Mariah's emancipation
|  | | Jasmine and George Kay | | I am convinced that there is a systematic plan to shut down our culture. There are no nightclubs in central London that will accommodate our UK acts for gigs. So, in turn, DJ's can't break urban artists with the music-lovers like they did back in the days when there were clubs like Subterania and Fresh and Funky. So that's the live side gone.
Now, I hear that a company called Global are buying GCAP who own Capital Radio and Choice FM, and that they may change Choice's name and axe some of the shows. They have already kicked our music out of most of Galaxy FM (who are owned by Global). They might do the same to Choice. What's going on? I hope I'm wrong. Speak now or forever lose our culture.
One person that is supporting Choice is our girl Mariah. Even though she wasn't scheduled to turn up at their 18th birthday party a couple of weeks back, she came by near the end of the night and picked up her Choice Hall of Fame award from Choice boss Ivor Etienne.
My mate, DJ George Kay was supposed to interview her on the radio that morning but it didn't happen in the end. So MC was determined to make it up to Choice and George, coz she's sweet like that. Earlier in the week, Mariah spoke to MTV and we grilled her on all things music. A few folks were surprised by the fly title of the album E=MC2, which is very clever and funny coz MC hates maths. Whilst she may be a musical genius, she certainly isn't a maths one.
MC laughed and agreed "It's like emancipation equals Mariah Carey times two. This is a 100% of me, having fun. People ask me all the time: 'How do you make music that people continue to respond to?' You have to just keep being real, keep being you. Stay true to who you are from the beginning."
A lot of people haven't understood Mariah's new single Touch my Body. But in my opinion, you have to understand her humour to understand her musically. She added: "Touch My Body is exploding all around the world. It's a song that really does express my personality, and you watch the video and get a bit of a glimpse of who I am as a person. So, the concept of the video is basically, a 'compu-nerd' comes to help me fix my computer and then he goes into fantasy-land and I'm right there with him. I love adding the element of humour because: why take this so seriously? They're only videos."
MC also told us it was frightening before her last album came out because no one knew how successful it would be. "I didn't know what was going to happen with The Emancipation. I was, of course, hoping for success, but the fact that it was such a massive worldwide phenomenon - I was so grateful and thankful to God for that gift."
She added that if you liked the last album, that was your first course at dinner and we should "treat the new album as dessert". For those who keep suggesting that MC has only, in recent years, thrown herself into the more hip-hop side of things, she scoffs: "It's so funny because ever since I did my first remix with ODB, people have been saying 'Wow, you're doing this new hip-hop thing.' And I'm like: 'It's not new, it's what I've always loved. I'm just allowed to do it now.' And a lot of people didn't know some of those hip-hop collaborations because they didn't listen to hip-hop radio or buy remixes. So now, yes there's a lot of hip-hop flavour, but there are definitely very powerfully sung, emotionally rich ballads."
She then added: "It's definitely a lot more fun being Mariah Carey in 2008 than it was when I first started out because I was very young and people were kind of bossing me around and telling me what to do and it was more difficult to be myself. But, now, being able to make the music that I love, whether it's singing a big ballad or doing an up-tempo record, that makes me happy."
Then, Da Brat, who was hanging out with MC, added her thoughts on singer Leona Lewis, who many have been calling "the new Mariah". Brat said: "I was actually listening to her music in my dressing room and I saw a glimpse of her. To me, she is good, but doesn't compare to Mariah Carey at all. Simon Cowell has good taste and he can blow artists up, but I just don't think anybody compares to Mariah."
So with that, we all toasted everyone that MC has ever inspired and then went off to celebrate another two milestones with MTV. Firstly, it's 20 years of YO MTV Raps and we'll be bringing that to your MTV Base screens very soon. And congratulations go to MTV Base's Trevor Nelson, as it's the 10-year anniversary of The Lick on MTV. Big. The urban landscape in the UK would be so different without The Lick. Ten years and we're still going strong, peeps. (The Voice)
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