Mariah Carey vs. Jennifer Lopez: THEIR FEUD, Mariah’s battle with head-of-label-ex-husband & MORE.
Ready for some old tea? This post will break down everything that has happened and went down in the public eye between Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez.
This is the first post to be posted on ExposingSMG, that is not written by either me or Alana. This is something I’ve been wanting to do on this blog to get the readers more involved since so many have asked to co-own and etc. A very good friend of mine and a loyal reader, has wrote a post for us explaining the drama that went down in Hollywood, between Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez. She did all the research and gathered the receipts. This is what went down in the public eye.
A huge shoutout to a very wonderful reader and friend, @MileysKoi! Of course, I took her permission to reveal that she was the one who wrote this.
If you are interested in writing posts for ExposingSMG, all the rules are in this post: http://www.exposingsmg.com/post/164795826208/do-you-want-to-write-for-exposingsmg
Without further ado, this is MileysKoi’s post on Mariah and JLO.
Mariah Carey vs. Jennifer Lopez: THEIR FEUD
Mariah Carey isn’t really as shady as you might think and at the same time, Jennifer really isn’t as savvy as you might think. Remember there are 3 sides to every story. Her side, her side, and the sad truth. To understand this, you really have to understand how fucked up this industry is as a whole, and how your personality has to play when it comes to making a name for yourself in Hollywood. Everyone views Mariah as this shady bitch who has a stick up her ass and is a HUGE snob. Everyone views Jennifer as the laid-back, Jenny from the block, charismatic Latina business women. There’s beef, but from a realistic perspective. The whole feud stems from stolen music and unfair management. The iconic ‘I Don’t Know Her’ phrase was coined in 2003 when Mariah was interviewed by an entertainment reporter about other female artists.
IS MARIAH REALLY SHADY? (Mariah as a person)
Mariah Carey is one of music’s household legends, with the longest running Billboard HOT 100 charting single in history, over 100 million dollars worth of song royalties off of her Christmas album along with 18 # 1 Billboard Hot 100 songs under her belt. It’s a fair chance to say that Mariah is up there among the greats. The greats meaning Madonna, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson. She’s sold over 200 million albums and has more top tens than Elvis Presley. So yea, she’s pretty big. Mariah pretty much is a diva, but in my opinion, she practically has the right to be one. Her music is timeless and she has a special vocal range that not lot of musician in business possess; a 5-octave vocal range. (Ok my inner Lamb is ranting I’ll stop). So yea, Mimi (Mariah’s nickname) is the shit. She’s a nice person, but she has a VERY dry sense of humor. By dry sense of humor, I mean she acts like a sarcastic rich British housewife. She would be the type to say “It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it dahling.” She’s literally the type to joke about something without being energetic about it so she’ll say it in a posh sort of way that comes across as less emotive and superior to the person. Often times it’s funny, but to other people, it comes across as insensitive and haughty. So it’s hard to take anything she says when asked about other artists seriously especially concerning Ariana Grande.
She honestly wished Ariana the ‘best of luck’ when she was asked about it on the Breakfast Club. She just doesn’t really care about her. Like she minds her own business and does her own thing. Considering the amount of times people have compared the two and asked about them, Mariah is over it.
Moving on…
She’s really sweet to her fans and appreciative of her career and her talent. She only has a few friends in the business and doesn’t really kiss ass to anyone cause she’s… well Mariah Carey. The only pop girl she’s close with since 2003 is Beyonce. Mariah has countlessly mentioned how nice Beyonce is as a person and how talented she is. The same can be said from Queen Bey herself (she loves Mariah not to mention she’s a lamb).
Mariah and Beyonce circa 2016
Mariah and Beyonce 2003 (way back then)
Mariah and Beyonce backstage with their kids! (cute)
There has also been speculation that Mariah is a diva and a bitch because she wouldn’t help her older sister Alison because she was HIV positive. Alison and her older brother Morgan lived with Mariah’s father, while Mariah lived with her mother because her mother and father divorced. Alison was a substance abuser and a prostitute who also dropped out of high school after she became pregnant. She and Mariah were close at one point but I’m guessing after their parent’s split up, she gravitated towards her father and went their separate ways. Here’s a little insight for you: if she was sick after all this time, why wouldn’t Mariah help her at the peak of her success (when she first became famous overnight)? Mariah has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for her sister’s rehab, a roof over her head, tuition for her kids (her niece and nephew) to go to school and other living expenses when she made her first million at Sony after her first album went #1. So after that, what does Mariah’s older brother Morgan do… call her a witch and come up with some story blaming his younger sister for his older crack headed sister’s problems.
Mariah and Alison at Mariah’s wedding
Mariah and Alison
Alison in the streets
There was also jealously involved. Alison just took the money from Mariah and continued to bad mouth her because when Mariah became famous, Alison also wanted to show the world she could sing.
Mariah’s also had some famous friends in the business but most them are deceased. These include Whitney Houston, Prince, and Michael Jackson. Mariah is a very private person and only has a small circle of famous friends. The only living ones that she still speaks to ever so often are Lee Daniels (Empire creator), Lenny Kravitz (musician) and Brett Ratner (director).
TOMMY MOTTOLA
Now in order to understand the feud between Mariah and JLO, their dislike for each other or rather Mariah’s dislike for JLO is all because of this man right here.
Tommy Fatola excuse me… Tommy Mottola is an American music executive. He is the co-owner of Casablanca Records in a joint venture with the Universal Music Group. He headed Sony Music Entertainment, parent of the Columbia label, for nearly 15 years. He was also Mariah’s former husband, manager, and record producer. They got married in 1993. Tommy Mottola is ruthless business man, not to mention controlling as hell, but he could damn near do his job and do it right. A lot of black artists have also had problems with him in the past, more recent of the few was Michael Jackson.
“So I’m leaving Sony, a free agent,… owning half of Sony! I own half of Sony’s Publishing. I’m leaving them, and they’re very angry at me, because I just did good business, you know.
So the way they get revenge is to try and destroy my album! But I’ve always said, you know, art — good art — never dies. …Thank you.
And Tommy Mottola is a devil!
I’m not supposed to say what I’m going to say right now, but I have let you know this. Please don’t videotape what I am going to say, ok? Turn that off please. Do it, do it, I don’t mind! Tape it!
Mariah Carey, after divorcing Tommy, came to me crying. Crying. She was crying so badly I had to hold her. She said to me, “This is an evil man, and Michael, this man follows me.” He taps her phones, and he’s very, very evil. She doesn’t trust him. He’s a horrible human being. And we have to continue our drive until he is terminated. We can’t allow him to do this to great artists, we just can’t”
- Michael Jackson
Source: http://www.truemichaeljackson.com/speeches/speech-against-sony/
When he founded Mariah, he blew her up into a major superstar. He produced her debut album, marketed her all over the world, shaped and crafted her career, and created everything of what Mariah is as a singer/vocalist today. She was an overnight success with over 14 million albums sold at the age of 21 and 4 #1 Billboard Hot 100 songs, which by the way earned her two Grammy Awards.
He made her a star but he was basically an asshole who treated her like crap, (hence why I called him Tommy Fatola). She couldn’t go anywhere without him knowing where she was. She couldn’t be friends with people in the business that he didn’t know or wasn’t working with. He tapped her phone lines, had bodyguards follow her around whenever he wasn’t present. Basically what Michael confirmed when he talked so much shit about Sony Music and its head, Tommy Mottola. If you pay attention to Mariah’s wardrobe and how she was back in the late 90’s compared to how she was in the early 2000’s, you would see my point. She was conservative and after she left Tommy and got a divorce, not to mention a new record deal since she couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him let alone the same recording booth with him watching her like a hawk.
An act of rebellion if you will.
FUN FACT: In Mariah’s classic holiday hit All I Want For Christmas, the man in the Santa suit is Tommy! (that’s literally how close he was all the time Creepy as fuck but cute I guess?)
The clip below is an interview with Barbara Walters where Mariah talks about her debut and her first meeting Tommy.
At 6:00 min Part 1
At 0:22 sec Part 2
(I’d watch all the clips if you like to get a feel of what the interview is about)
FALL OUT: MARIAH VS JLO
Jennifer was an actress looking to break into the music business. After performing with Janet Jackson as a backup dancer in a couple of her music videos, and after starring in the biopic as the late Tejano singer, Selena Quintanilla, she signed to Sony Music, headed by Mariah’s then-ex-husband, Tommy Mottola. She was considered a priority (similar to how Mariah was treated in 1990 because of her voice and racially ambiguous look (being half black and half white). The reason being she was Latina, new, and upcoming, not to mention she could dance and be easy to market. On the flip side, Mariah is running into the end of her Sony contract. The relationship she has with her label is, to put it nicely, strained because of her divorce from Mottola (whom she was married to from 1993-1997). At this point, there were no real issues between Mariah and JLO, just speculation and some under-performing singles for Mariah.
Jennifer on Living Color as a dancer
Jennifer as Selena Q
Jennifer Lopez on set with Janet Jackson
Move ahead to 2000.
Mariah was working herself into the ground on a trifecta of projects: Glitter. Glitter is set in the 1980s, and will reach back to that decade for its musical backdrop. The first single, “Loverboy” was scheduled to sample “Firecracker” by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Mariah was the first person to ever license the song to be sampled, per the song’s publisher. Within 3 weeks, Jennifer’s people (via Sony) contacted the publisher to license the same sample. Coincidence? No. Sabotage, orchestrated by Tommy Mottola.
Jennifer’s records were released first, and Mariah was left scrambling for a solution. She chose to retain “If We” for Glitter, but use it only as an album cut. On the flip side, “Loverboy” presented a dilemma. Much of Glitter was already filmed, including scenes with Mariah’s character singing “Loverboy” with the “Firecracker” sample. She had to act fast and find a song that could maintain her vocal track while still adhering to the 80s theme of the film. She settled on Cameo’s “Candy,” rushed into the studio with members of Cameo and recreated the instrumentation/track. When she released her hip-hop remix, the song (a trademark of Mariah’s single releases that she pioneered in the 90’s was to go back into the studio and record new vocals over new tracks to create both hip hop-oriented and dance-oriented remixes), her friend Da Brat threw major shade at Jennifer. To add to the theatrics, Brat sang-rapped her diss to the “Firecracker” melody. She says: “Hate on me, much as you want to. You can’t do, what the fuck I do. Bitches be, emulating me daily. Hate on me, much as you want to. You can’t be, who the fuck I be. Bitches be, imitating me lately.” Listen below.
While working on the album, Mariah hit the studio with Ja Rule, and crafted what became “If We.” It was Ja Rule’s first foray into R&B collaborations. Right after finishing the record, Irv Gotti (head of Ja’s record label, Murder Inc.) was contacted by Tommy Mottola. Mottola asked Gotti to craft a collaboration for Jennifer and Ja Rule “in the same style” of the record Ja already did with Mariah. “It was exactly the same style — with Mariah and Ja talking back and forth, just the way he does with Jennifer on ‘I’m Real.'”
Mariah’s If We
Jennifer’s I’m Real
There basically the same song! (The industry not to mention how shady Tommy was when Mariah left him, he grooms this up and coming artist who isn’t even on her level rip off her work)
There is even speculation that they even had an affair at the time when Mariah was getting a divorce from Mottola. Jennifer was dating and engaged to P.Diddy at the time as well (messy). Diddy was also a major record producer who was huge in the 90’s and is still rich to this day being hip hop’s first billionaire and all.
Curly hair… Mariah tea?… hmmm Tommy you ain’t slick
From there, Mariah infamously spiraled into a meltdown. “Loverboy” underperformed and was met with lukewarm critical response (Billboard went as far as to call the song ‘self-sabotage‘). The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified Gold in the US (Mariah’s singles up to that point typically hit #1, easily, and went platinum). On the flip side, Jennifer’s “I’m Real” hit #1 on the Hot 100, and the remix helped further establish her as a figure with hip-hop crossover appeal. Furthermore, both Glitter the soundtrack and the film bombed when released (though the former has become regarded as one of Mariah’s most underrated bodies of work and the latter has developed something of a cult following and appreciation in recent years).
While the situation was playing out, Mariah never mentioned it publicly, aside from alluding to issues on long-deleted messages left on her website. She began discussing it and J.Lo after the fact, when the dust started to settle. The first instance came when Mariah was being interviewed by Vanessa Grigoradis for Allure Magazine, which hit stands in September of 2001. The interview itself only touches on the situation for a moment, compared to what Grigoradis claims Carey said while being interviewed. Mariah then commented on the sampling controversy during an interview with Blender Magazine published in February 2003. She elaborated further during an interview published in the March 2003 issue of Vibe Magazine.
“You wonder why some companies aren’t doing so well?” Lyor Cohen asks. “It’s because they’re too focused on negatively impacting a successful Mariah Carey album.” Carey’s apparent suspicions were confirmed when producer Irv Gotti revealed that the track sampled for J.Lo’s album version of “I’m Real” was originally to be used by Carey (Lopez is signed to Sony). “He could’ve admitted that a year earlier and saved me a lot of grief,” Carey states flatly. Was it difficult, then, to watch Jenny from the block bite Mariah’s patented hip-pop formula, using choreography (and booty) to distract from a voice that doesn’t come close to rivaling hers? “Everybody has their place,” Carey offers diplomatically. “I’m trying not to feel competitive and let that take over me, even if I feel like what someone’s doing isn’t especially noteworthy.” – Mariah Carey
The infamous “I don’t know her” interview occurred in LA during the filming of Mariah’s video for ‘Bringin’ On The Heartbreak’ in March 2003. It’s safe to assume that this was a few months after the above interview was conducted. Yes, Mariah was shady, but it’s safe to argue that Mariah was still reeling from what unfolded less than 2 years prior.
Since then, there have been numerous instances of shade throwing back and forth. It’s unclear why someone hasn’t stepped in and tried to get the two divas to squash the beef. I’m gonna blame this one on Jennifer since she was in the middle of this entire chess game to ruin Mariah on behalf of her crazy ex-husband, on top of that she acted as if nothing happened and that she was innocent in all of it. She even tried to make nice with Mariah completely nonchalant to the shady happenings that went on behind the scenes. Maybe Jennifer isn’t as much of a pawn in this chess game as she appears but I do place blame on her for it because she had a bigger role in the Mariah’s sabotage. However, since things continue on as they have for a decade and a half at least you know the truth.
This is also all confirmed here: https://atrl.net/forums/topic/59699-tommy-mottola-promoted-jlo-to-spite-mariah-irv-gotti/
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The end! Hope you guys enjoyed this post. Huge shoutout to our girl MileysKoi for this awesome post filled with receipts.
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