The Emancipation of Mimi

The Emancipation of Mimi
Studio album by Mariah Carey
Released	April 12, 2005
Recorded	September 2004
Genre	Pop,[1] R&B
Length	50:10
Label	Island
Producer	Mariah Carey (executive) L. A. Reid (executive) Mark Sudack (executive) Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, Bryan-Michael Cox, Swizz Beatz, LRoc, James "Big Jim" Wright, The Neptunes, Kanye West, James Poyser, The Legendary Traxster, Scram Jones, Eric Cire, Young Genius, Rodney Jerkins, DJ Clue
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Billboard (positive) link Blender link Entertainment Weekly (B+) link The Guardian link PopMatters (7/10) link Rolling Stone link Slant link Stylus (B-) link USA Today link Vibe (positive) link
Mariah Carey chronology
The Remixes (2003) The Emancipation of Mimi (2005) E=MC² (2008)
Singles from The Emancipation of Mimi
"It's like That" Released: February 2005 "We Belong Together" Released: April 2005 "Shake It Off / Get Your Number" Released: July 2005 "Don't Forget About Us" Released: November 2005 "Say Somethin'" Released: March 2006 "Fly Like a Bird" Released: April 3, 2006

The Emancipation of Mimi is the tenth studio album by American singer Mariah Carey. It was released by Island Records on April 4, 2005, and in North America on April 12, 2005. The album focuses on several R&B-related genres, ranging from 1970s retro soul to quiet storm, gospel, and others. It received generally positive reviews and won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Contemporary R&B Album. After debuting at number 1 with Carey's highest first-week sales during that time, it became the biggest selling album of 2005 in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The Emancipation of Mimi has been certified 6x platinum by the RIAA, and it is Carey's best-selling album in the U.S. since Daydream (1995). In August 2006, Def Jam reported that the album had sold over 10 million copies worldwide.^[2]

Writing and recording

During her Charmbracelet World Tour in early 2004, Carey began to write songs for her next album.^[3] Because her previous mentor, Lyor Cohen, had left Island Def Jam Music Group for Warner Bros. Records, L. A. Reid replaced him. Some critics predicted a comeback, because Reid was known as a successful mentor for Pink, Avril Lavigne, and Usher. Some skeptics pointed out that Reid's comeback attempt for Whitney Houston with 2002's Just Whitney, Toni Braxton's More Than a Woman, and TLC's 3D had performed dismally on the charts.^[4][5]

Kanye West, The Neptunes and James "Big Jim" Wright

For the first song, Carey turned to Kanye West, whom she had known for years but had never collaborated with. Her soundtrack album Glitter (2001) had featured 1980s music inappropriate for West's style, and time conflicts prevented them from working together on Charmbracelet (2002). Carey and West began to work melodic ideas for the song "Stay the Night" over an instrumental track by West that sampled Ramsey Lewis' version of The Stylistics' hit single "Betcha by Golly Wow!",^[6] and Carey discovered that the song they had written was in a complex key signature and would need a lot of vocal belting. She decided to keep the key. Carey has described the song as 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."

For years Carey had known and wanted to work with The Neptunes (Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams), a production duo who allow artists to co-write with them but not to co-produce; they believe they have a unique balance of production that is disturbed by others. Carey reluctantly decided to give up her production rights for the first time in fourteen years, and one of the songs spawned from this partnership was "Say Somethin'." When at the recording studio, Carey discovered that rapper Snoop Dogg (who had previously collaborated with Carey on her 2000 single "Crybaby") was working in the next room, and she invited him to rap/sing on the record. "Say Somethin'" was originally slated to be one of the first singles from the album, but Carey did not feel comfortable with its release, often describing the song as "very Pharrell." But she maintained that its composition was "just a really cool experience ... he took me to a different place that I wouldn't naturally go but I could go." Carey and The Neptunes also created "To the Floor," which features rapper Nelly; according to Carey, he was in a recording studio next to her and came over to record vocals for it. The song leaked onto the internet under the name "Tonight."

Carey had worked regularly with writing partners Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (a.k.a. Flyte Time) since her seventh studio album, Rainbow (1999). Despite the fact that the sales of the Carey albums to which they had contributed had been lower than those of her previous albums, she wanted to work with them again. Because no time could be arranged for the three to meet, they sent their junior partner, James "Big Jim" Wright, to work with Carey. Wright had co-produced and co-written a few songs on Carey's previous albums with Jam and Lewis, but this was the first time he was her main creative partner. Although Carey had previously worked with live instruments before, she had never explored their use. With Wright, she decided to create a song using no synthesizers, but instead with live instruments and background vocals that gave, in her words, "an old-school type vibe ... that organic kind of feel, like basically we were going for a somewhat retro, urban record that wasn't overly produced." As with that song (which was titled "Circles"), Carey recorded the track "I Wish You Knew" with live instruments, but sung off riffs of live guitars and other instruments. A "live" audience and spoken section was added to the song because Carey, who felt that the track was very similar to "Circles," wanted to evoke "old-school kind of Diana Ross moments, of like a live concert where she'll just break down a song and start talking."

Before Carey and Wright called it a night, Carey devised the main melody and lyrics of the chorus of the gospel-influenced "Fly like a Bird," and Wright laid down the song's chord structure. Carey, who asked her pastor, Clarence Keaton, to speak on the track, named the song as her favourite from the album. She believed that the song's spiritual message was "really important to include on the album," and chose it as the album's closing track because she felt "it kind of leaves you on a spiritual high moment."

Scram Jones, James Poyser, The Legendary Traxster and Swizz Beatz

With some tracks finished, Carey decided to visit rapper N.O.R.E. at a recording studio, where his relatively unknown producer Scram Jones was present. Jones, aware of Carey's pursuit of "hot beats," got together with her for " I Should Be Your Girl," which uses an excerpt of New Zealand's R&B duo Adeaze's song "A Life with You" (providing the background ostinato vocals). Because Jones is N.O.R.E's producer, the original version of "Your Girl" featured a rap by N.O.R.E. Carey characterised the song as "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," adding that "most of my friends who are singers really love [it]."

As she had done with Wright, Carey wanted to explore music with R&B roots that were organic, yet soulful. She exchanged riffs with songwriter and producer James Poyser at the piano until "Mine Again" was created. Carey declared the song "the power ballad of this record ... it's a very big vocal moment, a big vocal performance ... one of those kind of like, break your heart songs, make you get together with your ex." When recording the song "One and Only" with The Legendary Traxster, Carey discovered that it was originally used as a "practice track" from rapper Twista, and she invited Twista himself to rap/sing on the song. Carey said the song "happened to be in that kind of fast singing rhythmic style just naturally because that's kind of where the beat was taking me," and commented "I was so happy that [Twista]'s on it because I'm a really big fan of his. I think his style is amazing." Carey collaborated with producer Swizz Beatz, who had worked with her on rapper Jay-Z's song "Things That U Do" (on which Carey had been a featured artist), on "Secret Love." The song did not make the original album cut, but has been released as a bonus track in Japan.

Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox, Manuel Seal and LRoc

Carey flew down to Atlanta to work with Jermaine Dupri, her friend and creative partner of over ten years. To start off, Dupri produced an instrumental track that sounded similar to Usher's "Confessions Part II" (2004), and Carey began singing melodies over the beat and writing lyrics to accompany it. Dupri then suggested for the song's hook "I gotta get away," but Carey thought the song would be better with the lyrics "I gotta shake it off." Carey said the song "Shake It Off" is "definitely one of my favorite songs...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." Carey heard an instrumental track Dupri had created for his forthcoming album that sampled "Just an Illusion" by Imagination, and Dupri asked her to sing her version of the song. Carey was reluctant to create another song that used a sample, and it was felt that her vocals lacked something that Dupri's had. She then decided to make a duet with Dupri singing the chorus and her speaking/rapping the verse, thus creating "Get Your Number." Carey said, "a lot of people like it cause it's very, giving you kind of like a 'Fantasy' type-feeling."

	Juxtaposing between "It's like That" and "Hollis Crew" by Run-D.M.C. OCarey and Dupri borrowed the hook "it's like that y'all!" from the track "Hollis Crew", which appears on Run-D.M.C.'s debut album, Run-D.M.C. (1984).
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With two songs co-written and co-produced with Dupri and her album nearly complete, Carey was satisfied with her output. Though "Say Somethin'" had been selected as the album's first single, Antonio Reid sent Carey back to Atlanta. The club scene of the city inspired "It's like That," and Carey said "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." Carey was criticised for the song's references to alcohol and drugs, but she maintained that they were mere jokes. The song's hook, "it's like that y'all," is borrowed from a 1984 Run-D.M.C. track, "It's like That" (from their debut album, Run-D.M.C.), showing the influence of old school hip hop on Carey's 2005 sound. Two songs were written on Carey's second journey back to Atlanta, the second being "We Belong Together." Carey, who has described the song as "'One Sweet Day' meets 'Breakdown'," felt it was "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."

Mahogany, Eric Cire & Young Genius, and R. Kelly

Carey worked with the experienced, but relatively low profile, producer and writer Mahogany on two tracks. The first, "Sprung," uses robotic voices and "chipmunk" vocals and was left off the U.S. version of the album, but is a bonus track elsewhere. "Sprung" was later included on a separate disc in a Target Stores exclusive version of the album's re-release. "When I Feel It," the second song, was originally announced as track thirteen on the album, but Carey and her record company were denied clearance for a sample used in the song. With only weeks before the album was to be released, Carey did not have time to re-record the song properly without the sample, and she had no choice but to exclude it. In July 2007, the entire track under the name "I Feel It" leaked onto the internet.

Carey had recorded several songs that would not make the album, but because "Sprung" and "Secret Love" were already earmarked for bonus tracks, she chose to replace the now-illegal "When I Feel It" with "Joy Ride." The song was co-written and co-produced with singer/song writer/producer Eric Cire and fifteen year-old Young Genius, to whom Carey could relate because she started writing and producing at around his age. Because it was not originally meant to be used on the album, part of the track had been misplaced, and the song could only be mixed down to two tracks. Because each layer of a song should be mixed individually, technical issues arose, but Carey said "it really didn't matter because they had such a great sound and everything. It was so well done in the first place that I was happy just to mix the vocals and call it a day." She categorised the song as "a ballad... 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!"

Carey has great respect for other singer/songwriter/producers such as R. Kelly, and she contacted Kelly to co-write and co-produce songs with her. The two of them bounced around some ideas, but after a while they realized that they were incompatible, and no work came of their sessions together.

Overall, the album has fewer songs with rappers than some of Carey's previous albums: it only features four, of whom three sing (not rap) most of their parts. Many of the songs had rap sections cut; for example, N.O.R.E was supposed to be featured on "Your Girl", and Ludacris on "Stay the Night." Carey uses non-synthesized instruments more than before; although she had previously experimented with them on songs such as "Subtle Invitation," the single version of "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" and the international bonus track "There Goes My Heart" (all from Charmbracelet), this is the first time they are so prominent on a studio album.

Album packaging and design

The packaging and design of some of Carey's previous albums such as Rainbow, in which she can be seen jumping in her underwear and lying in a bed in an erotic fashion, had led some critics to label her a promiscuous woman. In contrast, the design for the Charmbracelet album did not show Carey's figure at all. For The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey contacted the studio of Markus and Indrani, intending the album's artwork to retain her sex appeal but present a more mature image. Fashion stylist GK Reid styled her album covers and artwork. Her dress for both editions was made by As Four, a well-known group of fashion designers located in New York City.

At a fan meet-and-greet before the album's release, one fan commented that Carey, whose skin appeared darker than normal on its cover, looked like fellow R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles on the cover. Carey did not want the public to think that she was trying to copy Knowles, and a limited edition digipak of the album was ordered. For its cover, an image of Carey from the original album photoshoot was used, but more close up than the previous cover, and with her natural skin color. The digipak also used a new style of pressing to give the physical case a unique glare. Unlike the original album (with a booklet insert), the digipak's insert is a poster showing the original album cover.

Ultra Platinum Edition

Although the re-release of the album was originally supposed to be a DualDisc, that was cancelled and it was re-released in the United States on November 15, 2005 in two non DualDisc formats: one with four bonus tracks not on the original release, and the other with these and also a bonus DVD. The latter is a limited edition release. The formal name of the re-release is The Emancipation of Mimi: Ultra Platinum Edition.

The re-release includes three new songs: "Don't Forget About Us," produced by Jermaine Dupri; "Makin' It Last All Night (What It Do)" also produced and featuring Dupri; and "So Lonely (One & Only Part II)," a duet with Twista produced by Rodney Jerkins. Although "So Lonely" was first released on Twista's 2005 album, The Day After, the version of the song on The Emancipation of Mimi features an additional verse written by Carey. The re-release contains the DJ Clue-produced remix of "We Belong Together" that features Styles P and Jadakiss. Although the remix was released on iTunes (and later removed), it had never been retailed in the U.S. as a CD.

Jermaine Dupri had announced that a charity single he had been producing to help victims of Hurricane Katrina would be included on the re-release. The remix of "Shake It Off" featuring Jay-Z, Young Jeezy, and Juelz Santana, which is only available on iTunes and Rhapsody, was also initially reported to be on the album. The official reasons for the exclusion of the two songs were not made public. Reportedly, Carey wanted to include more than three new tracks on the album, but Billboard magazine's rules limit the number of new songs on re-releases to three (the re-release would chart as a separate entry on the Billboard 200 if more were included).

The re-release also includes the music videos for the album's then-released singles: "It's like That," "We Belong Together," "Shake It Off," and "Get Your Number." The "Get Your Number" video was previously unreleased in North America. Although Carey wanted to include the "Don't Forget About Us" video on the DVD as well, time constraints in production and mastering of the DVD prevented this. However, a link was included on the DVD-ROM portion of the DVD to access the music video. An exclusive interview entitled Mariah in Her Own Words can also be accessed through a link on the DVD.

Promotion

Carey performing on her Adventures of Mimi tour in front of the Mimi logo representing her new image.

The failure of Carey's album, Glitter (2001) and 2002's minorly successful Charmbracelet, had been partly attributed to inadequate promotional tours. With this in mind, Carey changed her personal manager to Benny Medina and hired Marvet Britto as her new publicist. Whereas the campaign for her previous studio album concentrated on her alleged nervous breakdown, the marketing for The Emancipation of Mimi attempted to arouse curiosity about the album's title. Carey said that the word emancipation referred to the freedom from her ex-husband, Tommy Mottola; this contrasted with the promotion for her three previous studio albums since her divorce, because she had never previously spoken in great detail about it (a gag order had prevented her from talking about the marriage for a few years). Carey explained that "Mimi" is a nickname previously used only by close friends and relatives, adding that she wanted the title of the album to be "representative of where I'm at as an artist.... This is the fun side, the real me, and not the image and the baggage that comes with the whole 'Mariah Carey' thing." On the radio show The Wendy Williams Experience, her former best friend Brenda K. Starr said that "Mimi" was a fake nickname and that Carey was surrounded by "phonies."

Promotion for the album began outside North America, during which she performed "It's like That" on several European television programmes, including the UK's Top of the Pops.^[7] Then, she started promotion in Japan, including performances on Music Station and MTV, and another performance at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan. Later, she made guest appearances on U.S. radio and television shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Wendy Williams Experience. U.S. promotion of the album intensified in the run-up to its release, and included a performance on VH1's Save the Music Concert, as well as a high-profile mini-concert on the daytime television show Good Morning America, for which part of Times Square in New York City was closed off.^[8] On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Carey gained additional publicity because of the lesbian undertones expressed by host Ellen DeGeneres. She surprised viewers when she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, having once vowed never again to go on the show after Leno joked about her personal and professional struggles. Carey performed in the UK at Live 8 on July 2, 2005, after which sales of "We Belong Together" and the album increased. A wardrobe malfunction during a concert in Germany generated further publicity for Carey and the album.

Reception

At the time of its release, The Emancipation of Mimi became one of Carey's best-received album in years. Critics had tended to agree that her albums Glitter and Charmbracelet were generally uninspired, and hailed The Emancipation of Mimi as a return to form. The Guardian's writer Caroline Sullivan said that songs on this album were "the first Mariah Carey tunes in years I wouldn't have to be paid to listen to again" and praised it as "mostly — cool, focused and urban".^[9]

The album was ranked number 9 on Billboard magazine's 2005 "Critics' & Artists' Choice" list.^[10] On Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005 it was placed at number 61,^[11] and Tammy La Gorce, an editor for the website, wrote that the "[...] Emancipation works the kind of pure-pop magic that sets us all free."^[12] Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 43 on its 2005 year-end list of the best albums.^[13] Entertainment Weekly ranked it 21 on their "Top 100 Best Albums of the past 25 years" list.^[14]

On Metacritic, The Emancipation of Mimi received a combined score of 64/100, indicating generally positive reviews.^[15]

Grammy Awards

The album and its tracks received ten Grammy Award nominations, a record for a Carey album. Eight of those were at the 2006 awards (for her work in 2005), the most nominations that Carey had ever received in one year:^[16]

• Album of the Year - awarded to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by U2.
• Best Contemporary R&B Album - won.
• Record of the Year" ("We Belong Together") - awarded to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day.
• Song of the Year" ("We Belong Together") - awarded to "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" by U2.
• Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" ("It's like That") - awarded to "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson.
• Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" ("We Belong Together") - won.
• Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance" ("Mine Again") - awarded to "A House Is Not A Home" by Aretha Franklin.
• Best R&B Song" ("We Belong Together") - won.

The nominations for the 2007 Grammy Awards were announced in December 2006, and "Don't Forget About Us" received two:^[17]

• Best Female R&B Vocal Performance - awarded to "Be Without You" by Mary J. Blige.
• Best R&B Song - awarded to "Be Without You" by Mary J. Blige.

Commercial reception

In its first week of release The Emancipation of Mimi sold 404,000 copies in the U.S., the second highest first-week sales of Carey's career, behind E=MC² in 2008. It debuted at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart, becoming Carey's fifth number 1 album and her third album to debut at number 1.^[18] Week-to-week decreases in sales of the album were, for the most part, small. It remained inside the top five for twenty-two consecutive weeks including another week at number 1 achieved after seven weeks off the top spot. The album remained inside the top twenty during thirty-one consecutive weeks, before it returned to the top five after the release of the Ultra Platinum Edition, which helped the album reaching number 4 with weekly sales of 185,000.^[19][20][21] It was at number 1 on Billboard magazine's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for five weeks.

In 2005 Carey's album was the best-selling album in the U.S. with nearly 5 million units sold. In the last full week of the year the album outsold 50 Cent's The Massacre, which was released six weeks before The Emancipation of Mimi. It was the first album by a solo female artist to become the year's best-selling album since Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill in 1996.^[22][23] It is Carey's most successful album in the U.S. since Daydream (1995), which shipped 10 million copies (receiving a RIAA diamond certification), and is the fourth best-selling album by Carey in the U.S. after Daydream (1995), Music Box (1993) and Mariah Carey (1990). The album was certified 6x platinum by the RIAA^[24] and according to Billboard, 5.8 million copies had been sold by May 2007.^[25]

The Emancipation of Mimi reached number 2 in Canada, where it was certified 3x platinum for sales in excess of 300,000.^[18][26] She received 2x platinum certifications in UK, where it charted on number 7 and finished as the 35th best selling album in 2005,^[27] and in Hong Kong. Additionally the album was certified platinum in Japan,^[28] Australia,^[29] Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand and in New Zealand, peaking on number 12 there, and gold in Brazil,^[30] Germany, France and in Italy.^[21][31][32] Eight months after its release, the album reached the 1 million mark in Europe and was certified with an IFPI platinum European award.^[33] At the end of 2005, the IFPI reported that Carey's album had sold more than 7.7 million copies globally and was the second best-selling album of the year after Coldplay's X&Y and the best-selling album worldwide by a female artist.^[34][35][36] The album has shipped 10 million copies worldwide by the end of 2006, according to Island Records.^[37]

Singles and other tracks

"It's Like That" was the first single from the album, and reached number 16 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the top twenty in several other countries. It was far more successful than the singles from Carey's previous two albums and set the pace for Carey's comeback.^[38][39]

"We Belong Together", the album's second single, became one of the biggest hits of Carey's career and the biggest song of 2005 in the U.S., staying at number 1 for fourteen weeks. It reached the top five elsewhere.

	"We Belong Together" (2005) Her second single, a ballad with a quiet storm sound, became one of her biggest hits ever. "Say Somethin'" (2006) The song was planned to be the first single, but was eventually replaced by "It's like That"
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"Shake It Off" was the third single, and reached number 2 in the U.S. In August 2005, "We Belong Together" and "Shake It Off" occupied the top two positions at the same time and made Carey the first and only female artist to do so.^[40] It was a double A-side release with "Get Your Number" in the UK and Australia, where it reached the top ten. "Don't Forget About Us", the album's fourth single, became Carey's seventeenth number 1 hit in the U.S., tying her with Elvis Presley for the most U.S. number 1 singles by a solo artist according to Billboard magazine's revised methodology.

"Say Somethin'" and "Fly Like A Bird" were released as the album's fifth and sixth U.S. singles in April 2006: the former was solicited to top 40/rhythmic radio formats and was considerably less successful than the album's previous singles, peaking at number 79 in the U.S. The latter went to urban formats and failed to chart on the Hot 100, but it reached number 19 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

"Mine Again" was not released as a single in the U.S. in 2005, but it appeared at number 73 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart,^[41] and "Stay the Night" and "Say Somethin'" received limited airplay in Japan without being promoted there.^[42] Another track, "So Lonely" was never officially released, but reached number 65 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Track listing

• Mariah Carey co-wrote all of the songs on the album; additional writers are listed below.

Bonus tracks

15. "Sprung" (Carey, Imsomie Leeper, Gloria Jones, Pamela Sawyer) ¹ – 3:26 (UK and Japan Bonus track)

16. "Secret Love" (Carey, Swizz Beatz) ¹ – 3:09 (Japanese bonus track)

¹ Tracks also appear on Japanese version of Ultra Platinum Deluxe Edition.

Ultra Platinum Deluxe Edition bonus tracks

17. "Don't Forget About Us" (Carey, Austin, Cox, Dupri) – 3:53

18. "Makin' It Last All Night (What It Do)" featuring Jermaine Dupri (Carey, Jarod Alston, Austin, Cox, D. DeGrate, Dupri) – 3:51

19. "So Lonely (One & Only Part II)" with Twista (Carey, L. Daniels, Rodney Jerkins, Makeba Riddick, Adonis Shopshire, Carl "Twista" Mitchell) – 3:53

20. "We Belong Together (Remix)" featuring Jadakiss and Styles P – 4:28

• DVD

1. "It's Like That" (video)

2. "We Belong Together" (video)

3. "Shake It Off" (video)

4. "Get Your Number" (video)

5. "Don't Forget About Us" (video) (Japanese bonus video)

Chart positions

Release dates

References