Vibe Magazine review
Carey's overwhelming vocal ability and knack for crossing boundaries to appeal to a diverse hip pop and R&B audience have not changed. Mimi pulls Carey in two opposite directions. Most of the tracks find her paired with the hottest hip hop producers of the day; there she exercises restraint and settles into a groove. But on the rest, she does what comes most naturally to her-belting to her heart's desire.
The first single It's Like That is an aggressive, off-kilter joint with a harshly stiff beat, produced by Jermaine Dupri. Obviously, this is the kind of tune that's going to solidify her comeback to the MTV crowd. Carey's voice adds a thick layer of gloss to Dupri's heavy bass. Her phrasing is more staccato than ever, and her interplay with late-night New York radio personality Fatman Scoop on the outro gives this song a credible hip hop feel.
A more typical R&B composition from Dupri is We Belong Together, a broken-hearted lament for lost love. Here, Carey's vocals ride in and out of a kick-drum, finger-snap-driven track. The hip hop,slow-jam hybrid, combined with her bottle-breaking high notes, creates an appeal that will cut across generations.
Joints like the funky break-up song Shake It Off and the Twista assisted street jam One and Only prove Carey's continuing hip hop affinity. But her vocal pyrotechnics push the boundaries of that genre while keeping more conservative heads in the loop. And nothing on this album says that more than the Neptunes-produced Say Somethin'.
Meanwhile, Mine Again is sure to resonate with the old guard and give the new generation another Carey groove to emulate. The track starts out as a ballad-just Carey, accompanied by an electric keyboard and a rhythmic vinyl sound-then builds into a traditional gospel R&B song.
The slightly jazzy Fly Like a Bird is another down-home production that's a cry for unconditional love. Its inspirational message allows Carey to fully exercise her vocal acrobatics, proving that she can still blow her army of imitators off a stage.
Mariah gets back to her winning formula with Mimi. Her yin and yang method, with its schizophrenic mix of the '80s and 21st-century hip hop, works wonders for Emancipation. To read the entire review pick up a copy of the May issue of Vibe. (MariahCarey.com)
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