Me & Mariah

One day, about a year and a half ago, I was going to THE GYM a workout space in West Hollywood. I met Benny Medina there, and we were just chatting back and forth and he said that he was now managing Mariah Carey and her forthcoming album, THE EMANCIPATION OF MIMI was going to be huge. He said, "She's finally back to singing again."

I was happy to hear that, because I used to love Mariah's music, back when she was under the yolk of Tommy Mattola, and he used to make her open her mouth and sing lyrics that people with human ears could understand. After she left Mattola, in private and in business, she started making these records where she would whisper and mumble, and she was trying to be all hip-hop and she lost me as a fan. I tried to keep buying her music for a while, but after RAINBOW, that was it. Over. No mo!

Well, she had a big comeback last year, and I was downloading her music from LIMEWIRE for free. Had almost the entire album. But the songs were so good, and I was curious to hear the rest, and I felt guilty because I didn't support the artist by paying for her music, so on New Years day I gave in and downloaded the album from iTunes. Now I don't have to feel guilty, I've paid for it like everyone else, and I enjoy it. She did a great job.

One of the things I notice that Mariah is good at, is that the lyrics of the biggest hits sound like they could be the experience of a 15 year old girl. They have that mindset and that kind of romantic insecurity and immaturity. I don't know what this says about the 35 year old woman who wrote them. Either she's emotionally immature, or she's a savvy enough songwriter to know how to create lyrics that will speak directly to the largest portion of the music buying public. Either way, good on ya, Miss Mariah. You have your 17th number one record (tied with Elvis) and your album surpassed 50 cents to become the largest selling CD in 2005.

You're an inspiration, Mariah. If you can comeback maybe I can, too. Maybe even Whitney can!