Mariah Talks About E=MC²: Track by Track

Intro
This album is so much about fun and freedom and just the continuation of me feeling emancipated. It's sort of like Emancipation equals Mariah Carey times two. Like, this is me, a 100% 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 people continue to respond to?' You just keep being real, keep being you, stay true to who you were from the beginning.



Download Video: Mariah Talks About E=MC², Track By Track

Touch My Body
This is so amazing, to just feel like how fast "Touch My Body" is exploding all around the world. I'm just so thankful because it's a song that I love so much and a song that really, you know, does express my personality. If you hear that song, you watch that video, you get a little bit of a glimpse into who I am as a person. I feel so close to that song, most of my really close friends - that's their favorite song, 'cause it's fun and it's cute, and it's not like, taking itself too seriously, you know what I mean? It's just like, you know, the 'touch my body' part is the sexy part and it is what it is but I love the humor in the song.
When Brett Ratner said that he was gonna do this video with me, there was a writers' strike and he had some time and he was really feeling the record, the idea of Jack McBrayer came up and I was like "that's amazing 'cause he is hilarious", so the concept of the video is basically like he comes over as "CompuNerd" 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", it's like, I feel like an eight year old kid, like this is me as a little girl, singing. I was playing it at a party for a friend of mine who happened to have Quincy Jones as one of her guests there and 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! 'Thriller' and 'Off The Wall'! And if he's asking me to play a song over, I should pretty much take that as a humongous compliment and I did, and it makes me really happy 'cause 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's sort of that song you want to listen to as a girl, you know, you wanna look at yourself in the mirror and go [sings] "I'm that chick you like". It's 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 like, I'm actually crying while writing it, or thinking about it. But sometimes I will hear it and go 'I feel like this is gonna touch a lot of people.' And that's why it's important, that no matter what's ever happened to me throughout 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. When someone does that and they write something that touches me, I'm like indebted to them forever.

I'll Be 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's kind of a party record to me, just like not caring too much about anything else that's going on but you living in the moment.

Cruise Control
"Cruise Control" was the second trip I took to Atlanta to work with Jermaine. What it really means is, it goes [sings] "Might need to go slow, I don't know, Why ease up on the break, Every time I see his face". Basically, you need to slow down, because everytime you're around this guy, you're going a little too fast, 'cause he's the wrong type of guy for you to be with, but you know that, but you don't know how to handle that. So it was cool to kinda co-write that with JD and with Cri$tyle, because you know, 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's one of those songs that the people who really are fans of mine, who really know my music really well, tend to gravitate towards because it's not only is it kind of 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 kinda go through, you know, "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'm really happy that people are feeling the song.

Love Story
I love Jermaine Dupri as a person and I love him as a fan, I'm a fan of his work. One of the funny things about Jermaine is when I say something to him, he just runs with it. I said on the beginning of "Love Story" - I really want this beat to be hard, like do not make this too soft. I wanna 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 ad-libs 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 waits a few beats and goes "You hear that?" So basically, what I asked him was 'make it really hard', like it's almost like a rap record, but it's a ballad, and I think that's where our success comes from because we understand each other on that level and because we grew up on the same type 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 caused me to kind of be on the defense a lot of the time and if somebody isn't like 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 been in an abusive relationship and I just wrote it 'cause I wanted to let those people feel a little bit stronger.

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

Thanx 4 Nothin'
"Thanx 4 Nothin'" was the first ballad I wrote for this album, this song is gonna resonate with people who are really going through like a bleak moment in their relationship, where it's like 'Yeah... fantastic. Thanks for nothing.' Like, you know what that is. I'm being really sarcastic. It's a sarcastic moment in the land of "Mariah Carey songs". People listen to the song when Jermaine says in the beginning "this is for all the women who are sick and tired of being played." He knows it. [laughs] That's what it is.

I Wish You Well
"I Wish You Well" is in the tradition of songs like, I would say, "Outside", "I Am Free", these are 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's just piano and vocal and background vocals. Basically it's about coming to a place within yourself where you, no matter what somebody does to you, you can forgive them, and even if you're a little bit bitter about it, you say your peace and you let it go

Source: MariahDailyJournal