“I Don’t Know Her”: origin story of an iconic phrase

Yesterday, Mariah Carey finally opened the doors of her vault and released her new album The Rarities. (BUY AND STREAM THE ALBUM !!!) This is a two part compilation album; the first part is 15 unreleased or rare songs throughout Mariah’s very accomplished career spanning from 1990 to now. The second part is a live recording of her 1996 Tokyo Dome performance. (This is a lamb favorite as she sounds impeccable.)

One particular song that I was excited to hear was the ORIGINAL Loverboy. The sample of this song created so much chaos for Mariah at this time. So let me explain the reason; which then made Mariah iterate a phrase that is used to this day, almost 20 years later.

It all started when Mariah was recording the album for the movie she was in “Glitter.” She he recorded various tracks and was finishing up the lead single “Loverboy” which had a sample from the song ‘Firecracker” by the band Yellow Magic Orchestra. NOTE: no one had requested to sample this song before Mariah, so she was sure her song would sound original since no one else had used the sample. Well, to Mariah’s surprise, just a few months before she was set to release her single with the firecracker sample, Jennifer Lopez aka JLO; releases her song “I’m Real” as her fourth single, that INCLUDES the sample, which can clearly be heard from the beginning of the song.

Mariah had to scramble to find a new song to use as the beat for the song, she chose the song Candy by Cameo to sample for the song, which she had to remake all over again. BUT this was not the end of the thievery. Mariah also has a song on her glitter album that features then popular rapper Ja Rule, which is called “If We”. JLO’s team literally told Ja Rule and his team that they wanted a song that sounded like Mariah’s that included Ja Rule. This is where the I’m Real (Remix) was created [even with Ashanti vocals… but that’s another story for another time]

Background to this: Mariah was previously signed to the same record label as JLO two years before her (Sony), but then left when her contract was up. She had also been married to the head of the label and had gotten a divorce. So to spite Mariah, he would do anything to sabotage her. He tried, emphasize on tried, marketing JLo and other singers as the “new” Mariah. He went all the way to even stealing songs and samples from her. To blame JLO as the mastermind behind all of this would be throwing her under the bus, as she could’ve been just the face of the brain; having little to no say.

All of this was what lead to Mariah saying those four now infamous words “I don’t know her”, when a reporter asked her about JLO.

We love a shady queen, but what else can we expect? Hell has no fury like an Aries scorned. (Yep, Mariah is an Aries!) All in all, Mariah still was triumphant as Loverboy was the second best selling single of 2001. I suggest checking out Mariah’s new memoir “The Meaning of Mariah Carey” now available to purchase, as she talks more about it in her book and other glitter drama. Also stream and buy her new album The Rarities On Apple Music and On Spotify !!!