Jermaine Dupri claims Wu-Tang Clan inspired one of Mariah Carey’s biggest chart-toppers.
During a recent chat on the R&B Money Podcast, the producer and rapper discussed his first collaboration with Carey on “Always Be My Baby,” which kicked off their creative partnership.
At the one-hour, 22-minute mark in the video above, Dupri explained that his production on Xscape’s 1993 hit “Just Kickin’ It” caught Carey’s ear and led to a call inviting him to work with her in the studio.
“She wanted a record that felt like that on her album. I got the call to go in the studio with Mariah,” said Dupri, 52. “I didn’t know that that’s what she wanted, but that’s what she was looking for.”
Dupri remembered feeling anxious and uncomfortable as he headed to New York with collaborator Manuel Seal for his first project outside his Atlanta studio without any of his own equipment.
“I’m like, ‘She’s a superstar, and I’m little n***a,’ I don’t know why I’m here … I’m thinking they use all different chords, they got different keyboards,” he said.
“She came in the studio and she was like, ‘I want to make a record like this.’ And I’m like, ‘What do you want me to do with this?’ She said, ‘I want to sing over this.’ And it was ‘C.R.E.A.M.’ Wu-Tang Clan,” Dupri said.
Initially, Dupri wasn’t sold on the idea and didn’t want to be “the person who fuck this shit up.” But Carey was adamant and sure about her vision.
“I started following her lead and she was like, ‘You know, I need something like ‘Just Kickin’ It.’ But I want it to be pretty, but I wanted to have that ghetto shit on it that y’all got on ‘Just Kickin’ It.'”
From there, Dupri described how Seal played some chords and Carey suggested key changes to fit her vocal range before he added 808s as the final touch. That session produced Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” from her 1995 album Daydream.
“Always Be My Baby” hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in May 1996, according to Billboard. The song followed the massive success of “One Sweet Day” with Boyz II Men, which dominated the chart for 16 weeks.
“Baby” became Carey’s 11th No. 1, putting her on par with Whitney Houston and Madonna for the most by a female artist at that time, before she broke that tie with “Honey” in 1997.
The track sampling Wu-Tang’s “C.R.E.A.M.” never happened, with Dupri explaining, “I was also not completely dialed into Mariah yet as far as putting her over top of ‘C.R.E.A.M.,’ It didn’t make sense to me.”
“I’m not gonna be the guy to do that, not realizing that she basically was creating hip-pop music,” he added. “She’s actually the creator of that, like, Ariana Grande singing over something, Katy Perry singing over something, Christina Aguilera. She’s the person who created that sound in her mind—she did this. And she’s still that person to this day.
“She wants to sing over street shit, [the] hoodest shit going, whatever it is, hood New York shit. That’s when she comes to the studio like she’s the rapper, ‘Here’s what I want to sing over.'”
Dupri and Carey continued their collaboration on massive hits like “We Belong Together,” “It’s Like That,” “Shake it Off,” and “Don’t Forget About Us.”
