Talk:The Emancipation of Mimi

"International", "worldwide"
We read: "Get Your Number" will be the next U.K./international single. But surely "international" includes the Youkay and (at least in principle) everywhere else. Does "international" have a special meaning here? If not, why is "U.K." necessary?

The words "international" and "worldwide" are bandied about quite a lot in this article, sometimes in what seems to be the normal way, sometimes apparently meaning non-US (or non-US-or-Canada?), and sometimes obscurely. Perhaps somebody here who knows about these things can check the uses of these words. -- Hoary 07:35, August 26, 2005 (UTC)

SGML Comments
What does that last sentence mean?


 * She heard the hot beat and she liked it and wanted to know who made it?

'''25,000 NZ dollars? US dollars? Zloties? And "to" Carey?'''


 * I didn't write that, so I don't know US or Zloties.

What does this mean?

Well, thats a direct quote from Mariah. It means that the song is sort of a happy song, but at the same time retains elements of roughness. OmegaWikipedia 23:33, 29 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Well, thanks for trying, but I still don't understand. Here's the passage (abridged):
 * As the people in the crowded studio were still chatting, Jones immediately came over the studio that enraptured Carey, causing her to demand who produced them. [stuff omitted here] Rumors claim the group asked for a 25,000 pay-out to Carey  for the rights of their song.
 * I don't know what to "come over a studio" means. And surely it wasn't the studio that "enraptured" MC. Did the rotund New Zealanders want 25 thousand somethings from MC, perhaps?
 * I can't fix these, because I know squat about this album. (I don't believe I've heard a single track.) -- Hoary 12:04, August 30, 2005 (UTC)\
 * You should really listen to the album. It's a decent album. I may have been a bad edit from a certain person trying to edit these articles, but the jist of that article was that a beat started playing in the studio that caught her attention. OmegaWikipedia 22:33, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Er, thanks for the invitation, but no thanks. I've heard older stuff by her and didn't like it. (I particularly dislike what this article rather aptly calls "belting".) And while I like much of R&B down to the early 70s or thereabouts, almost all the newer stuff seems saccharine. -- Hoary 04:29, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Commented-out text
I've just commented this out of the article:
 * "her diva-like antics of demanding water and a microphone stand"

Am I alone in thinking that asking for water and a microphone stand fall a long way short of being "diva-like"? --Mel Etitis ( &Mu;&epsilon;&lambda; &Epsilon;&tau;&eta;&tau;&eta;&sigmaf; ) 09:49, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Well, you'd have to watch it to see the context of that. Would you like a link to her performance? In any case to avoid any POV type problems, she was labeled by the media as a "diva", it wasn't the opinion of the person who wrote it. OmegaWikipedia 22:35, 2 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I rather agree with Mel Etitis. How do those demands make Carey diva-like? Winnermario 01:54, September 10, 2005 (UTC)

Spurious precision, dubious accuracy
We read:


 * This is a week-by-week breakdown of sales of The Emancipation of Mimi. To date, the album has sold 3,270,864 copies

I edited that to "has sold over 3.2 million copies", or similar, adding the SGML comment:


 * Previously "3,270,864 copies": this degree of precision is obviously ridiculous.

The edit was reverted, and the following comment added:


 * Hoary, we get our information when soundscan which is very exact and accurate. These numbers are real. Everytime you buy an album at any store, its eletronically recorded, adding to Soundscan's total

The last time I bought an album at any store was about four days ago in Thelonious, a (very literally) underground store in Vilnius. There was no electronic recording: the proprietor excused the delay while he jotted down the record numbers in a notebook. Such a procedure is very normal; the comment about Soundscan seems US-centric. (The article on Nielsen SoundScan is obscure.)

Precision aside, perhaps "copies" should probably be followed by "in the US", "in the US and Canada", or similar.

The section "Chart performance | Album" seems to be about the US. In it we read that the album continues to sell above or around 100,000 copies weekly. Let's assume 24/7 retailing: this works out at roughly ten copies per minute. Thus "3,270,864" implies precision to less than one minute (as it informs us not of tens of copies but of individual copies). Right then, here's an imagined (fictitious) example that makes sense: ''By 16 Sep 2005, 03:47:00 GMT, the album had sold 3,270,864 copies in the USA and Canada."

But even though it makes sense, even this is pretty absurd. For what is the significance of 3,270,864 over 3.27 million or perhaps even 3.3 million? I suggest: none. Unless perhaps you have pointy (Vulcan) ears or are nuts about Carey trivia. -- Hoary 04:55, 18 September 2005 (UTC) Slightly tweaked for clarity, 02:18, 24 September 2005 (UTC)


 * You're exactly right, and have hit the nail on the head of what is an increasingly widespread problem on Wikipedia articles about contemporary albums and singles. Editors seem to dwell on insignificant details (such as listing every single U.S. chart movement the album/single has ever made), and forget to look at the bigger picture, such as what critics thought of the work (weasel terms such as "[unidentified] critics have called this a great album" don't count). The gargantuan size of this articles creates various problems as well: in addition to the excessive wikilinking (Charmbracelet needs to be linked to four times?), parts of the article contradict each other. For example, in the article's lead, it states that the album is Carey's most successful since Rainbow, but further down, it says that it is her most successful since Butterfly. Further elevating this problem is that there are zero references, so you don't know where to look to find your answers. I also agree with your point about the unacceptable U.S. slant to these articles: most of them are written under the assumption that the reader is a) American and b) familiar with music terms such as "A/C", "airplay" and the like. Extraordinary Machine 19:32, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Hear! Hear! At last some editors who agree with me about these articles (and whose sleeves are rolled up). --Mel Etitis  ( Μελ Ετητης ) 22:07, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Of course I'm glad to find agreement, and I in turn agree with your new points, but I think you're slightly overstating the American slant or rather the problems with this. My guess is that the articles are not written under the assumption that the reader is American; rather, the writer is American and is making certain unconscious assumptions here. Yes, the writers of these articles are careless in various ways, prolix, and too reluctant to cut what you and I regard as trivia; but on the other hand they have been tremendously energetic and the one I've been corresponding with recently (e.g. here) is open to critical suggestions. Mel has written elsewhere that The deeper trouble is that [the vast majority of these pop-music articles are] defended to the last drop of blood by their "owners" (including poor Wiki-style, poor English style, fanzine language, fan-gush descriptions of minor videos in enervating detail, etc.): I agree with these criticisms of the articles, but not with the criticism of their "owners", who I have found to be reasonable, accepting improvement of the articles. Perhaps I've had the good luck to encounter the more amenable writers, but this would imply that they're not homogenous. Let's try not to make assumptions about other authors' assumptions, but instead concentrate on the articles themselves. -- Hoary 02:46, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

On your main point, I agree (though I think the difference between you and Extraordinary Machine is only verbal). With regard to editors... hmmm, yes, you've been lucky (or I've been unlucky). --Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης ) 14:33, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Zirconium Edition rumors
(Till I know for a fact that it's the "Platinum Edition", I feel free to refer to it as the Zirconium Edition or anything else. Zirconium: makes good tweezers.)

We read:


 * It had been reported by Jeramine Dupri that a charity single he had been producing to help victims of Hurricane Katrina would be included. Its reasons for exclusion are not known. The remix of "Shake It Off" was also initially reported to be on the album. Its reasons for exclusion are also not known.

Well, maybe the inital reports resulted from misinformation or mere idle guesswork. Who cares about predictions once they have turned out to be wrong? How is this kind of thing encyclopedic? -- Hoary 06:36, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Oh, its definitely the Platinum Edition. It's been confirmed by MTV. Seeing as youve been editing the Mariah articles now and you seem to know a bit more about her, I would recommend you buying it. Perfect oppurtunity to start listening to her. Well those were definitely reported information ,not rumors. I think cancelled plans are definitely encyclopedic. Like if you look at Desperate Housewives, we can see them mentioning plans which got cancelled. Its always intresting and informative to know of cancelled plans on any subject. OmegaWikipedia 06:52, 15 October 2005 (UTC)


 * It could be interesting to read of canceled plans if those plans can be verified and are somehow significant, or if they can be verified and their cancelation is somehow significant. Where's the significance here? As for Desperate Housewives, I didn't bother to read it: a quick glance at it suggests to me that it could be a good illustration of why not to describe canceled plans: the article is immense (and is screwed up on my browser). (And thanks for the purchase recommendation, but Lol Coxhill is more my taste.) -- Hoary 07:07, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Can we please repost the “Chart Trajectory” for this album?

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please don't ever update those chart, soundscan tracker if you don't know how. I don't know who is that, but he/she messed up the alignment of the table every week, and makes me have to take care of that! Stop editing if you're an IDIOT!!! (comment left by User:60.48.107.25, 010:51, 20 October 2005; edited by User:60.50.155.141, 07:01, 21 October 2005)


 * Please calm down, stop shouting, and don't make personal attacks on other editors. --Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης ) 16:00, 22 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Well, since precise week-to-week sales of the album are probably only of interest to fans of Mariah Carey and the album, I'm removing the SoundScan tracker section. Extraordinary Machine 17:24, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Can anyone bring back the week-to-week sale of the album and the charts? Why do they have to be removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.51.136.203 (talk • contribs) 06:18, 27 October 2005


 * Because, as mentioned above, the information presented within those sections is probably only of interest to Carey fans (and chart enthusiasts). Don't worry, though: the success of the album and its chart performance and sales have been summarised in the "Chart performance" section of the article. Extraordinary Machine 13:17, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Thank you so much Extraordinary Machine! I hope you will keep updating the information of sales and charts in the summary. You rock! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.131.6.121 (talk • contribs) 15:05, 27 October 2005


 * Thanks :). However, anybody can update the summary in the "Chart performance" section (and I'm not in the habit of checking weekly chart positions and Nielsen SoundScan figures). Just remember to update the number of weeks the album has been in the top twenty, the number of copies it has sold in total and the "as of" date for the number of copies sold. Also, please sign your comments on talk pages with four tildes ( ~ ), and consider creating an account here. Thanks. Extraordinary Machine 14:26, 27 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I think they should be brought back. If you want us to update it every week, how are we supposed to know, unless its actually here? OmegaWikipedia 04:29, 28 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I don't think that section should be removed either. I don't see how official sales figures and album positions are only interest to Carey's fans.  If somebody is researching or wanting to write about this album, that is imporant and useful information.  --Musicpvm 05:41, 28 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Then they can do their own research. This is an encyclopedia: we're supposed to summarise facts, not present them all no matter how trivial they are. Just because the article is now within the guidelines for article size doesn't automatically mean that some of the excessive detail previously removed can start being inserted back in again. Please think about this: would a typical non-fan of Carey who came across this article want to know that the album sold 60,726 copies in its twenty-fourth week of release? Or that it was at number thirteen on the chart the following week? This level of detail is ridiculous, as myself, User:Hoary and others have already said (see Requests for comment/Pop music issues).


 * I'll highlight the points that can be updated weekly:


 * After twenty-eight weeks of release, it remains in the top twenty of the Billboard 200.


 * Nielsen SoundScan figures reported that 3,612,524 copies of the album had been sold as of October 25, 2005, making it one of the best-selling albums of the year in the U.S.


 * Extraordinary Machine 12:23, 28 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Without discussion, User:Ultimate Star Wars Freak has my reverted my removal of the SoundScan/chart trajectory table, with the edit summary "rv vandalism". If you have an explanation as to why you undid my contributions to the article, please provide it here. Thanks. Extraordinary Machine 21:56, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Hey put back those album sales, most of the articles here are of fans of a subject and like it or not it's interesting to see the sales. So if you think that every thing that is only interesting to the fans should be erased. Why don't you immediately erase a quarter of all the articles here. PUT IT BACK

My God...this page is readable now!
Great work, Extraordinary Machine! --FuriousFreddy 11:32, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Don't forget about us #1 in japan ??
is don't forget abou us #1 in japan??

i've never read about that!

Can we please repost the “Chart Trajectory” for this album?
I think it should be posted. Most albums that are currently charting have trajectories.


 * In the words of user:FuriousFreddy: do we really need to know exactly how a record performed week-by-week on the charts, in the context of an encyclopedia article? Extraordinary Machine 01:56, 12 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, of course we do. Everyking 19:44, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

When will you make the chart trajectory. Maybe I can help you with the record sales of Charmbracelet and TEOM.

International chart performance! GONE!
Now that the charts have been removed, there is hardly, if any, a mention of the album's international success! I think the information that was removed should be put back, which includes its international certifications. Until then, I'll be adding a section on its international success. -- Grey Pursuit February 22, 2006 (UTC)


 * After a closer inspection, I've realized that I've overlooked the closing sentences to the first paragraph of 'Chart Performance' to find a brief, yet mention nonetheless of the album's international success. I apologize for the overcite, but I still feel that the article is lacking of any substantial coverage of its international success (or non-success).


 * Well, considering it sold 9million+ worldwide and got to number one on the world charts, hardly non-success!

WHY DOES EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE KEEP DELETING THE CHART TRAJECTORIES?!


 * WP:NOT an indiscriminate collection of information. Lots of users have restored the trajectories (going to so far as to create entirely new articles for them), but none of them have explained to me why every single week-by-week chart movement of the album is worth mentioning in an encyclopedia. We're not "all-inclusive", we're supposed to provide succinct summaries of information.


 * You should also take a closer look at the version you insist on reverting to: Fly Like A Bird is a redirect link back to this article, and it was incorrectly capitalised anyway. Extraordinary Machine 18:26, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

If alot of users have restored them and you are the only one to delete them, surely that means you are the only one who doesn't like them. I thought the page for TEOM's chart trajectory was brilliant and must of taken whoever did it ages, and you just go around deleting them. I personally feel chart performance is a vital part of a song/albums page, and if we can get them there is no real reason not to have them. Lots of other song/album pages have them, so they are popular, we like having them on the Mariah pages, if you don't like them, tackle the pages where they are not wanted.


 * A lot of users who have provided no good reasons for the re-insertion of the chart trajectories, compared to one user who has quoted official Wikipedia policy. Wikipedia is not a democracy; it's not simply a case of "majority rules". This issue has been discussed elsewhere (see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Music/Tables for charts and Requests for comment/Pop music issues), with the general consensus being that listing every single week-by-week movement of an album or single should not be done. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a compendium of all human knowledge. Just write "It has remained in the top twenty for x weeks": it's succinct and saves space while preserving the actual meaning of all those numbers. See also Trivia and Fancruft. Extraordinary Machine 22:12, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Hi, but let's be honest. This article is primarily for fans of Mariah Carey.  They want the chart trajectory.  I wanted to see the chart trajectory just now, and I was unable to find the information that I was looking for on Wikipedia.  This was disappointing.  I don't understand why it's such a big deal if there a little table that has the chart trajectory on it; if people don't need to know it they can easy pass by it since it's inside of a table.

I propose not just the inclusion of the trajectory, but a chart performance subarticle to go into further detail about the chart performance both in the U.S. and internationally. I think there is a lot to say here, plenty to fill a subarticle. Extraordinary Machine's concerns about being concise do have some merit, but in general we should look towards creating subarticles if the main article is getting too lengthy, instead of trimming detail and not putting it anywhere else. I am quite certain that there are many people who would be grateful to us for the info. Everyking 19:48, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
 * If you believe that the information belongs in the article, then be bold and include it yourself. After all, we are here to build an encyclopedia! :) &mdash;Eternal Equinox | talk 03:06, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

extraordinary machine, how am i supposed to get the weekly sales for the album now? (what website?) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.144.80.175 (talk • contribs) 23:09, 11 November 2006.


 * . Extraordinary Machine 17:55, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

10 million yet?

 * Has this album gotten to 10 million in worldwide album sales yet?
 * Yes It has. The album has officialy shipped 10 million this month.


 * No way, that is just a newspaper article on a fansite. The only official data is 7.7m in 2005 (IFPI). I see Orane is quick to request sources for other artists, but accepts the highest bidder for Mariah, even if it comes from a fansite.I find it hard to believe it's sold 2.3m extra since, as it has sold only in the US since its release, and it had already lost steam by January.


 * Also, of the 7.7m shipped declared by Island to the IFPI as per 31st dec 2005, 5.5 were shipped to the US, 2.2 to the rest of the world (including the final shipment to the EU). There have not been shipments outside the uS since, and about 500K in the uS. That means 8.2, which by the way, is what Island declare. So, 8.2 shipped seems to be the real data. It's a lot and soes not need boosting.


 * Billboard and the Today show said TEOM shipped/sold over 9 million by early May of this year. Her newsletter officialy stated that TEOM has shipped/sold 10 million worldwide. Here are the sources


 * I just wanna ask. Is it true that TEOM has reach 7 million copies. Because from what i saw in mariahdaily.com in 2006 TEOM has sold 1,968,531 copies. So if we add that sales with the 2005 sales so now TEOM has been sold 6,937,137 copies. So it must be 7 platinum now. But is it true?


 * No, those were sales for the 2006 Billboard Calender year (Nov. 2005 - Nov. 2006). The album has sold 5.75 million so far.72.94.46.100 02:09, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

The singles chart
I placed a chart in to show the chart positions all six singles in the countries listed. However, the last two singles Say Somethin' and Fly Like A Bird I do not know the chart positions for them in Canada, Austrailia and other European countries. If anyone knows them please add them in. Plus does anyone know if there will a UK release for Fly Like A Bird?


 * I removed them. This is an article about the album, not the singles, and it is quite long anyway. Extraordinary Machine 20:50, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

The album's value
The album wasn't as good as critics described, but most of the songs were pretty good. I really bought the album like four times. --So Fresh and So Clean_Wish U Was Me 18:29, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Ninth studio album?
Isn't this her tenth studio album? I would consider Merry Christmas to be a studio album. The Mariah Carey article also displays ten studio albums in the discography section. --musicpvm 01:25, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Beyoncé look alike
Someone should find the picture of Beyoncé that looks just like this album cover --58.163.148.240 04:43, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Picture!!!
Put the albums picture somebody...

plus... can someone learn me how to put pictures on wikipedia and how to choose where bad should refer!!! its really annoying cause i want to put michaels jacksons single bad and it takes me to a weird completely unrelated page. if someone can help me please do!

10 million shipped/sold???
I think this matter should be discussed. Reidlos (talk) 16:05, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Someone keeps changing the statements, without even being cogniscent of the sources. People really need to stop vandalizing this article. No wonder this isn't featured. BalticPat22 02:10, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

'writing/recording' section is not sourced
The 'writing/recording' section is not sourced. Please source it. Thanks. 64.26.99.120 (talk) 22:48, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Kanye West, The Neptunes and James "Big Jim" Wright
For the first song, Carey turned to Kanye West, whom she had known for years but had never collaborated with. Her soundtrack album Glitter (2001) had featured 1980s music inappropriate for West's style, and time conflicts prevented them from working together on Charmbracelet (2002). Carey and West began to work melodic ideas for the song "Stay the Night" over an instrumental track by West that sampled Ramsey Lewis' version of The Stylistics' hit single "Betcha by Golly Wow!", and Carey discovered that the song they had written was in a complex key signature and would need a lot of vocal belting. She decided to keep the key. Carey has described the song as very "much a vocal performance ... but it's organic to the song and to the nature of the feeling we were going for. It's kind of like giving you an old-schoolish, Jackson 5-type vibe, so I was happy with that."

For years Carey had known and wanted to work with The Neptunes (Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams), a production duo who allow artists to co-write with them but not to co-produce; they believe they have a unique balance of production that is disturbed by others. Carey reluctantly decided to give up her production rights for the first time in fourteen years, and one of the songs spawned from this partnership was "Say Somethin'." When at the recording studio, Carey discovered that rapper Snoop Dogg (who had previously collaborated with Carey on her 2000 single "Crybaby") was working in the next room, and she invited him to rap/sing on the record. "Say Somethin'" was originally slated to be one of the first singles from the album, but Carey did not feel comfortable with its release, often describing the song as "very Pharrell." But she maintained that its composition was "just a really cool experience ... he took me to a different place that I wouldn't naturally go but I could go." Carey and The Neptunes also created "To the Floor," which features rapper Nelly; according to Carey, he was in a recording studio next to her and came over to record vocals for it. The song leaked onto the internet under the name "Tonight."

Carey had worked regularly with writing partners Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (a.k.a. Flyte Time) since her seventh studio album, Rainbow (1999). Despite the fact that the sales of the Carey albums to which they had contributed had been lower than those of her previous albums, she wanted to work with them again. Because no time could be arranged for the three to meet, they sent their junior partner, James "Big Jim" Wright, to work with Carey. Wright had co-produced and co-written a few songs on Carey's previous albums with Jam and Lewis, but this was the first time he was her main creative partner. Although Carey had previously worked with live instruments before, she had never explored their use. With Wright, she decided to create a song using no synthesizers, but instead with live instruments and background vocals that gave, in her words, "an old-school type vibe ... that organic kind of feel, like basically we were going for a somewhat retro, urban record that wasn't overly produced." As with that song (which was titled "Circles"), Carey recorded the track "I Wish You Knew" with live instruments, but sung off riffs of live guitars and other instruments. A "live" audience and spoken section was added to the song because Carey, who felt that the track was very similar to "Circles," wanted to evoke "old-school kind of Diana Ross moments, of like a live concert where she'll just break down a song and start talking."

Before Carey and Wright called it a night, Carey devised the main melody and lyrics of the chorus of the gospel-influenced "Fly like a Bird," and Wright laid down the song's chord structure. Carey, who asked her pastor, Clarence Keaton, to speak on the track, named the song as her favorite from the album. She believed that the song's spiritual message was "really important to include on the album," and chose it as the album's closing track because she felt "it kind of leaves you on a spiritual high moment."

Scram Jones, James Poyser, The Legendary Traxster and Swizz Beatz
With some tracks finished, Carey decided to visit rapper N.O.R.E. at a recording studio, where his relatively unknown producer Scram Jones was present. Jones, aware of Carey's pursuit of "hot beats," got together with her for " I Should Be Your Girl," which uses an excerpt of New Zealand's R&B duo Adeaze's song "A Life with You" (providing the background ostinato vocals). Because Jones is N.O.R.E's producer, the original version of "Your Girl" featured a rap by N.O.R.E. Carey characterized the song as "one of those happy, uptempo records but it's still giving you kind of, very thugged out moments cause that's kinda, Scram Jones' thing," adding that "most of my friends who are singers really love [it]."

As she had done with Wright, Carey wanted to explore music with R&B roots that were organic, yet soulful. She exchanged riffs with songwriter and producer James Poyser at the piano until "Mine Again" was created. Carey declared the song "the power ballad of this record ... it's a very big vocal moment, a big vocal performance ... one of those kind of like, break your heart songs, make you get together with your ex." When recording the song "One and Only" with The Legendary Traxster, Carey discovered that it was originally used as a "practice track" from rapper Twista, and she invited Twista himself to rap/sing on the song. Carey said the song "happened to be in that kind of fast singing rhythmic style just naturally because that's kind of where the beat was taking me," and commented "I was so happy that [Twista]'s on it because I'm a really big fan of his. I think his style is amazing." Carey collaborated with producer Swizz Beatz, who had worked with her on rapper Jay-Z's song "Things That U Do" (on which Carey had been a featured artist), on "Secret Love." The song did not make the original album cut, but has been released as a bonus track in Japan.

Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox, Manuel Seal and LRoc
Carey flew down to Atlanta to work with Jermaine Dupri, her friend and creative partner of over ten years. To start off, Dupri produced an instrumental track that sounded similar to Usher's "Confessions Part II" (2004), and Carey began singing melodies over the beat and writing lyrics to accompany it. Dupri then suggested for the song's hook "I gotta get away," but Carey thought the song would be better with the lyrics "I gotta shake it off." Carey said the song "Shake It Off" is "definitely one of my favorite songs...when you're going through some drama, and you just wanna get through it, you put that song on and it just takes you out of whatever mood you're in." Carey heard an instrumental track Dupri had created for his forthcoming album that sampled "Just an Illusion" by Imagination, and Dupri asked her to sing her version of the song. Carey was reluctant to create another song that used a sample, and it was felt that her vocals lacked something that Dupri's had. She then decided to make a duet with Dupri singing the chorus and her speaking/rapping the verse, thus creating "Get Your Number." Carey said, "a lot of people like it cause it's very, giving you kind of like a 'Fantasy' type-feeling."

With two songs co-written and co-produced with Dupri and her album nearly complete, Carey was satisfied with her output. Though "Say Somethin'" had been selected as the album's first single, Antonio Reid sent Carey back to Atlanta. The club scene of the city inspired "It's like That," and Carey said "I just wanted a record that was really fun, really like for the clubs and just for the people who were getting ready to go out at night; one of those really let-your-hair-down, just have a good time, this is my night type of thing." Carey was criticized for the song's references to alcohol and drugs, but she maintained that they were mere jokes. The song's hook, "it's like that y'all," is borrowed from a 1984 Run-D.M.C. track, "It's like That" (from their debut album, Run-D.M.C.), showing the influence of old school hip hop on Carey's 2005 sound. Two songs were written on Carey's second journey back to Atlanta, the second being "We Belong Together." Carey, who has described the song as "'One Sweet Day' meets 'Breakdown'," felt it was "a really heartfelt ballad that I think people can really relate to, even though it's like a very specific story, I think that everybody can probably apply it to their own lives."

Mahogany, Eric Cire & Young Genius, and R. Kelly
Carey worked with the experienced, but relatively low profile, producer and writer Mahogany on two tracks. The first, "Sprung," uses robotic voices and "chipmunk" vocals and was left off the U.S. version of the album, but is a bonus track elsewhere. "Sprung" was later included on a separate disc in a Target Stores exclusive version of the album's re-release. "When I Feel It," the second song, was originally announced as track thirteen on the album, but Carey and her record company were denied clearance for a sample used in the song. With only weeks before the album was to be released, Carey did not have time to re-record the song properly without the sample, and she had no choice but to exclude it.

Carey had recorded several songs that would not make the album, but because "Sprung" and "Secret Love" were already earmarked for bonus tracks, she chose to replace the now-illegal "When I Feel It" with "Joy Ride." The song was co-written and co-produced with singer/song writer/producer Eric Cire and fifteen year-old Young Genius, to whom Carey could relate because she started writing and producing at around his age. Because it was not originally meant to be used on the album, part of the track had been misplaced, and the song could only be mixed down to two tracks. Because each layer of a song should be mixed individually, technical issues arose, but Carey said "it really didn't matter because they had such a great sound and everything. It was so well done in the first place that I was happy just to mix the vocals and call it a day." She categorised the song as "a ballad... they call it the baby-making song of the record. I don't use that terminology, but they can call it the baby-making song if they want!"

Carey has great respect for other singer/songwriter/producers such as R. Kelly, and she contacted Kelly to co-write and co-produce songs with her. The two of them bounced around some ideas, but after a while they realized that they were incompatible, and no work came of their sessions together.

Overall, the album has fewer songs with rappers than some of Carey's previous albums: it only features four, of whom three sing (not rap) most of their parts. Many of the songs had rap sections cut; for example, N.O.R.E was supposed to be featured on "Your Girl", and Ludacris on "Stay the Night." Carey uses non-synthesized instruments more than before; although she had previously experimented with them on songs such as "Subtle Invitation," the single version of "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" and the international bonus track "There Goes My Heart" (all from Charmbracelet), this is the first time they are so prominent on a studio album.

Album packaging and design
The packaging and design of some of Carey's previous albums such as Rainbow, in which she can be seen jumping in her underwear and lying in a bed in an erotic fashion, had led some critics to label her a promiscuous woman. In contrast, the design for the Charmbracelet album did not show Carey's figure at all. For The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey contacted the studio of Markus and Indrani, intending the album's artwork to retain her sex appeal but present a more mature image. Fashion stylist GK Reid styled her album covers and artwork.

The digipak uses a close-up of the main album cover and also new style of pressing to give the physical case a unique glare. Unlike the original album (with a booklet insert), the digipak's insert is a poster showing the original album cover.

Credits
Where are the credits? At the moment there are only writers listed. Adabow (talk · contribs) 07:03, 26 June 2011 (UTC)


 * That is all Allmusic sources :S Take a look at the reference-- CallMe Nathan  &bull;  Talk2Me   13:57, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

August 2011 copy edit
This appears at the end of the section about the singles: "The latter was released as the album's sixth and final single. Released to US urban and urban adult contemporary radio stations, "Say Somethin'" was released to pop and rhythmic radio stations." I can't figure out which songs these sentences are referring to. Could you please enlighten me? Thanks. --Dianna (talk) 01:23, 19 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Just write to me with these issues Di, I wrote the page :) Yes "Say Somethin'" was released as the fifth single, at the same time "Fly Like a Bird" was as the sixth. "Say Somethin'" was released to pop and rhythmic radio stations, while "Fly Like a Bird" to US urban and urban adult contemporary radio stations. It is confusing, you're right, I was just reading it.-- CallMe Nathan  &bull;  Talk2Me   01:26, 19 August 2011 (UTC)


 * There seems to be some content missing here: " S, which featured a heavy-techno accompaniment to the original intrumentation." --Dianna (talk) 01:43, 19 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Removed. That was from an older version.-- CallMe Nathan  &bull;  Talk2Me   10:30, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

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Stop with the 12 million copies sold already
The album has officially sold 6,080,000 in the USA, and the other markets where it had big sales were UK with 620,000, Japan with 260,000 and Canada with 300,000, it sold less than 1 million in other territories, 10 million is a more than generous amount and there are SEVERAL SOURCES that state that, the ones claiming that the album sold 12 million are the same who say that Michael Jackson's Thriller sold 100 million copies. Alberto279 (talk) 00:20, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

"I Wish You Knew" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect I Wish You Knew. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 August 26 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. 1234qwer1234qwer4 (talk) 21:39, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 07:38, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
 * TEOM Ultra Platinum Edition.jpg

Don't Forget About Us
"Don't Forget About Us" complies with Template:Infobox album because it was not "added as bonus tracks on a re-release of an album", but added to the Ultra Platinum Edition which is the official reissue of the album and a significant commercial single release. "Fly Like a Bird" however was never commercially released in any territory and is only a promotional single and does not comply BiebersBoyMendes (talk) 11:12, 5 September 2021 (UTC)

Don't Forget About Us/Ultra Platinum Edition
I added "Don't Forget About Us" because it does comply with Template:Infobox album because it was not "added as bonus tracks on a re-release of an album", but was released specifically to promote the reissue. Secondly, the cover of the Ultra Platinum Edition should be placed as the Alternative cover. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.108.195.131 (talk) 13:16, 2 June 2022 (UTC)