Hey Janet!

Her mic must be out so you gotta listen carefully!

"For Colored Girls" star Janet Jackson is opening up about her life as she promotes the film and her new book, "True You," saying her involvement with ex-boyfriend Jermaine Dupri was pivotal to her growth.

Janet explained to EXTRA:

"My life didn't change until I opened up and started to talk about it. It was my relationship with Jermaine. Up until that point I would still put on a pair of pants and if my butt looked too big, I didn't want the pants, as much as I loved them. But it was nine years ago when he said 'your butt's fine the way it is'."

She and Dupri split in 2009, but Jackson is "really grateful to him for showing me that side of myself."

As for her book, Jackson now wants to help other women by detailing her own struggles.

"It's a self-help book. And people always ask me about the weight gain, the weight loss. What was the workout regimen, the nutrition, so instead of just writing about that, I wanted to get to the bottom of it, which meant I had to go back to my childhood."

Tyler Perry's "For Colored Girls," opens This Friday, Nov. 5.