Mariah vs Janet: the verdict
|  | | CEO Antonio Reid | | 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.
Music Biz have had an exclusive listen to both of the records and reckon they're both strong efforts. Janet's offering, Discipline, is an X-rated affair. The title track focuses on her famous Superbowl nipple-flashing incident before plunging into adult territory.
She apologises to her "daddy" for "touching herself". She goes on: "I can smell you on my sheets/ Daddy I disobeyed you/ Now come punish me/ I've been bad, make me cry." The rest of the effort is stuffed with an immaculate selection of club tracks and lung-bursting ballads.
Mariah's LP, That Chick, features a string of collaborations with the hottest rappers around. Migrate featuring T-Pain is a titanic future crunk smash. Not so successful is the diva's duet with Damian Marley called Cruise Control, where she slips into a cringeworthy Jamaican accent, singing: "Me say no man, tink I'm jokin'?"
The listening session at a top London hotel was hosted by Island Records CEO Antonio Reid. And he didn't miss the opportunity to taunt ailing British label EMI. He gloated: "That's a music company. Well, it used to be. We realised that it would take some work with Janet after her last two EMI albums weren't successful, just like the last Mariah EMI album." Miaow. (The Sun)
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