Mariah Carey - Detail - Track By Track Interview

E=MC2
This album is so much about fun and freedom and just the continuation of me feeling emancipated. It is like Emancipation equals Mariah Carey times two. This is me, a hundred percent of me having fun and just being real. People ask me all the time, “How do you stay relevant? How do you stay current? How do you make music that people continue to respond to?” You just keep being real, keep being you, and stay true to who you were from the beginning.

Migrate feat. T-Pain
Migrate is just a fun, festive song. Basically that song is about migrating from one place to the other. Whether it is from the bar to the club, from the club to the apartment to where ever, whatever city, to the beach, to who knows where. It’s about keeping it moving and having a good time. I think that every time I go into the studio if I am inspired by the track I’m working on, if I’ve put so much of myself into the record, at the end of the day I want it to be the most fun explosion of music I can make.

Touch My Body
This is so amazing to just feel how fast Touch My Body is exploding all around the world. I am just so thankful because it is a song that I love so much and a song that really does express my personality. I feel like you hear that song, you watch the video, and you get a little bit of glimpse into who I am as a person. I feel so close to that song that most of my really close friends, that’s their favorite song because it’s fun and it’s cute and it’s not taking itself too seriously. You know what I mean, the Touch My Body part is the sexy part and it is what it is, but I love the humor in this song. When Brett Ratner said that he was going to do this video with me there was a writers’ strike, he had some time, and he was really feeling the record. The idea of Jack McBrayer came up and I thought that’s amazing because he is hilarious. So the concept of the video is basically he comes over as “Compu-nerd” 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 humor because why take this so seriously? They’re videos.

Last Kiss
Last Kiss is a very special song to me. When I hear that song and I hear my first, the first, “Feel so empty inside since our last kiss goodbye…”, I feel like an eight year old kid. This is me as a little girl singing. I was playing it at a partyfor a friend of mine who happened to have Quincy Jones as one of her guests there. We were all listening to the songs and then Quincy asked me to rewind that song and play it over again and I said, “Well he is Quincy Jones!” of Thriller and Off the Wall. If he is asking me to play a song over I should pretty much take that as a humongous compliment and I did. It makes me really happy because that’s my favorite song.

I’m That Chick
When I did That Chick with Stargate, I was so excited to be in the room with Stargate because L.A. Reid had said he really wanted me to get in a room with them and I am a fan of their work and they were such cool guys, such really talented, truly good people. It is sort of that song you want to listen to as a girl. You know you want to look at yourself in the mirror and go “I’m that chick you like.” It is like preparation for a night out of feeling fly.

Bye Bye
Sometimes when I’m writing a song like Bye Bye it does come from such a raw place that I’m actually crying while I am writing it or thinking about it, but sometimes I’ll hear it and feel like this is going to touch a lot of people and that’s why it’s important that no matter what has ever happened to me through out my career that I stay the course and continue to write and try and reach people who need it because I know that I’m one of those people and when someone does that and they write something that touches me I’m indebted to them forever.


Lovin’ U Long Time
Lovin’ U Long Time was one of the last songs I wrote for this album. I sat down to write it and thought let me just make this a care free record. It is a party record to me. You know it’s not caring too much about anything else that’s going on but you living in the moment.

Cruise Control feat. Damien Marley
Cruise Control was the second trip I took to Atlanta to work with Jermaine. It goes, “Might need to go slow. I don’t know why ease up on the break every time I see a space.” Basically, you need to slow down because every time you are around this guy you are going a little too fast because he is the wrong type of guy for you to be with. You know that, but you don’t know how to handle it. So it was cool to co-write that with JD and with Chris Stop because it’s coming from a woman’s point of view and also coming from JD’s point of view of making the track really hot.

For the Record
For the Record, the song is one of my favorite songs on this album. It is one of those songs that the people who really are fans of mine or who really know my music really well tend to gravitate towards because, it not only is a real life story but I’ve used a lot of my own songs in the bridge to tell the story. Towards the outro I say, “For the record you’ll always be a part of me no matter what you do. That’s always be my baby.” And we kind of go through, “Can’t nobody say I didn’t give my all to you.” The real fans who listen and then hear, “I told you underneath the stars”, they’ll know that’s for them. I am really happy that people are feeling this song.

Love Story
I love Jermaine Dupree as a person and I love him as a fan. I am a fan of his work. One of the funny things about Jermaine is when I say something to him he just runs with it, haha. I said, on the beginning of Love Story, I really want this beat to be hard. Make this for the jeeps. Do not make this too soft. I wanted to stay true to what I love most which is urban music and R&B music and I feel it’s the same thing that JD loves and so basically Jermaine did his adlibs on the beginning of Love Story before we mixed it and he said, “MC said JD you gotta make it knock.” Right, and then he plays a few beats and then he goes, “You hear that!” So basically what I asked him was make it really hard like it is almost a rap record but it’s a ballad and think that’s where our success comes from because we understand each other on that level and because we grew up on the same kind of music.

Side Effects
Side Effects is a song that I wrote because it was necessary for me to write it. You know what? I’ve been through too much at this point. I want happiness and I want pure and real love but the side effects of what other relationships have put me through causes me to kind of be on the defensive a lot of the times and if somebody isn’t mature enough or caring and loving and open hearted enough to understand how to deal with that then it’s tough, but this is a song for people who need that. It’s also about anyone who’s ever been in an abusive relationship and I just wrote it because I wanted to let those people feel a little bit stronger.

OOC
OOC is a song where we went in with Swiss Beats and I actually wrote that song with my friend Da Brat and it is so amazing to write with someone who is also a rapper because she comes with a different perspective and then we can put our minds together and come up with something really unique and cool. I think that we both kind of understand each other in terms of where we come from as writers. OOC seems to be a favorite of a lot of people and that surprised me because that night when we left the studio I thought to myself, “I don’t know how Swiss feels about it. I don’t know whatever, but I really like it.”

Thanks For Nothin’
Thanks For Nothin’ was the first ballad I wrote for this album. This song is going resonate with people who are really going through a bleak moment in their relationship where it’s like, “Yeah, fantastic, thanks for nothing.” You know what that is. I’m being very sarcastic. It is a sarcastic moment in the land of Mariah Carey songs. People will listen to this song and Jermaine says in the beginning, “This is for all the women who are sick and tired of getting played.” He knows it. Haha…that’s what it is.

I Wish You Well
I Wish You Well is in the tradition of songs like Outside, I Am Free. These are all album cuts from different albums that unless people are really fans they won’t know but mainly I would say Vanishing from my first album because it is just piano, vocals and background vocals. Basically it is about coming to a place within yourself where no matter what somebody does to you, you can forgive them and even if you are a little bit bitter about it you say your peace and you let it go.