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Mariah Carey: Secrets Revealed About The Making Of Her Top Hits

By Jessica Dafoe
Published on: 12:35 PST, Apr 14, 2016

Mariah Carey has had a massively successful run over the past couple of decades. A series of number one hits and chart-topping albums, accolades for her writing of music and a popular Vegas show, are just a few of the singer’s triumphs. Carey’s voice is remarkable and continues to be as such. Although the melodies to her addictive hits are notable, it is the singer’s ability with her vocals that make her stand out among the rest.

Billboard recently did a bit of an investigation into the process that went along with the star producing a number of her top hits. Some information revealed includes some interesting facts about not only Carey, but those she’s collaborated with on past songs.

Singer’s Room shares an example of an event that is gossip-worthy.

“Mariah’s classic collab with Wu Tang rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard on the remix to her 1995 ‘Fantasy.’ as it turns out, ODB was late, intoxicated, and slept through most of the recording session of his famous verse, according to A&R Cory Rooney.”

The publication shares the words of Rooney, about the rapper who helped to make the remix of the track stand out due to his gritty tone and lyrics.

“He finally showed up, three hours late, and when he got there, it was about 10:30 at night. He had been drinking, and was on the phone when he walked in. Irate, screaming at some girl how he’s gonna come kill her, he’s going to kick her a**…and then whispering, ‘I love you.’ Then screaming again. This went on for an hour.”

He then recounted that the collaboration between ODB and Mariah, the rapper reportedly needed a 5 minute break so that he could find alcohol.

“He finally came out and was like, ‘Yo, pardon me, this bi**h is driving me crazy. I need some Moet and Newports before we get into this record,'” Rooney recalled. “I said, ‘It’s 12:30 at night now bro, I don’t know where we’re going to get Moet from.’ …They went out for like an hour, and the only thing they could find were some Heinekens. He was so disgusted, he threw a bottle on the floor.”

Mariah’s then-husband, Tommy Mottola, urged the rapper to begin recording. ODB finally complied and gave a strong one-liner that is a signature line in the song, yet he was spent after uttering it and requested another 45-minute nap break.

“He said one line — ‘me and Mariah, go back like babies with pacifiers’ — then paused, said, ‘Yo, I need to take a break,’ and went to sleep for 45 minutes. Once ODB woke up, he would continue the same routine.” Rooney said ODB’s famous verse was heavily spliced together, and you hear it in the recording. Rooney said, “He actually told the engineer, ‘Y’all better have your sh*t set and record it right, cause I’m not doing it twice.'”

The making of Carey’s hit “Breakdown,” which involved a great collaboration with Bone Thugs N Harmony, has an entertaining story behind it, as well. Krazye Bone shared that the group was very nervous about the collaboration with the diva and almost talked themselves out of joining forces.

“We were in Cleveland, and got a call from our manager at the time, Steve Lobel. He told us that Mariah wanted to do a song with us. Back then it was like, we didn’t even realize what that meant, because we was fresh in the game. Still fresh off the streets. We even played around with the flight she had set up. I remember being on the plane with Wish Bone, like, ‘I don’t even know if I want to go.’ We were contemplating all the way up until they shut the door, and then we were like, ‘Well, it’s too late now, we gotta go.'”

It’s a good thing they went, because the track was a hit and the album soared to the top of the charts. Working with Mariah seems to be a very good idea.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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