I Luh Ya Mimi

Sometimes there are Mariah songs where it seems like she's phoning it in. Don't get me wrong -- I don't skip these tracks in the car, usually I'm singing along anyway -- but these are songs that just feel like album-fillers or last minute additions, not up to spec in terms of vocal and lyrical quality.

However, these "off-days" for Mims represent a level that is still aspirational (am I like my boss, making up words?) for most everyone else in the game. The song that spurred these thoughts is "Meteorite" from Mims's latest album, Me. I Am Mariah...The Elusive Chanteuse (MIAMTEC). "Meteorite" begins with some mumbo jumbo where Andy Warhol is deliberately misquoted.

Yeah
Andy Warhol said "in the future, everybody will be famous".
No, he said "everybody will be WORLD famous... 
for fifteen minutes."

I mean, why? Anyway, the song then launches into its disco-y beat and a vague discussion of fame and celebrity culture that uses the metaphor of a meteorite (which is actually a piece of space junk usually made up of metals, rocks, or both, because factz). The song is "just ok for me, dawg" to quote the great Randy Jackson. Several times while listening, I've thought, "this is really more of a song for J.Lo..."

J. Lo is a workhorse. Girlfriend has released 10 --TEN -- albums, including compilations. Did anyone know this? J.Lo has been a staple of mine since college, the type of cd you put on when you have to mop your kitchen floor or pack your books into boxes because you're moving and then you get caught up reading one of the books while you're packing it, and then two hours go by and then you fall asleep. Meanwhile, "Ain't That Funny" plays softly in the background.

Recently I heard her newest offering to the world, "I Luh Ya Papi." Having studiously avoided it for months because of the title alone, I had to admit that it's...pretty damn catchy. It's strong -- stronger than "Meteorite" -- so why I am so quick to relegate Mariah's proverbial day-old Chinese leftovers that were left on the counter all night to Ms. Lopez? And why don't I have J. Lo in heavy rotation right now?

I guess what I celebrate in J. Lo disappoints me in Mariah, simply because of the baseline from which each is working. Perhaps I need to rethink this hierarchy I seem to have devised over the years and find a new way to appreciate this space of qualitative overlap, so accurately pictured here.

In the meantime, I luh ya Mimi, and this one's for you.

Whither "Triumphant?"

August 3, 2012. Deep in the sizzling heart of East Africa, this intrepid blogger took a well-deserved break from cooking my meal of goat over an open charcoal fire and washing my few rags of clothes in the drought-stricken trickle of a river 10 miles away. Beset by mosquitoes and wild dogs, I manged to climb a banana tree and find some purchase while balancing my iPad on a cluster of unripe fruit. While the unforgiving Rwandan sun beat down, I carefully used my last few minutes of battery power to download Mims's new song, "Triumphant,"* which was intended to be the lead single off of her then as-yet-untitled 14th studio album.

[Ed. note -- actually, this intrepid blogger awoke late that day in her luxurious one-bedroom apartment in Kigali, Rwanda, made a light lunch of toast, jam, and English breakfast tea, then walked the five minutes to her air-conditioned office building where the WiFi was fast and free. After downloading the song and "working" for a couple of hours, she made the short trek home, stopping in for some beers at her favorite bar along the way.]

Video for "Triumphant," 2012

Anyway. What I DO remember clearly about that day is thinking, what the hell? Where is Mims on this track? The track opens with rapper Meek Mill, then goes into Mims's chorus; then Rick Ross raps, then Mims's chorus; then the bridge; THEN, at almost two and a half minutes into what is a just-over-four minute song, Mims starts singing. And it's not what we're used to, either; her voice is too far back in the mix, which would be ok for a singer of lesser quality, but come ON. Also, the lyrics are bland, general, definitely not her best work. And Jermaine Dupri co-produced this? Wha' happened?

In the Wikipedia entry for this song which is really amazingly long, Mims says that this was a song written while husband Nick Cannon was in the hospital for mild kidney failure, and also inspired by the death of her good friend Whitney Houston. Ok...but why does it have to be so bad? Wouldn't the ultimate gesture of resiliency be to release another "We Belong Together" in this moment?

Fast forward to May 2014 -- Mims's 14th album, Me. I am Mariah...The Elusive Chanteuse is finally released after many delays. And where is the much-hyped "Triumphant" that was supposed to be such a beacon of light in Mims's dark night? Nowhere to be found. All the other songs forgot to call it when they were getting together to be recorded, apparently. Now it sadly puts on its headgear for another sleepless night and weeps lonely tears...lost in non-album limbo.

Don't worry "Triumphant." You have a home on Ain't No Donuts.



*Actually it's "Triumphant (Get 'Em)" ft. Rick Ross and Meek Mill, but you know...

Down the Rabbit Hole with "Fourth of July" and "Underneath the Stars"

Like every other patriot, I took the opportunity this past Friday to celebrate the 238th birthday of the American experiment by listening to Mims's cooing slow jam from 1997's Butterfly, "Fourth of July."



While generally pleasant, I have always found this tune to be relatively unmemorable. In fact, the only reason it ever comes to mind for me is the somewhat uncomfortably close resemblance it bears to a tune from Mims's previous 1995 album Daydream -- "Underneath the Stars." A superior song musically and vocally, and supposedly one of Mims's personal favorites (which is why it was included on the two-disc 2001 Greatest Hits compilation), "UTS" is undoubtedly the sonic predecessor of "Fourth of July."

Curious about the similarities between the two songs, I did a bit of googling and was unsurprised to learn that the songs shared a co-producer (other than Carey) -- Walter Afanasieff, a Grammy-winning songwriter and producer with whom Carey worked on her debut album through 1997's Butterfly. Incidentally, Afanasieff also co-produced one of Mims's biggest hits of all-time, "One Sweet Day." Perhaps thankfully, Jermaine Dupri pretty much took over the role of Mims's star co-producer after she rerouted her musical direction in the late 1990s, collaborating with her on 2005's "We Belong Together."

So, mystery solved. However, while I was on Butterfly's Wikipedia page (yeah yeah), I came across nothing less than a bombshell, readers: the collaborator on Butterfly's cover of Prince's "Beautiful Ones" -- one of the album's strongest tracks -- is no one less than SisQo, the man responsible for 1999's aural affront, "Thong Song." How? Why? I will be available for dialogue as we all struggle to regroup after this troubling revelation.



In closure, and with America in mind, I'd like to share this pic I found on Tumblr a few years ago:

The picture's caption reads as follows: 

Mariah Carey’s father is Afro-Venezuelan. Her grandfather’s name was Roberto Nuñez but he changed his surname to Carey in order to assimilate upon arrival to the US.

Mariah Carey would’ve been…. Mariah Nuñez. I wonder how that surname change would have altered the course of her career. 

Just some food for thought as we ponder today's vitriolic immigration debate and remember the immigrants (and of course the slaves) that built America's economy.