Mariah After Midnight

Of course, there was a time when expressing herself was an uphill battle for Mariah. "They laughed at me at the label when I played them my 'Fantasy' remix with Ol' Dirty Bastard," she says. "They -- one person -- was like, 'What the hell is this? I could do that.' But you can't explain to someone who didn't grow up on hip-hop and who's wanting to listen to the GoodFellas soundtrack exclusively that this is hot and it will be a classic."

It's not Mariah's style to name names, whether she's dishing about a certain female artist who got skinny with the help of illegal pharmaceuticals or whether she's referring less than obliquely to her ex-husband, former Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola. It was Mottola who discovered Mariah and signed her to Columbia Records after a friend of Mariah's passed him a demo tape at a party in 1988. Mottola and Mariah became romantically involved shortly thereafter, and -- once he had divorced his wife -- the pair married in 1993. But, as is well-known by now, Mariah was miserable in the relationship, which she calls "abusive" and one that "purposely preyed on every insecurity I have." The couple divorced five years later, when Mariah still had a couple of albums remaining in her contract with Sony.

"It was a real struggle being there while still having a certain person in power and being divorced from him," she says. "Things get a little awkward when you're dealing with someone who's obsessed, and angry, and powerful. Leaving him was one of the toughest things I've ever done. It's very easy to manipulate someone when you're twenty-plus years older than them. Whatever. I'm not placing blame. Nobody held a gun to my head." She pauses and smiles. "At least I don't think anybody held a gun to my head."

[Excerpt From Issue 994 — February 23, 2006]