Mariah "ripped off" twice on same record
The situation is worse than I thought. In the below story, which we published yesterday, rap impresario Irv Gotti conceded for the first time that Mariah Carey had her work on Glitter lifted for Jennifer Lopez's J.Lo album. It turns out however that before it was released Glitter was pilfered from not once but twice by Lopez. Not only was a song sample Carey intended to use taken from Glitter, but a concept as well.
All of this has to do with Lopez's hit song, "I'm Real", which in fact is two different songs. Confused? Welcome to pop music in 2002. On Lopez's album J.LO, "I'm Real" appears as an upbeat dance number. There's no rapping or male vocal accompaniment. The record does sample the old disco song, "Firecracker". The songwriting credits for that version of "I'm Real" list Martin Denny (who wrote "Firecracker") as well as Lopez and three producers. J.Lo was released on July 24, 2001.
The remixed "I'm Real", which was released a few weeks later, is quite different. It's a slow give and take duet between Lopez and rapper Ja Rule. Denny's name is gone from the credits, replaced by Ja Rule (real name Jeffrey B. Atkins). This version became Lopez's hit single. Two songs, one title.
For Glitter, Mariah Carey had found the "Firecracker" sample and recorded it on her soundtrack as "Loverboy". For another Glitter track called "If We", she and Ja Rule recorded a slow give and take vocal. On J.Lo, the upbeat "I'm Real" ripped off Carey's planned - and subsequently scuttled version - of "Loverboy." The remixed version of "I'm Real" - which Irv Gotti referred to in his XXL interview - copied the style and substance of "If We". Creatively, Carey - who'd worked hard on Glitter for a year in secret - could say she was plundered twice. Wouldn't that be enough to drive anyone crazy?
Thanks to the Internet, Carey's fans can make the "If We"/"I'm Real" scandal a party game simply by logging on to cdnow.com which features audio clips of all three songs - "If We" plus the two "I'm Real" versions. It's fun, free entertainment! (FOX News) Many thanks to Mariah Mania.
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