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The Emancipation of Mimi
Mariah Carey


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HOT PICK
You don't expect to hear a streetwise quip like, "Them
chickens is ash and I'm lotion," fall from the
well-appointed lips of veteran pop star Mariah Carey,
but that's exactly what she belts on the danceable
lead single, "It's Like That," from The Emancipation
of Mimi. As the title of her eighth studio album indicates,
Carey -- called Mimi by her close friends -- has unleashed
the less P.C. side of her personality. Departing from
the ballad-heavy direction of 2002's Charmbracelet,
Mimi is closer in sound and mood to 1997's hip-hop-
and classic-soul-drenched Butterfly. Although she can't
quite reach the pitch-perfect heights she once did,
Carey is still a soaring songbird with a signature
sound. And to compensate for any weathering of her
pristine pipes, she enlists a top-notch team of collaborators.
Standouts include the goose bump-inducing, Kanye West–produced "Stay
the Night," the Jermaine Dupri–produced
doo-wop jam "Shake It Off," and the sparse
funk of the Neptunes-helmed and Snoop Dogg–assisted "Say
Somethin'." With her next outing, let's hope that
the melodrama-prone Carey doesn't disturb the infectious
groove she's found here, and that the carefree Mimi
is here to stay. Tracy E. Hopkins

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