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Mariah explains how the album came together
Friday 22 April 2005
It's Like That is a song that to me is just very much like, it's all about
having a good time, and really just a fun, party record. I went to Atlanta and I
was working with Jermaine Dupri. We wrote "Always Be My Baby" together and we've
been friends for a really long time. He's just a great person and a great, great
producer and writer. I just wanted a record that was really fun, really like for
the clubs and just for the people who were getting ready to go out at night; one
of those really let-your-hair-down, just have a good time, this is my night type
of thing, like this is my song when I go out to have a good time. And that's how
we came up with the song "It's Like That", we were just having fun.
We Belong Together is my second single from "The Emancipation of Mimi",
and it's probably one of my top three favorite songs on the record, because it
was a situation where I went back down to Atlanta to work with Jermaine after we
had already written two songs for the album. And I didn't think we could top the
songs that we wrote, cause I really liked them a lot. And then I got there, and
we started going back and forth with concepts and ideas and we came up with "We
Belong Together". And I feel like the end result was just a really heartfelt ballad
that I think people can really relate to, even though it's like a very specific
story, I think that everybody can probably apply it to their own lives.
Shake It Off is definitely one of my favorite songs from "The Emancipation
of Mimi". It was the first time that I went down to Atlanta to work with JD and
it was just like, I don't really know how to explain how the song happened, but
Jermaine is just incredible with the beats. And we started singing different
melodies, and coming up with different lyrics, and at first Jermaine was singing,
"I gotta get away" and I was like, that's a cool concept and stuff but I feel like
we can do something more specific. And we were just sitting around, and "shake it
off" just came out of the blue, like happens when you're writing, and to me it
just says so much cause it's like, when you're going through some drama, and you
just wanna get through it, you put that song on and it just takes you out of whatever
mood you're in.
Mine Again is a song that I wrote with James Poyser who is from The Roots,
and he's an incredible, incredible musician and a really good person. We sat down
at the piano, the first time we met, and he just started playing and he's one of
those musicians where you can go back and forth and just riff off each other. And
I was singing him, kind of like what ended up being the main piano riff of the song.
And he's so talented that obviously he can just pick that up in two seconds and then
you know, he would lead me in one direction, I would lead him in another direction.
And we came up with a song that I feel is definitely like the power ballad of this
record, and I feel like it's gonna be a lot of people's favorite. Cause it's a very
big vocal moment, a big vocal performance. And it's one of those kind of like, break
your heart songs, make you get together with your ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend.
Say Somethin' is a song that came about when I, for the first time, went to
work with the Neptunes. And obviously I had never worked with Pharrell before, but
it was just a really cool experience because he just, musically, he's very, he's
got a lot of diverse influences and it was cool that he took me to a different
place than I would naturally go. And it was just a great session, because I mean,
Snoop was in the other room working on his record. And Pharrell was like, "I really
think it'd be hot if we put Snoop on this". And I love Snoop, we've worked together
in the past, we did a song called "Crybaby" that's one of my favorite songs. And he
came in and he did his part, and it just took the song to a new level. And that's
a lot of people's favorite song on this album.
Stay the Night is a collaboration between myself and Kanye West. We've wanted
to work together for a really long time, and I was really glad that it happened on
this record. It was one of the first songs that I recorded for "The Emancipation of
Mimi", and it was a track that he had, that I just like fell in love with when I
heard it. And we started going back and forth with some ideas, melody stuff. And
then I went away and sang it and I didn't realize when we were coming up with the
concepts in writing, that it was in a really high key. And it was, the way I wrote
it, it was like a belting-out song. And when I did it I was kicking myself, like
"hy didn't I think about this?!" But then after I finished it, I was happy because
it's very much a vocal performance... but it's organic to the song and to the nature
of the feeling we were going for. It's kind of like giving you an old-schoolish,
Jackson 5-type vibe, so I was happy with that.
So, Get Your Number is a song yet again that I did with Jermaine Dupri, only
this time Jermaine is actually singing on the record, which I never would have
expected in my life that that was gonna happen. But he was using it for his album,
and he had sung the hook and it is a loop of the song "It's Just An Illusion" by a
group called Imagination. And when I heard it he was like, you know, Jermaine was
like, "I want to hear you singing over a loop!" And I was like "Well OK people
always criticize me for singing over loops, but there's no other loops on the record,
basically, so all right, let's do it." And when I started to resing the hook, it
just didn't have the same quality as when Jermaine was singing it, because obviously
we have very different voices. So I kind of made it into a duet with Jermaine singing
his part on the hook and I do the verses. And a lot of people like it cause it's very,
giving you kind of like a "Fantasy" type-feeling.
One and Only is featuring Twista. I got the track from a really, really hot
producer named Traxster, who had actually initally made that beat for Twista to
rhyme on. And I didn't even know that when I got the record and I just started writing
it and it happened to be in that kind of you know fast singing, rythmic style,
whatever you wanna call it, just natually cause that's kind where the beat was taking
me. And I happened to run into Twista backstage at a show in LA, and I was like "Oh,
I have this beat" (cause Traxster produces for Twista a lot) I was like and I love
it, it would be so great if you could get on it, I'm a big fan. And he was just so
cool. I mean, I was so happy that he's on it cause I'm a really big fan of his. I
think his style is amazing.
Circles is a song that I did with Big Jim Wright, who is an incredible musician.
He worked with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and he also does outside projects like Sounds
of Blackness and a lot of different gospel things and he's just very very talented.
Basically we were going for like an old-school type vibe, it's all live musicians,
and I feel like it has that organic kind of feel, like basically we were going for a
somewhat retro, urban record that wasn't overly produced that gave you the feeling of
you know like something from maybe like the 70s, you know, very soulful kind of record
and that's how I tried to produce the background vocals, to kind of give you that vibe
of like just a really basic soul record.
Your Girl is a record that I did with Scram Jones who is a hot producer that
I just happened to run into when I went to the studio with N.O.R.E, when I went to
visit N.O.R.E at the studio, and Scram Jones was there and I didn't know who he was.
But he was playing beats and they were hot, and I was with my nephew-slash-cousin
who got Scram Jones' number for me, cause he was like, he saw me really loving that
beat, but there was nobody that worked with me there, so he just took his number and
we got together and I did this song. And it's like, most of my friends who are
singers really love that song, like it's one of their top favorite songs because of
the style of the singing, the background vocals, and that whole thing. So it's one
of those happy, uptempo records but it's still giving you kind of, very thugged out
moments cause that's kinda, Scram Jones' thing.
I Wish You Knew is a song that I wrote with Big Jim Wright, one of the songs
I wrote with Big Jim. Yet again we recorded it with a live band, and I sang with
the band as they were recording it, as they were laying down their track so they
could feel where I was gonna go, and you know just the nuances and stuff. And it
was a really good experience, even just singing parts to the guitar player or the
whatever, whatever instruments were going on, the keyboards, you know, just having
the entire moment, the live moment. And I added the live audience in there, there's
like a spoken section and I know that I'm gonna do this song live, and it's gonna
be fun, because it's giving you old-school kind of Diana Ross moments, of like a
live concert where she'll just break down a song and start talking. And I was kinda
joking when I did it in the studio but then my friends were there and they were
like, "you should leave that". And I was like, alright whatever. Anyway, it's one
of my favorite songs off of the record.
To The Floor is a song that features Nelly. I was working with the Neptunes,
and Snoop was in one room; Nelly was in the other room. And Nelly came in at one
point and Pharrell was like, "you guys should be on this record together". Cause
he had this really hot beat. And I was like, "Wow, that'd be incredible." And we
all wrote the song together and it was just very much like, you know, I'm a fan
of the Neptunes and obviously I'm a fan of Nelly's, and I just wanted basically
like a club track. You know, I think it's a little bit more unique than your average
club record, because... I think the combination of us kind of duetting without
making it like, I wasn't trying to oversing or anything like that with him, as a
duet. It was more about the vibe of the track. That's a lot of people's favorite
song off the record, as well.
Joyride is a song that almost didn't make it on the record, and I'm really
glad that it did because the original track was produced by a 15 year old named
Young Genius, and I think it's really cool that, you know, to be 15 and to have
done that track is pretty amazing, and then there was this whole thing cause we
didn't have, we kind of lost part of the track or something like that... Ee had
to mix it to basically two tracks, not to be too technical but it's not the ultimate
way to mix a record but it really didn't matter because.. it was so well done the
first way so I was happy just to like mix the vocals and call it a day. But it's
a ballad and it's kind of like one of those, they call it the baby-making song of
the record. I don't use that terminology, but they can call it the baby-making
song if they want.
Fly Like a Bird is my favorite song on the album, "The Emancipation of Mimi",
mainly because it's very much a spiritual message. It was, I wrote it with Big Jim
Wright. We had already written "Circles" and "I Wish You Knew" and I kind of thought
we were done writing for the night. And I went upstairs and the melody for "Fly Like
A Bird" and the words for the chorus kind of like came to me at this moment, and
I was like, "What do I do? Should I finish working tonight? Should I just like record
this and do it tomorrow?" And I was like, let me run downstairs. We were in Anguila,
working on having this writing session. So I went downstairs and I wrote this song
with Big Jim. He layed down the chord structure, and stuff like that, And I later
took it and wrote the lyrics and put the choir on it and sang it. And I sang it
in Capri, which was just like so inspiring to sit there and sing this song looking
out the window, just like at the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. And actually my pastor,
Pastor Clarence Keaton, is featured on the song. He opens the song and he says a little
something in the middle of the song. And I just felt like the message was really
important to include on the album and that's why it's the final song on the album.
It kind of sums up everything. It kind of leaves you on a spiritual high moment.
(America Online)
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Mariah rolls with T-Pain, Dupri on new album
Mariah Carey has set an April 1 release date for the follow-up to her mega-selling album "The Emancipation of Mimi", which was the biggest selling album of 2005. "That Chick" features production from Jermaine Dupri, will.i.am and Rodney Jerkins.
(Friday 18 January 2008) |
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Mariah eyes April Fool's Day for new CD
It has been quite a while since Mariah Carey unleashed her big comeback album, The Emancipation of Mimi, in 2005. So fans are surely ready for a new effort from Mariah, which is now set for an April 1 release date.
(Friday 18 January 2008) |
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Janet's bit of discipline
I've had a sneak peek at two of this year's biggest albums, Janet Jackson's Discipline and That Chick by Mariah Carey. I can reveal that Janet, 41, kicks out the slow jams in favour of club bangers on her strongest and most varied collection in donkey's years.
(Friday 18 January 2008) |
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Mariah vs Janet: the verdict
Red hot divas Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson are going head to head this spring by releasing comeback albums just weeks apart. The curvy twosome have scheduled their make or break collections around the same time to maximise their impact.
(Friday 18 January 2008) |
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Whitney Houston: The Ultimate Collection
This is one for the romantics - a superb collection of love songs brought to you by that beautiful creamy-chocolate voice of Miss Houston. "Ultimate Collections", "Best Of's" and "Top Hits" are all the rage every year over the festive season.
(Friday 18 January 2008) |
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Janet and Mariah - the leak
Sooooooooo... what I heard L.A. Reid was out in the UK to let a group of tastemakers hear the new albums by Janet and Mariah Carey. I will keep it 100 and tell you that people I know say that Mariah's sounds like a better overall album.
(Thursday 17 January 2008) |
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Mariah and Janet: the return
Antonio "LA" Reid jetted into London yesterday to present new releases from Ms Janet Jackson and Ms Mariah Carey. Two of the world's most iconic have been busy squirreling in the studio and return with Jackson's Discipline and Carey's That Chick.
(Thursday 17 January 2008) |
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Mariah and Janet new albums
Last night in a central London hotel theatre, L.A Reid invited a very exclusive VIP audience to hear the new albums from Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey. With stringent rules laid down at the top of the evening, we knew it was about to go down.
(Thursday 17 January 2008) |
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Janet and Mariah - first listen
So, Def Jam were showing off the two female jewels in their crown yesterday with playbacks of the new Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey albums. Label Boss Antonio "LA" Reid seemed very excited about both of them, although that is his job.
(Thursday 17 January 2008) |
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Exclusive interview: Adam Rothenburg
Diane Lane, Katie Holmes, and Queen Latifah star in Mad Money as three women out to rob the National Reserve Bank. In the film, up and coming actor Adam Rothenburg plays Katie Holmes' husband. His dim bulb conspirer almost wrecks their plans.
(Wednesday 16 January 2008) |
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Mariah, Paula, "Idols" join Jackson's "club"
Randy Jackson has a busy first quarter ahead of him. Not only will the musician/producer be returning to the stage this week as a judge on "American Idol", but come March 11, the musician/ producer will also have a new album to support.
(Tuesday 15 January 2008) |
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Randy enlists famous friends (inc. Idols) for new album
The time could not be better for Randy to release his first solo album, Randy Jackson's Music Club, Vol. 1, a title that implies but does not always promise a sequel. The album also includes the long-awaited return to recording of fellow judge Paula.
(Tuesday 15 January 2008) |
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Best bets: Billboard's 2008 album preview
What's the biz to do when the top-selling album of 2007 was a Christmas project, and the second-best was a soundtrack? Superstars underperformed, and not enough up-and-comers took their commercial fortunes to the proverbial next level.
(Monday 14 January 2008) |
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Mariah's fake J.Lo "pig" comment taken from 2002
That quote about Mariah not wanting to do a duet with Jennifer Lopez because "I'd rather be on stage with a pig", which prompted Carey to respond to People magazine that it was "a complete untruth", actually originated from a report in 2002.
(Monday 14 January 2008) |
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"Adventures" DVD celebration party
Mariah Carey Philippines invites you to celebrate the release of "The Adventures of Mimi" tour DVD. A party will be held in the Butterfly Bar & Resto in Quezon City on January 19. The Butterfly bar is located at 265F Tomas Morato corner Sct. Fernandez St.
(Monday 14 January 2008) |
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The fabulous life
Christmas represents the birth of Christ. It also makes us think of snow, reindeer, Santa, fireplaces, Christmas trees, hot cocoa, skiing, snowboarding, gifts, horse-pulled sleigh rides and other Christmas card visuals.
(Sunday 13 January 2008) |
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Leona has singing lessons
She's the woman who has guided Leona Lewis's career since she was eight, helping her to win X Factor and go on to huge chart success. Now voice coach Janet Edwards, 55, is helping 22-year-old Leona once again... with more singing lessons.
(Sunday 13 January 2008) |
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Was Alicia really first?
Hi Fred. I love reading your column every week. You mentioned that Alicia Keys was the first solo artist to occupy the top two positions on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart. Didn't Mariah do this in 2005 with "We Belong Together" and "Shake It Off"?
(Friday 11 January 2008) |
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Mariah at odds with L.A. Reid over new single?
All types of MiMi news today. Sources tell The YBF that Mariah's brand new single is a track named "I'm That Chick You Like". L.A. Reid very recently had the folks at Def Jam vote on 2 singles of hers, and "I'm That Chick" won. It's a mid-tempo record.
(Friday 11 January 2008) |
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Winter wonder land
It just wouldn't be a winter wonder land if not for the annual Mariah Carey-in-the-snow photo op. This year the darling girl was snapped in Aspen, Colo., for the new special double issue of People magazine. The star wore a green camouflage jumpsuit.
(Thursday 10 January 2008) |
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Lil Wayne got Mariah Carey on the brain
The curtain is just about ready to be raised on Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III LP. Weezy was in Miami on Monday with legendary photographer Jonathan Manion and pretty soon he'll be going back in front of the camera to film the first video for the effort.
(Wednesday 9 January 2008) |
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Beckham unseats Spears as No. 1 "worst-dressed"
We've got good news and we've got bad news on the fashion faux pas front. The good: Britney Spears, for the first time in five years, is not one of the top-10 worst-dressed celebs, according to fashion guru, Mr. Blackwell.
(Wednesday 9 January 2008) |
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Mariah Carey: gossip is "complete untruth"
Mariah Carey is fighting back against a new Internet report that suggests she is feuding with Jennifer Lopez. The report includes a quote saying that she would rather appear on stage with a certain animal than ever share a stage with Lopez.
(Wednesday 9 January 2008) |
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Diva battle '08: Mariah and Madonna square off
Wouldn't it be great if the world's biggest divas - Janet Jackson, Madonna, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston - released their latest albums around the same time? Well, if that question has been swirling around in your head, you're in luck in 2008.
(Tuesday 8 January 2008) |
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Speed dater Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey wants to try speed dating. The "Hero" singer is so desperate to find a new man she is planning on going to a speed dating evening - an organised event where women meet a number of different men on "mini-dates".
(Monday 7 January 2008) |
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