The world was introudced to Mariah Carey when she released her first single “Vision Of Love”. The song was decent to me but when she did the track live on The Arsenio Hall show, that’s when I became a fan. Her debut CD Mariah Carey was released in 1990. My favorite tracks were “Love Takes Time”, “Vanishing”, “Vision Of Love” , “I Don’t Wanna Cry” and “Someday”. A year later, Mariah released her 2nd CD Emotions, which features one of my favorite ballads from Mariah in “Can’t Let Go”. She released Music Box in 1993 which contained the hits “Dreamlover” and “Hero”. 2 years later she released her 4th CD Daydream. This CD contained “Fantasy” w/the late ODB and “One Sweet Day” w/Boyz II Men which spent 16 weeks at #1.

After her much publicized split from Tommy Mottola in 1997, Mariah created her edgiest album to date with Butterfly. The 1st single “Honey” was produced by Sean “Puffy” Combs, Stevie J and Q Tip’s and J Dilla’s production group The Ummah, as well as, Mariah herself. My other favorite tracks included “Breakdown” w/Bone Thugs N Harmony, “My All”, “Babydoll” and Mariah and Dru Hill’s remake of the Prince classic “The Beautiful Ones”. # 1’s was released in 1998 and featured an updated version of “Whenever You Call” w/Brian McKnight, “When You Believe” w/Whitney Houston which was on “The Prince Of Egypt” soundtrack, “I’ll Be There” w/Trey Lorenz and the remake to the Brenda K. Starr slow jam, “I Still Believe”.

From there, in my opinion, things just went downhill from there as far as Mariah’s CD were concerned. It got started with 1999’s Rainbow. Now all of the tracks weren’t bad, but if you look at the standards that were set from her previous CDs, you were left with a CD that would leave you disappointed. I actually enjoyed the remixes of her 2 #1’s on this CD, “Heartbreaker” and “Thank God I Found You” better than the original versions of those tracks. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse Mariah decided to release the soundtrack to her movie Glitter. This by far was Mariah’s worst release ever. Other than a couple of ballads, this CD remained a coaster in my basement. Charmbracelet was released a year later and featured her smash “Through The Rain”. While it was definitely better than “Glitter” the sales numbers didn’t reflect that. 3 years later Mariah released her best CD since “Butterfly” in my opinion, with The Emancipation of Mimi – Platinum Edition. The 1st single “It’s Like That” caught my attention but it wasn’t until I heard “We Belong Together” when I realized that Mariah was officially back. The album cuts on this CD were nice as well with tracks like “Circles”, “Mine Again”, “Joy Ride” and “Fly Like A Bird” which I did hear on some radio stations. Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, Johnta Austin, Bryan Michael Cox, The Neptunes, Kanye West, James “Big Jim” Wright, Mariah, etc. all should have been praised for the job well done on her comeback CD.

When I found out that Mariah would be releasing a new CD this year, I was anxious to see if Mariah would continue with making the classic CDs that she has made in the past or if her new work would be in the just another CD category. The 1st single “Touch My Body” is decent but Mariah is playing things too safe in my opinion. This song doesn’t come close to any of the singles that she released on her last CD. I have definitely heard better work from C. Tricky Stewart & The Dream as well, especially on Mary J. Blige’s “Just Fine”. Danja gets things started in the club with “Migrate”. Teddy Pain joins in on the collaboration and while I am not his biggest fan, I feel that he does a nice job, along with Mariah, getting “E=MC2″ off to a good start. “Cruise Control” is decent as well until Mariah starts trying to act like she is Damian Marley on the 2nd verse. Damian does a good job with his verse but most Mariah fans will find this track to either be a hit or miss track. Bryan Michael Cox and Mariah produce a winner in “I Stay In Love”. This is the stellar balladry that I always expect to hear on a Mariah Carey CD. This is clearly one of the best tracks on this CD. Young Jeezy, who appeared along with Jay Z, on Mariah’s “Shake It Off (Remix)”, shows up on “Side Effects”. Scott Storch produces a bouncy track that allows Mariah and Jeezy to both put in nice performances. Stargate who has done production work on the latest CDs from Mary J. Blige, Janet Jackson, Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Rihanna and Ne-Yo show up to produce the uptempo track “I’m That Chick”. This song sounds like an 80s jam that you would hear when you were trying to roller skate back in the day. This is another top notch track on “E=MC2″. DJ Toomp who has done production work on Kanye West’s “Graduation”, Jay Z’s “American Gangster” and past CDs from TI, shows up to produce “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time”. This is another nice track from this CD. Mariah shows tremendous energy with this midtempo jam. Bryan Michael Cox shows up again on “For The Record”. Mariah gets a chance to tell an ex that he will be the one who regrets letting her go in the longrun. Stargate shows up again to produce “Bye Bye”, which is a tribute to everyone who has lost an important loved one in their lives. I also heard a version of this track with Jay Z, which is the 2nd single for “E=MC2″. “I Wish You Well” picks up where “Fly Like A Bird” left off. Sometimes you find yourself wishing that Mariah would do more songs like these and to leave tracks like “Touch My Body” alone.

The problem with “E= MC2″ is that the producer who deserved the most credit for what happened with “The Emancipation Of Mimi”, which was Jermaine Dupri, doesn’t give a stellar production performance this time around. If you listen to “Cruise Control”, “Love Story”, “Last Kiss” and “Thanx 4 Nothin’” you’ll find yourself asking JD what happened this time around. “Cruise Control” and “Thanx 4 Nothin’” are decent but “Love Story” and “Last Kiss” are average and mediocre in my opinion. Even if you did like the track, JD’s continuous talking through the tracks don’t help things either.

Overall, there are some good moments with “E=MC2″. The problem is that when you look at the body of work of “The Emancipation Of Mimi”, it just seems that 1) the overall objective was to make a carbon copy of Mariah’s last CD, 2) the best tracks on this CD pale in comparison to the best tracks on “The Emancipation Of Mimi” and 3) JD doesn’t step up to the plate like he did on “Confessions” and Mariah’s last CD. “What we got is Trill, it’s too real to be the last kiss.” JD almost ruins his tracks with his voice this time around. If you are a fan of the majority of Mariah’s previous CDs then you should add “E=MC2″ to your Mariah collection. If you are expecting another “The Emancipation Of Mimi”, then you may want to approach this CD with lower expectations. Overall I would have to rate this CD between a 3 and a 3.5.

James’ Top 5

1) I Wish You Well
2) I Stay In Love
3) I’m That Chick
4) I’ll Be Loving You Long Time
5) For The Record

Honorable Mention:

Side Effects w/Young Jeezy
Bye Bye
Migrate w/T Pain
Cruise Control w/Damian Marley
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