Posted November 28, 2007 -- Singer/actress Janet Jackson signed with a team of agents to prep for marketing of her as-yet-untitled debut release for Island Def Jam. Her ninth studio album, will be executive produced by Def Jam CEO Antonio “L.A.” Reid.  Jackson’s boyfriend, Island Def Jam President Jermaine Dupri, will be working on Mariah Carey’s new album. “We’re going to make it seem like we’re in competition to see who’s going to have the biggest album of the year,” Dupri told Billboard.com earlier this year. The William Morris Agency will represent Jackson in all areas including television, theater, and film, licensing and merchandising, touring, publishing and new technology. A worldwide tour is already being planned to promote the album, slated for a February release.

Patti Labelle got candid with a Canadian magazine, Monaco Revue, about the difference between her success and that of Celine Dion, one their nation’s most well-known songbirds. When asked about obstacles she’s faced in over four decades in the music industry, she said, “I guess it could be it’s an obstacle when I see my friend Celine Dion, who did the same song that I did, ‘If You Asked Me To,’ and sold so many copies. I did the same song before she did and I sold one copy.”

Dion’s 1992 rendition of the song, originally written for and released as a single in 1989 for Labelle’s seventh solo studio album, Be Yourself, reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. LaBelle’s version peaked at number 79. When asked why she thought Dion’s sales were so different from hers, she said, “Because she's a white girl. …And she's one of my best friends, but she’s a white friend. And people pay more respect to white artists who sing well before they do black women. …I’ve been singing for 45 years and that's an obstacle.  I’m getting over it because I'm fabulous. You know, so you can't beat me up. You can't make me feel less than I am because whenever I get the microphone I'm gonna show you who I am. But the industry is very racist."

Miss Patti’s Christmas released last month, is Labelle’s second Christmas album. The first, released in 1962, was her debut album, introducing the world to one of the most long-lived contemporary musical careers.

R&B singerJaheim’s new song, “Never” entered the Top 15 at Urban Adult Contemporary radio this week. The track, which he described for BlackVoices.com as “about that relationship you thought you would never find," is the lead single from his The Makings of a Man CD out Dec. 18.