where the legal sorting is more complicated than the musical arrangements themselves.  And we’ll be watching to see how “Principal” and “On My Back” perform on next week’s charts as the album Am I the Drama? makes its initial impact.

Either way, Janet’s legacy keeps paying dividends—even when she doesn’t sing a (new) note.

DJRob

DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff!  You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.

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