Doing a top ten list for an artist who I love and has countless hits is an exercise in futility, but for fun Imma try anyway and encourage you to do the same and share it with others here.

I chose my list by thinking of all the songs and what they mean to me. I factored in melody, track, the good times I had to the song and all that stuff. I thought about lyrics and melody and what moves me about the songs. The most important criteria though was very simple: when I feel like hearing some Janet what are the 10 songs I tend to go to first? With that being said, here's my list complete with some honorable mentions. My list includes a B side and some non singles as well. I was a musician and songwriter before a visual artist so I get deep into music for musical reasons as well as the pure listening pleasure and that sometimes takes me to album cuts and b-sides that few care about. Enjoy the list and please share your own. Oh yeah and I cheated...it's actually 12 songs...I just couldn't get down to 10...lol.

Honorable mentions) Don't Mess Up This Good Thing (Janet Jackson); Pretty Boy (Dream Street); Again (Janet); Nasty (Control); Let's Wait Awhile (Control); When I think of You (Control); Funny How Time Flies (Control); Alright (Rhythm Nation); The Skin Game featuring Johnnie Gill (Rhythm Nation b-side); Runaway (Design of A Decade); That's The Way Love Goes (Janet); Doesn't Really Matter (All For You); Someone To Call My Lover (All For You); Enjoy (20 Y.O.); What's Ur Name (Discipline); Curtains (Discipline)

10) You Need Me (B-side release with Miss You Much - Rhythm Nation 1814) - This joint was Janet's most directly personal joint ever as she went OFF on her father! The track was some of the best New Jack Swing Jam and Lewis ever did and Janet's vocal told me she meant what she was singing about. I loved the track and the melody, but Janet's conviction about what she was sayin waz is what really moved me and still does. Hell I liked it so much that I sampled it for my little joint that I wrote, recorded and released years ago on da west coast. I actually got some play too. Don't bother googling it...you wont find it (lol). I am thinkin bout droppin it and some other old tracks on here soon.

9) I Get Lonely (Velvet Rope) - Sexy, kinda sad, well sung, well produced...I loved it.

8) Feedback (Discipline)/ Luv (Discipline) - Yup I'm cheatin. Feedback and Luv are two of Janet's best songs in years. Feedback is a track that no one can deny, not even the worst haters on the planet and Luv had it been released with a video would likely have been her biggest hit in years. For anyone that doubts the ability to create good music is still in Janet these joints are proof that she can. Now whether she has the will or not remains to be seen.

7) You Want This (Janet)/If (Janet) - I know I cheated again, but whatever. These two joints are probably on everyone's favorites list and for good reasons. Perfect songs, iconic videos and one of the best CD's ever! Yeah I cheated, but I dare you to leave these two off your list.

6) The Pleasure Principle (Control) - The song is so well done it belays exactly how complicated it is in many ways...then of course there is the video. The visuals are forever attached to this song and they are iconic, but the song itself is well crafted, perfectly performed and one of my favorites forever.

5) Got "Til It's Gone (Velvet Rope) - Janet Jackson has been many things. despite her often profound lyrics and very funky black music people wanted to think of her as some kind of pop princess and in very subtle ways undermine her blackness. For a pop artist at the top of her game like Janet and video and track like Got Til It's Gone was damned near revolutionary. Q-Tip did his thing, the Joni Mitchell sample rocked and the video reminded me how cool it is to be African-American.

4) Island Life (Damita Jo) - While everyone else was trippin about her tits I got into the music and man oh man this joint is one of her best songs ever. I'll forever have memories of bumpin this joint in my Mazda 626 as my adopted lil bro Cliff and I ran around NYC living our lives. It's a beautiful song with a hot track from Scott Storch. You may wanna go back and peep dis one.

3) State of The World (Rhythm Nation 1814) - Stevie Wonder (time and time again) and Prince (Sign O The Times) are only artists I can think of off the top of my head who have managed the twin tasks of writing an entertaining and thoroughly musical song while talking about meaning topics that affect our day to day life and politics. This joint was funky as hell, soulful and insightful in ways rarely found in pop music. Dayum Janet.

2) Miss You Much - (Rhythm Nation 1814) - The first time I heard this joint I was driving my car in LA. I casually pulled the car over and listened with my mouth open until the song ended. When the DJ confirmed it was Janet I couldn't believe how much more she (and Jam and Lewis) had stepped up their game. There are very few times in life when you that "shit is never gonna be the same again after this moment." I didn't know the details, but I knew that Janet was on some next level sh#t and was about to make moves that nobody expected. The best part of life is that you get to experience moments like this and this joint will forever be attached to one for me. M-I-S-S- u much!

1) Love Will Never Do Without You (Rhythm Nation 1814) - This is honestly my favorite song by any artist of all time. I am an un-apologetically a loving and blissful and joyful soul and this song sounds like how I feel on the inside when I am at my best...full of love, full of joy, full of hope and full of promise realized. I love the track. I love the melody. I love the arrangement. I love the words. I love the sentiment. I love the lead vocal. I adore the backing vocals. I love Jam and Lewis. I love, love, love the vocal arrangement. I love everything about this song. For me this song is simply...PERFECT!

By the way I left out a few covers to Janet releases...can you name the missing CDs?

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