As chart disasters go, few come as high-profile as Mariah Carey‘s latest album ‘Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse’.
An apt title, the LP has experienced elusive sales – and that’s putting it politely.
Debuting with career low numbers in the US (see: 58k), the set also tanked in the UK where it premiered at #14 with sales of 6500.
Recent trend among the singer’s fan-base has been to blame her manager, friend, and longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri – who this week clapped-back at the critique.
During a stop at The Breakfast Club yesterday, where he visited to promote R&B quad Jagged Edge, the hitmaker couldn’t escape the Mimi questions and was flat-out asked about the project’s appalling numbers.
Find out what he had to say after the jump, where TGJ’s weigh-in on the madness also awaits…
Charlamagne: JD, why do you think the Mariah Carey’s album didn’t do so well?
Jermaine Dupri: Er….er….it was….uh…put out in a way that made it difficult for people to understand. Um. She didn’t want people to hear the music before the music actually came out. So that makes it difficult for you to promote a project. And the public is drawn to the (traditional) way we (as an industry) promote. We come up here on The Breakfast Club and talk about their records before their records come out, like we’re doing right now (with Jagged Edge). She did that. But at the same time, she wasn’t playing music. And I feel that has a lot to do with it. I have to respect the way she wants to put her record out. That’s her (decision) as an artist. She’s not really concerned about sales because she understood that she put her record out in a certain way and that’s the way she wanted to do it. She went on Letterman and didn’t perform. She wanted to talk about the record instead. And for some people, they don’t want to listen to talking.
DJ Envy: Why did she want to do that?
JD: She wanted people to hear the music as a body of work. Wu Tang done something similar. So, as a person who respects artists, you have to respect how they want to put their music out.
I also come from the era where you sold 15,000 records the first week and you go on to sell ten million. So, ultimately, I know what the plan is for Mariah’s record right now, so I think people are going to be talking about what happened afterwards rather than what happened in the beginning. She’s known for selling a lot of records, so people talk about the first week but I think we got to get out of that (way of thinking) anyway.
DJ Envy: I hear this is her last album with Def Jam/Universal and that she might be moving back over to L.A Reid. Any truth to that?
JD: We don’t know. Right now we’re at Def Jam. I learned my lesson from (telling people what we’re doing) (laughs), so…we’re working with Def Jam and we’re going to make it do what it do.
Watch from the 36:19 mark…
*********
TGJ Weighs In…
The fairytales and fallacies.
Do we respect JD and all he’s accomplished? Of course. Yet, there comes a point where one must call a spade a spade. And the fact he’s not doing that – even after “those” sales – is a smouldering hot mess.
Given that Dupri only came on as Mimi’s manager late last year, it’s entirely unfair to burden him with the blame for the muckiness of this album’s near two-year campaign. However, his comments here highlight what the ultimate problem is. Mariah herself.
For an artist so seasoned as she, it’s almost tragic to see her so unaware of her own predicament that she’d hire a friend to manage such an important phase of her career.
Should a manager respect their client? Naturally. However, they should also have the foresight and the firmness to say “no” when presented with silly ideas such as Mariah’s to shun promo and let folk hear it as a “body of work”.
Sis, this is not 1995 and sales very rarely start steady then boom; especially for an artist like Mariah. Slow-burning sales more often than not occur with acts that the masses are just getting to know and not major names like Mimi that that most have had over 20 years to form an opinion about.
Worse still, even if she does cross over to a new label, there is the automatic task of sanitizing her stained reputation of this nightmare campaign to entice the masses to buy her next. Not an impossible task, but a hefty one nonetheless.
Put simply, Team MC has a lot to do. Perhaps the first step should be offering a truthful explanation for this mess of an “era” – even if coated in P.C. After all, people respond much better to truth than concocted spin that serves only to make the matter worse.
Moral of the story? Stand firm in your word and walk in your talk.
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Gurl please ain’t nobody checking those long ass paragraphs. Mariah is not bothered while you haters stay checking on her. While y’all are talking about her album sales for elusive, she sitting on top of her 500 mill laughing at you broke h***. And the fact remains that you don’t do these lame ass assessments on your flop faves like Kelly and Rita ora so gurl goodbye! Mariah is a legend and always will be!
Slay tgj lol
This exposition is plan out ignorance coming from “THJ” (That Hate Juice) actually JD made a lot of sense because Mariah if. She starts prompting the album can stii manage great numbers. Y’all kill me with this “era” mess!! A plethora of people don’t even know half the singles were released nor do they care. We just want good Music and Mariah delivered it!!!
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brandy is coming! Yall ready for the vocal bible that is Slayana Norwood!?
LOL WHO?
Sam, Sam, Sam… This article is a bunch of BULLSHITT! You are soooo pressed over Mariah Carey & her flop ass album! You don’t do this with no other FLOP ass artist (J- Ho) but steady BASH MC.
.
.
WTF don’t yall understand! HER VOICE IS GONE! DEAD, IN THE GRAVE, NEVER TOO RETURN, GONE GONE GONE GONE GONE! GET THE F**** OVER IT!!! This site is becoming… REPETITIVE!
Mariah’s voice isn’t gone at all. The lady can still sing better than these wannabes out now and they don’t have a voice to loose. To sell albums in todays environment you don’t need a voice just image! Rhianna, Katy Perry are prime examples of such.
Things would have been different had she released THIRSTY 1st
Her ego got in the way!!
It still would’ve FLOPPED! That song is terrible! WTF!
your life is a flop f**!
Your face is a FLOP h**!
You say Mariah is unbothered, but do you think the writers and producers on the album worked as hard as they did it to flop? No, so she can stay unbothered all she wants but good luck to you if you think anybody relevant is gonna wanna work with her after this.
Mariah Carey pays for the producers & witters! Its HER money that makes the fuckking album CELINE DION FAN! Those people are still getting paid regardless…
Au contraire w****, writers only get paid on the back end and if you think Mariah funded the project herself you are even more stupid than I thought you were. Def Jam are contractually obligated to spend money on the album so do you think they were happy to see all their money go to waste?
DEF JAM spends money on FLOPS all the damn time! Also, im sure ALOT of the producers & writers have fee’s before they even WORK on the album. Mariah is paying for the ALBUM process. I said nothing about Def Jam not paying for it too. But, they ain’t stupid & gonna spend millions on an album they knew was gonna flop. BYE CELINE DION FAN!
TROLL^^
All I can do is laugh at the delusional Lambs. Mariah is just going to keep on ruining her legacy because YOU GUYS are so cocky and arrogant to see what’s really going down. Beyonce is currently f****** up by not promoting her new album and I am honest enough to say that as a member of the hive because I want her to WIN. I don’t sit at home and lie to myself to make myself feel better, brag about sales and THEN say sales don’t matter when I don’t get the sales that I wanted.
Girl Bye! What Lamb exactly is saying sales dont matter! Also, Beyonce is doing just FINE! Damn, the woman just came off a WORLD TOUR! She needed a break! WTF!
Excuses! It flopped because no ones checking for Mariah anymore. She’s so 1998.
And FLOPERA is sooo 2004
But her music charts b**** lol
But she still a flop bitxh! hhahahah When is she gonna actually sell a GOLD album.. Or even a Platinum album…
When will mariah chart this decade?
“#Beautiful” went PLATINUM & scored her another top 20 hit…
“Ciara” sold 900k ww b****
“As of January 2014, the album has sold 133,000 copies in the US”…
.
Where did she sell an extra 800K albums at boo?
It’s so sad watching you guys fight for your fave by telling lies. You know as good as well Ciara didn’t sell 900K. In what world?
Lol. You guys need to lay off Mariah, she shades herself with every delusional move she makes.
Yet, she’s filthy rich and doesn’t know you exis. Now that’s shade!!!
They gon scare JD away… This also looks bad on him when presented to possible clients.
My name bring’s back memories huh boo?
LMFAO! GOOOOOOOORL GOODBYE!
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL I was just trying to bring back that nostalgia DAHHHHLING!
All that she need is… a good performance with good voice (if she still has it) and a decent music video. no more silly dress and ridic poses, just be a normal person.
Totally Agree! But, her voice is beyond repair unless she stops drinking…
I don’t blame Mariah for her thinned out and hoarse voice now, she already gave us her 20+ years hardwork and masterpieces. Just her antiques reallly are a turn off.
Sam secretly loves Mariah hehehe 😀
I am still waiting for Mariah to admit to us that her voice is damaged….won’t happen i think
Whitney never did, so Mariah will definitely NOT!
Does anything in life stay the same, if you’re blessed to live long enough you’ll grasp that!! Think God for wisdom at an early age because there’s alot of dummies out here!!! LoL The album is great and Mariah’s voice sounds well, so what else OS there?
Daily negativity about Mariah. Did the album not sell well? Yes. But lets be fair and write long, DAILY, negative articles about the people TGJ stans for. Kelly, Rita, Cheryl Cole and Ciara. TGJ ignores and doesn’t report their failures.
Have you witnessed the Mariah stans on this blog for the past year.. Chile… Probably a total of a million commentsbin one years time. Of course he’s going to post.
make sense
Weak weak weak EXCUSE! He does this cause of that guy you use to work for him…
Not an excuse just a fact. At the end of the day, this is a blog and someone’s source of income. Comments gets more sponsors. These are grown folks with frown lady bills.
TRUE! Mariah Carey brings them quick hits! lol… #THIRSTY!
You mean the Stan wars. She’s obviously not that relevant —-) latest release.
She is very relevant, when it comes to people BASHING her… You know, people like yourself…
You bash her more than anyone else on this site. I guess today you love her. I never bash her, I love what she represented back in the day.. . Talent, beauty, good music.. I’m just stating my opinion on a blog and right now she needs a reality check. No different than what you have said.
Brandy too. I love Brandy, but she can’t sell records either. But TGJ doesn’t say anything about her.
Sam secretly loves Mariah hehehe 😀
Hmmm. True legends like Aretha and Patti at the age of 70 are still vocally slaying us.
Ummm QUEEN Aretha lost her voice, but Mama Patti can still blow! Both, neither of them are/or has ever been drug users or alcoholics…
Just because you said it doesn’t make it true. Aretha performed on Michael and Kelly the other day and sounded amazing. Of course she doesn’t have her 20 something voice. Also, she has a drug past bit got a dose of reality and appreciated her gift.
I saw that performance and she sounded a tired mess. She still trys to hit notes that are no longer coming out. But, she is QUEEN her voice lasted well into her early 50’s. Until, it started to break. However, Patti can still blow! Also, Aretha only smoked cigs from my understanding…
Mariah voice is fragile i think. If u listen to every album she had, from 1990 to 2014 alll have diff kind of “mariah voice”. I remember my friend stop liking her since daydream, because she didn’t sing the way she did in her 4 first albums (Mariah Carey, Emotion, Music Box, Merry Christmas)
Daydream is when her voice started to developed nodules. But, her belting ability became the most powerful of her career!
Those sales were really depressing to see but I really enjoyed the album nonetheless. The thing is, there comes a time in an artists life when the sales wane and their star power dims. It’s perfectly normal and just about every artist will go through it. However, how one chooses to deal with it could lead to different results. Mariah seems out of touch with the public as seen in her interviews. She’s a sweet woman and still has insecurities but she gives off this diva air that can be off putting. Also, the music she makes, to many who supported her in the 90’s may see this current effort as age inappropriate (I don’t care about that tho). Ever since Mimi traded Adult contemporary ballads for R&B/Hip-Hop influenced grooves (also her losing power in her voice) her sales have naturally gone down. I respect JD but he is a terrible manager and seems to be a yes man. Also, Mariah is a married 40+ year old woman with really young children. Not saying working life ends at the clock of the fourth decade but her priorities are a lot different now and that should be respected. I’m not exactly a big fan of Mariah but I have a great deal of respect for her. This new album is actually the first of hers I’ve ever bought. My Mother has a huge music collection from the 90’s and a lot of her albums were made available to me through that. I dunno why a lotta Mimi fans say TGQ is out to get her (could someone explain pls) but it doesn’t change anything. Mariah Carey is a legend.
If you can’t understand how everyone knows TGJ hates Mariah you don’t post/read this blog often then. Explanation not needed read/observe here on and you’ll plainly see for yourself. At least they TGJ didn’t mention her age this go-round
B**** (JD and Mariah) that s*** flopped! Get over it. Stop making 99 excuses and move on. No hit single, no title to the last few weeks, 99 push backs and you’re shocked that it flopped? JD is a great producer and it ends there, wasn’t he at some label and almost made them crash? I forgot what label tho, he’s not great in the business field. And MC, a “vocalist” thought she could stand in one spot and lip. Throw some dirt on that b**** career and move on.
I’m not sure what’s going on. All I know is that the album is truly an amazing one. She has been here 24 years and has never released a bad album. Say what you want about Glitter but the soundtrack/album was amazing and even critics stated that. I think an artist who has survived this long and has continuously put out great music deserves a lot more respect. She went from being pitted against/compared to Whitney Houston, to Britney & Christina, to Beyonce, and even Ariana Grande. That speaks volumes, how can one artist survive long enough to have all those competitors from different eras/generations. Amazing. Hope the album sells, if not it’s the public who is missing out on a great album.
If she wanted a body of work to be appreciated, she shouldn’t have released those singles first and just dropped the album BEYONCE style… or at least right after #Beautiful, which has sold more than a million copies in the U.S.
JD destroyed Janet Jackson’s career. I guess Mariah wasn’t paying attention during that.
I think JD is doing what Mariah says for sure but at this moment in her career its what she wanted. Sure its extremely liberating as an artist to put out a body of work exactly how she wanted and name it something that allowed her to manifest a vision she had of herself as a child allowing her to feel she had come full circle. She put out an album that compared to all of the other supposed other artist out there wasn’t a part of the complete dumbing down and demoralizing of this country. She maybe s*** in her videos because she loves to serve Drama and give the beauty and vulnerability of the human body but her songs ARE NOT about getting trashed in the club and feeling horny. Mariah released an album that is accessible to a wide audience and is geared towards real quality of music fans. As far as I’m concerned she offered a great body of work and the risks she took are necessary part of being an artist out from the industry’s thumb. Mariah has an empire and it will continue to grow and if she does any super dance remix of any of the songs it will certainly go #1 on the dance charts as usual. But Why didnt that Grape Juice spin her album performance as another #1 R&B album or another top 5? I think they’ve asked her for an interview and she was like “why are you so obsessed with me”?
You know if you want to blame someone then go… you can’t blame no one. It seems the real problem here is Ol MiMi herself. And you ‘just’ can’t fix that. She is unaware or she is aware of herself and there begins all the problem. I don’t know what happened to her but I noticed that she is really insecure in a public event, interviews, etc. I don’t know but she seems like a little girl that has to hold a presentation but doesn’t no what she has to talk about. And this is not coming from a bad place. I think it’s really sad instead. I think she is going true some really big personal problems that no one is aware of. It’s really sad like really… Maybe we have to over analyze her new tracks to maybe get some answers. Causse you know we all know that MiMi really doesn’t explain herself a lot. She just sings about it.
Maybe the reason she feel insecure because she realize she is loosing her voice gradually… and this year is the worst. I am her fans since music box till now. who knows? but its really sad to see her like that. this remind me the time around the E=MC2 promo, suddenly she looked like insecure and stop promoting, and later i found that she had that misscarriage.
At the end of the day, you just have to have that supporting fan base. Look at the top 10 and most still haven’t sold 1 million (unless you’re Miss Katy). So hit or no hit, album sales is a tricky bizz… and then there’s Beyonce. But that was hype tho. Come to think of it, you need hype, but then again, that didn’t work for Gags, so back to square one.
TGJ yall are the biggest haters on the net yall can drag Mariah to the pits for flopping but when Nicki and Rita flop you act like it isn’t happening.
No negative comment or long essay coming from me on what Team Mariah should and shouldn’t do. All I will say is #FixItJesus
Enjoy your day everyone ♡♡
AGAIN??? How many excuses have these TGJ guys found in the last weeks to say the same thing again and again???????? The album is great and she´s amazingly talented as you have stated so many times. Why the hate then? Sad principles. Truly sad.
I also want tomake this kind of coverage the the upcoming Jennifer Lopez flop (4th in a row), or Kelly Rowland and the rest of your faves. Like really, it´s hilarious. Or even better, why don´t you teel these kids where artists of Mariah´s age are on the charts? You know, artists who were on the charts with her in 1990? Where? Where are Lenny Kravitz albums charting? Gloria Estefan? Roxette? The Cramberries? Alanis Morissette? Janet? And on and on. And let me tell you, all of them were AMAZING artists, unlike what we have now when it´s the minority of artists who are on the charts the ones who are amazing. But stiil those people dissapeared from the charts. Mariah is here. Hate all you want. Reality is not like that.
Sorry for the typos.
It’s the same hate campaign they do when one of the artists they dislike release an album regardless if it’s good/bad or if underperforms, remember all the daily post about Madonna and MDNA, similar to this, get used to it, i’m already training myself for all the hate that the site will show once Madge’s next album comes.
Lol I wasn’t on here when they covered MDNA but judging by your maturity on here, you’ll handle the hate well, lol.
To be honest I don´t remember how they handled the last Madonna campaign, but yeah I know they like to shade her. Still, they are worse with Mariah because she´s urban and they have always covered Mariah´s career more than Madonna´s.
Yes to all of this! I don’t get it AT ALL. Sure, Mimi could’ve done things differently but it’s all happended but the album is great 🙂
Yes!!! the album is great! i love this album! i love Faded Camouflage Meteorite Make it Look Good
Oh Thatgrapejuice!…Let it go already. Where’s the Ultraviolence review?
Who cares about a TGJ review? It’s getting good reviews so far on Metacritic.
Oh please I wish they’d just leave this matter alone. Mariah delivered on this album. It may had not done huge numbers but within time it will reach Gold or even Platinum status.
The Chanteuse actually reminds me of Whitney’s ” I Look To You ” musically. Yet that album alone sold 400k the first week and her golden pipes were no longer there.
Ok, TGJ. She flopped. We get it. Time to move on already. I do agree with one point JD made. People need to get out of that mentality of measuring an album’s success by its first week sales.
But we live in times were people enjoy to criticize for the sake of criticizing!!
Past accomplishments are good, but if new generations of music listeners can’t connect with you as an artist, they won’t care about your history. That’s why it’s important not to get too comfortable about the past and think your name is big enough that your newer projects don’t require the same responsibility as before.
OK, we know it flopped. You don’t have to make 3 articles a day about it.
Any excuse is better than none…
Its called a CAREER for a reason. Everything you do will not be successful but she is more than solidified in this game to not even give a f***. You talk about her as if her life depends on this album. Mariah clearly does this s*** for fun. What dont you get about that? Her resume sould be ran every time you make these stupid ass “articles”. She’s made her history. She’s in the books. What more can she do?
Where is the article on Rita Ora and j lo?
And lana is predicted to sell around 100k first week yay
You know this isn’t a credible Music Blog, when the writers focus on sales over quality.
Mariah Carey don’t know you exist TGJ, so keep hating and using the Queen for hits because she loves giving back to charitable causes!!
OH LOOK! More Mariah hate courtesy of Sam.
http://youtu.be/MjoMQJf5vKI
People don’t buy albums no more!! Being gold is like the new platinum is going platinum is the new diamond. Like Mariah said it’s a dying industry. It wasn’t that long ago where we had so many artist from different genres having success at the same time all in one year. Nowadays it’s only a few that are it’s only from one genre!! And what jermaine said was true people sold under 100k and still went platinum and beyond. Mariah can get this album at least gold if she actually wants to get out and promote it to its full potential!
I will never understand all of the anger that goes on from some of the people who comment on this site. The fact of the matter is MC’s album clearly didn’t resonate with even her core audience or it would not have dropped off the charts so quickly. As a fan of Mariah I didn’t think it was a bad album but in my opinion it wasn’t a classic either and frankly wasn’t worth me dropping money on. “Beautiful” was the best record on the album to me. People can argue all day about oh its JD’s fault oh its this person’s fault but at the end of the day the music didn’t resonate with the public enough for them to go out and support it. On a side note I really think Mariah has to touch the fans more. It is 2014 and people like having more access to their favorite musicians. Me personally I don’t care but this generation does. She has to market in the time that we are in. The days of artists selling millions of records without connecting with their fans is over.