Dear Gossips,

Mariah Carey should always be the main character, as she should be. And that’s how she’s always lived. In her book, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, Mimi shares with us how she came to see the world the way she does – and why she has always insisted on centering herself in it. So on the rare occasion she doesn’t? Well, you know it just doesn’t happen for anyone.

Mimi interviewed Cardi B for Interview. And even though Cardi has all kinds of awards, including Grammys, it should be considered one of the great honours of her career so far. Right?! Let’s really drive this home – Cardi B was the subject, Cardi is on the cover, Mimi was there in service of Cardi’s story and not necessarily her own. It’s the celebrity news equivalent of Halley’s Comet. Mimi was the INTERVIEWER, the one asking the questions, not answering them.

OK but that’s not actually an accurate representation of this conversation. Mimi being Mimi, there was still a LOT of Mimi in the discussion. As she told Cardi, “I can only ask questions from a place of, “How is her experience different from mine?” LOL. But also… of course. Why would anyone want that to be anything else?

Because over the years, we’ve seen that when celebrities are put in charge of profiling other celebrities, it really doesn’t get us much insight. In this case though, not surprisingly, since Mimi is underappreciated in many different ways (from songwriting to producing to business strategy), Mimi delivers. Precisely because she puts so much of her personality into it. Precisely because she does “ask questions from a place of “how is her experience different from mine?” Cardi has to talk about what Mimi wants to talk about – and the topics include:

Pride and Pettiness, like when Mimi asks Cardi if she feels vindicated about how celebrated she is when she looks back on all the people who told her she wasn’t pretty and while most of that is about proving your naysayers wrong and pushing through resistance, there are also Burn Book vibes here – which, of course, tracks because Mimi loves Mean Girls.

Friendship and Fame, like when Mimi talks to Cardi about trust and social circles and how they don’t really want to be friends with other celebrities, because they can disappoint you, and/or sell you out and it’s amazing that, of course, they are celebrities themselves but their conversation is only from the perspective of how other stars can let you down in friendship and not about how their celebrity might affect their own friendship skills.

Bras and Beauty, because with Mimi, the look is always important. And out of nowhere Mimi turns the conversation into her complaint about not being able to find a good bra (relatable!) and then Cardi starts talking about her nipples. Which then spins into a conversation about racism and bias in fashion.

See how much ground is covered? Mimi and Cardi did that. If you haven’t already, the interview is a much better read than most celebrity-to-celebrity interviews. Head to Interview for the complete conversation.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Mariah Carey Gossip

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