Episode Summary
On this B-Side episode, we're talking about some of our favorite Mariah Carey moments that didn't quite fit in with the Butterfly album discussion that we had in the last pod. We talk about Mariah's Oprah appearance in '99, with Da Brat & Missy Elliott, some of our favorite catchphrases, and why Mariah isn't a diva, she's just funny.
Transcript
Miguel: This is They Reminisce Over You. I'm Miguel.
Christina: And I'm Christina. We wanted to take a minute to make a small request of all our listeners. If you're listening to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Good pods or Pod chaser, leave us a five star rating. You can also leave a review as well on Apple, Goodpods and Podchaser. Ratings, and reviews will help us with discoverability. And we want to get this out to as many like-minded folks as we can.
Miguel: We wanna get on the first page of these podcast apps.
Christina: And to move up on the charts as well. So help us get the word out.
Miguel: Make sure to follow and interact with us on social media. We're @troypodcast on the ‘gram and the bird. Also check out our website, troypodcast.com. It's where we post links to a lot of the things that we mention in the show, as well as transcripts and themed playlists that supplement our episodes and more.
Christina: Thank you again for your support. You ready to get into the show?
Miguel: Let's do it.
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[intro music]
Christina: Welcome to the B-Side. We've done a couple of these one offs before, but we decided to make it a thing. So what are B-sides? They're basically just some of our favorite moments, some one off stories, things we forgot to talk about, or maybe things that just don't need a full episode. So what are we talking about today, Miguel?
Miguel: So we are talking about Mariah Carey. There were a lot of things that came up in our researching of our last episode, the 25th anniversary of Butterfly, that didn't quite fit into that episode. So we're gonna talk about some of our favorite Mariah moments, kinda like this one:
[audio of Mariah saying, "I'ma do the best I can with what I got!"]
Miguel: And a lot of other things that she has done over the years that made us laugh and made us smile. So that's what we're gonna talk about.
Christina: See, one thing that I think is hilarious that wasn't in that drop right there was after Mariah says, "I'm trying to do the best with what I got!" her DJ goes, "Ooh!" afterwards.
Miguel: And just goes right into "All About the Benjamins."
Christina: Yes. So that clip, I don't know exactly where it's from, but it's been floating around the internets and they're at a party or club or something.
Miguel: Yeah, and she just got on the mic and:
[audio of Mariah saying, "I'ma do the best I can with what I got!"]
Miguel: And that's by far my favorite Mariah moment.
Christina: Yes. We say it around the house all the time. My favorite Mariah Carey quote, these days after watching all these interviews, but specifically the one with The Breakfast Club when they were just talking to her about this and that. And her response was like, "The schedule dahling! The schedule dahling!"
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And now I can't stop saying that, especially when you ask me about time related things. When are we gonna do this? When are we gonna do that?
Miguel: It's always "the schedule dahling!"
Christina: "The schedule dahling!"
Miguel: Now I'm gonna have to hear this for the rest of my life now. Thanks Mariah.
Christina: You love it!
Miguel: So what do we wanna get into?
Christina: I wanna get into this performance[1] on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Miguel: Yes, it was amazing. And I used that in the best way possible. Because it wasn't about the performance specifically, but mostly about the crowd reaction to the performance.
Christina: Yes. So this was—I'm assuming this was around the time when the album came out too, right?
Miguel: This was '99.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: "Cause it was the following album.
Christina: So the show starts off with her performing "Heartbreaker," but the "Heartbreaker" remix.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: And I'm sure y'all know the remix, which is using the "Ain't No Fun" [2] sample. Which makes it extra hilarious for this song to be performed for an Oprah Winfrey audience, because the reactions were all over the place.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: So first of all, it starts off with Da Brat doing Da Brat things "Guess who's back in the…" and I'm like, oh no, what is she gonna say? "Oprah's house!"
Miguel: Yeah, cleaned that up real quick.
Christina: But she still did some variation with two tig old bitties for your mouth. I can't remember exactly what she said—
Miguel: Yeah. I don't remember what she said, but she cleaned it up a little bit.
Christina: Yeah, I think she just, kind of like censored herself rather than say the whole line.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: I think she was just like "too big old" and then muted herself.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But I died because I don't think I saw that episode and I was not expecting that at all. She's got this black and yellow FUBU sweatsuit on, with one pant leg up. Missy comes out from the side. It's just beautiful chaos.
Christina: And then Mariah Carey comes out with her—this was when she was going through the cutoff jeans look—
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: The cutoff waist part.
Miguel: And it's one of those situations where you have to watch it like multiple times just to see what you miss from every angle.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: Because when Da Brat comes out, there's this old white woman. And she is such in shock at what she's looking at. Like, oh my God, what are these Negroids doing? Oprah told me this was gonna be a show about children having trouble growing up in a biracial household with special guest Mariah Carey. Who are these Negros out here ruining my day? And then Missy comes out.
Christina: She refused to look at Missy.
Miguel: Did not look at her.
Christina: So, Da Brat started off on the stage. Whereas Missy came out from the side, going down the aisles where the audience are sitting. And this woman was like maybe two seats away from Missy.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: She did not, she was so focused. Like, I am not looking over there.
Miguel: She was so mad.
Christina: I'm just going to look straight ahead. I am going to talk to the manager get my money back for these free tickets.
Miguel: Yes. Missy was a good five feet away from her and she did not acknowledge her existence at all.
Christina: While there were some people who were clearly getting their life, because they were probably just like, wow, I can't believe I'm hearing this version on the Oprah show.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Then you had another set where they probably didn't know the song, but they were just clapping on the one and the three and having good time anyway.
Miguel: They were offbeat as shit, but they were having a good time.
Christina: And there was this lady and a couple others that were just like, oh, hell no.
Miguel: Mean mugs for everybody.
Christina: Just sitting there grumpy.
Miguel: It was not pleasant at all.
Christina: But it was hilarious for me. I thought it was hilarious. And it's just funny seeing people in their like, business casual wear.
Miguel: Yeah, all these office outfits.
Christina: Basically dancing to "Ain't No Fun." I mean, technically, it's Mariah Carey's song, but we all know what, like the lyrics are basically a play off of the original lyrics too. So, the songs are almost one and the same in a way.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: So imagine how,aghast that woman would be if she knew the original song. And then you got Oprah, the Queen of not knowing lyrics.
Miguel: Yeah, she's always pretending that knows these songs mouthing every third word like LeBron James does.
Christina: But it just makes it even funnier when you got Missy on stage talking about, "I keep it stiff." Then Mariah goes "do do shoo doo" just to block out some of the lyrics. But she still said a lot of explicit things.
Miguel: Yeah, I'm surprised they let that fly at three o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon. In 1999 too.
Christina: Yeah. I was pretty surprised actually watching it. I was like wow. And you know, Oprah's always had some dicey relationships when it comes to hip hop but I guess it being Mariah—
Miguel: Yeah, I'm really surprised that actually got done on the Oprah Winfrey show. She wanted Mariah that bad.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: That she's like, all right, I'll let Missy, and Da Brat come too.
Christina: Because I'm sure this wasn't a surprise to her.
Miguel: No.
Christina: Like, how much of this song does she know? If you don't know "Ain't No Fun," you don't really think much of this song, I don't think.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: So she might be familiar with the song. She knows Missy and Da Brat are on it. And that's that.
Miguel: But as I told you before, I think Oprah and Steadman were riding around listening to "Ain't No Fun" in the car. Oprah saying, "If I gave a fuck about a bitch, I'd always be broke." Steadman's doing Warren G's part.
Christina: Sounds about right.
Miguel: I'm convinced.
Christina: With the drop top.
Miguel: Yep.
Christina: So since you can't stop talking to me about this book of hers, which I will get around to—I'm gonna do the audio book because I wanna hear her read it to me. But you can't stop talking about it.
Miguel: Because it's amazing.
Christina: What other tidbits would you like to share?
Miguel: Well, as I've told you before, I didn't realize how funny she was and she was class clown, surprise, surprise. I thought she was just, "I'm a diva, I'm above comedy and hijinks," but no, that's what she does. She's all about comedy and hijinks and I love it.
Christina: I think she just gets called that because most of the time when you see her she is "the schedule dahling." But they don't see it as she's just being silly.
Miguel: Yeah, they think she's being serious, but she has a really dry sense of humor. And so she can say funny shit with a straight face.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: So that's why people just assume that she's this big diva, but she's not, she's just joking most of the time.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: Like the fact that she's been going on and on about not knowing Jennifer Lopez for years.
Christina: And acting like she's really serious. Like, "no, I just don't know her."
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: It's like, we know, you know her.
Miguel: She's just playing these semantics games, which she has admitted to on the show with Andy Cohen, just like, "I have met her, but I don't know her." That's her line of demarcation is, I don't know her. But you guys are taking it as I don't know who she is.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: But at the same time, when someone asked JLo about it, she was like, "Well, I guess Mariah is very forgetful." So Mariah always brings that up. She's like, "You know, I'm very forgetful."[3] So she knows what she's doing.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: And I love it.
Christina: Most of the interviews I was listening to was when she was, you know, freed of Tommy.
Miguel: When she broke out of Sing-Sing?
Christina: Yeah, so I don't know what her earlier interviews sound like, but these ones she's very candid. Like she doesn't talk like she has media training.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Like, she will literally just say whatever.
Miguel: Whatever's on her mind is gonna come out.
Christina: And when you actually like, listen to her talk for like periods of time, you're like, okay. She isn't just some kind of like pop princess.
Miguel: No.
Christina: She's a regular degular girl.
Miguel: She's just rich.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: That's the big thing.
Christina: The thing that makes her different is, I mean, she's regular, but she's rich.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Which makes her seem like she's not regular, cause in that way she is not.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But just the way she acts and the way she talks and stuff again, she's very personable, she's relatable. Aside from the being extremely rich part. As we said in the previous episode, N.O.R.E. said he had Mariah Carey sitting on crates.
Miguel: Yes. And he was embarrassed, but she was having a great time.
Christina: She was.
Miguel: Cause that's her environment.
Christina: She's like that meme with the little princess with all the dudes.
Miguel: The gang bangers and then there's like Princess Peach photoshopped in.
Christina: That's her.
Miguel: It is.
Christina: I think listening to her music now and also just actually hearing her more in interviews and more about how she grew up and stuff, I just kind of have a different, relationship to her music now. I don't know how to describe it.
Miguel: Yeah, I get it because it's the same for me. I am more of a fan now than I was before just knowing where she came from and how she got to where she is, and then realizing that all this shit is funny to her. And she's just trying to get these jokes off while being one of the best singers of all time. I look at her a lot differently now.
Christina: Yeah, ‘cause I think a lot of the stuff that we talk about is music that we listened to as kids, teenagers and young adults. And we just didn't really have this kind of access—like, back then, celebrities really were just like these people in clouds, most of the time—
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Where we just didn't have that kind of access to them. And plus also when we research for these episodes, we do everything at once.
Miguel: Yeah. So there's a lot stuff that we missed from 20 years ago and stuff we missed from 20 months ago and getting it all at one time. It's sensory overload sometimes.
Christina: I think everything just feels more personal in terms of like, it's not like I know her obviously, but just knowing more about her makes the music feel more personal.
Miguel: So this looks like a good place to wrap up. Is there anything you wanted to say on the way out?
Christina: "The schedule dahling, the schedule dahling!"
[audio of Mariah saying, "I'ma do the best I can with what I got!"]
Miguel: All right, we'll see y'all next week.
Christina: Bye.
Miguel: Bye.