The last few days have been filled with moments for all of Mariah’s lambs, including myself, with the first taste of new music in seven years. Sure we’ve gotten a few Christmas trinkets and a ton of unreleased songs from the vault in different formats, but in terms of brand new music from a new album? It’s been close to a decade, so once news broke of Mariah’s official return, she has been in full pop diva mode. As you can imagine, this MC, me, has been over the moon ever since. Mother MC is back – and during Pride month nonetheless.
The last time we were blessed with a new album from Mariah was 2018’s Caution. At the time, she had just come out of a rough couple of years in the media post-New Year’s Eve 2016 (no I will not link it, we pretend that night didn’t happen), so the pressure was on to deliver something incredible. One thing Mariah has always been incredible at is reading the music at the time of her releases. She knows how to keep her sound fresh and current while still staying true to herself as an artist. Since then, she’s gone on to score her 19th #1 single when “All I Want For Christmas Is You” hit the top spot at the end of 2019. She also released her best-selling memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey and toured the world multiple times over. Mariah may not have been putting out new albums at this time, but Mimi doesn’t sit down. Ever. Well, she sits down and has people wheel her around from time to time, but metaphorically in terms of working? She’s always up to something to keep the lambs fed. So now that the wait for new music is over, the fun begins. New photos, new performances, a whole new era – her 16th at that. Talk about a legendary DIVA.
Another major release this week was by one of today’s biggest names in pop music, Sabrina Carpenter. I talked about the song and its origins last week, and now that a few days have set in I have been able to come to a decision on whether the song will remain in my playlist. The answer is that it will not… for now. I’m craving something a little different sonic-wise for Sabrina. All the girls of today (Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift, Sabrina) are working with Jack Antonoff. Yes, he is incredible and has made some of the most popular songs of the last few years but an artist has to evolve, and Sabrina seems to be recycling a lot of the same sounds in her music. Will I be singing this song in a few weeks once radio rotation gets out of hand? Most likely, but the fact is it wasn’t my favourite, so no it does not get onto the playlist this week. I reserve the right however to include it as a viral pick of the week should the right trend get attached to it lol.
This week along with Mariah we’ve got music from Teyana Taylor, Josh Levi, JADE and a 2000s throwback viral pick. Plus, TikToker turned literal pop star Addison Rae has dropped her new album and it’s really good.
Listen on…
MC’S PICKS OF THE WEEK
“Type Dangerous” by Mariah Carey
In case you missed me on Friday, I’m pretty excited that Mariah is back. We’ve had our theories about who she is singing about in the new track. She claims that some are made up while others are real, so because she is the queen of all queens we are going to go with that. Mariah is feeling herself on the new track, and from the looks of her BET Awards performance on Monday she is in full album promo mode. The thing that excites me the most about this upcoming era is the fact that Mariah’s pen is as sharp as ever. Her abilities as a songwriter are criminally underrated to me, and it’s always great when she gives the lambs one more token that we can use to SHOW people just how great of a writer she is. Mariah the wordsmith as I like to say – and this new song as mentioned last week is filled with Mimi-isms and unexpected words – because again, who the F-CK finds a way to include “rigamarole” in a song? She even put the damn definition in the lyric video for those of us who aren’t on her vocabulary level, darling. The official music video for “Type Dangerous” drops on Friday and was directed by legendary director Joseph Kahn. The teaser was released on Monday, and the video is giving “It’s Like That” vibes and since it is also the 20th anniversary of The Emancipation of Mimi, this all just feels like divine timing.
“Long Time” by Teyana Taylor
It’s been five long years since we’ve been blessed with new music from Teyana Taylor. Her last album, appropriately titled The Album, was intended to be her last after she made a lengthy social media post expressing that she was “very, very tired”. Five years and a divorce later, it seems she wasn’t done after all and she’s putting all those emotions into the new music. Plus, she’s got Mufasa as her new man candy and he’s all over the song’s visuals. I’d want to return to music too if I was getting my back blown out properly on the regular by Aaron Pierre, just saying. Her return to music comes in the form of the sultry empowerment anthem “Long Time” which sees her singing about the freedom she feels now that she is rid of the relationship that was holding her down. The ex in question is no doubt Iman Shumpert, who was married to Teyana for eight years until their messy 2024 divorce. She sings it best in the chorus of the song, she should’ve been out that bitch “a long time” – and now that she is, we’re getting performance artist Teyana back in full force. The good news is that it’s never too late to start again, and this fresh start will likely be covered in detail in her new short film and album Escape Room which comes out in August. The video for “Long Time” stars Lakeith Stansfield as the toxic ex and Mufasa himself as the man who picks her up when she’s down. No, literally – the final scene of the video is Aaron carrying an unconscious Teyana off the ground to safety. I love a symbolic message of love and passion, especially when the two lovers in question are as gorgeous as Teyana and Aaron.
“DON’T GO” by Josh Levi
The second I hear a synthesized harp in a song I am transported back to the glory Y2K days of R&B when TLC and Destiny’s Child reigned supreme. Songs like “No Scrubs”, “Bills, Bills, Bills”, “There You Go” and basically anything that Kandi Buruss touched in that time had that sound, so the nostalgia is real. Josh Levi who has been on the rise in R&B for a while is releasing a new song in time for summer and not only does it have this throwback feel, it uses a great sample of “No, No, No” by Destiny’s Child to really make that energy come to life. His vocals are giving classic R&B man begging for his girl to stay, which is fitting given that song’s literal subject matter is him begging his lover to – you guessed it – stay. The fact that the chorus’s melody is exactly the sample, it got stuck in my head pretty quickly. He clearly is banking on nostalgia with this one – go big or go home. I got my baggy jeans and Timbs out already. Before his music career kicked itself into high gear, Josh was a regular on the primetime drama Friday Night Lights and eventually competed in the third season of X Factor USA. Now in 2025, he just finished a stint as opening act for girl group FLO on their North American tour and his third album HYDRAULIC drops in July.
“Times Like These” by Addison Rae
I know guys, I can’t stop talking about Addison but what do you all expect? A new pop girl drawing influence from Madonna, Bjork and Britney all in one sparkly package? The woman was practically f-cking designed for gay men like me to gag over, give me some grace please! Her debut album Addison is finally here, and it doesn’t disappoint. After a string of five very strong singles and videos released sporadically over the last year helped create buzz, the latest one is this vibey gem of a song that is both catchy and experimental at the same time. Addison has found her niche of being weird and taking risks in her sound while still making contemporary pop music. A very fine line that is hard to navigate, but she has done so with the help of Swedish songwriters Elvira Anderfjard and Luka Kloser. Addison along with Elvira and Luka co-wrote the entire record together, allowing for a cohesive body of work. Plus, the fact that it’s entirely female produced makes it that much more special. “Times Like These” takes Addison’s now signature whispery vocal to a whole new level with a hypnotic key riff in the background looping throughout the song. The track sounds like something out of Kylie Minogue’s 90s indie era and coming from me that’s about as high a compliment you can get. Whether it is co-signs from her contemporaries like Doechii, Charli XCX and Jade or critical acclaim from multiple music outlets, the release of her debut album cements her place in today’s pop conversation.
“Frozen” by JADE
Like Addison Rae, JADE has been slowly teasing the release of her debut studio album over the span of a year as well with multiple singles creating buzz leading up to the street date. In the streaming era, album cycles come and go quicker than a 90s trend so it has been very intriguing to see new girls taking their time before releasing a full body of work. It gives the audience an opportunity to digest all the material and helps build a strong fan base. JADE’s album That’s Showbiz Baby! is officially due out in September but the teasers keep coming and this week we’ve been blessed by her rendition of Madonna’s 1998 classic track “Frozen”. Originally released as an Apple Music exclusive, the cover was so well received that fans demanded it be released to the masses and here we are today. The original version of the song as we know it is Enya-coded with elements of trip-hop and electronic music woven into a glorious pop package. JADE doesn’t deviate too far melodically from the original but takes some risks with the production turning it into a club-ready anthem. Don’t worry though, it works, and it helps to make the song unique for JADE. She’s even started performing the song as part of her set list for her summer festival tour, making all the girls and gays in the crowd lose their minds. It really does make for the c*ntiest “hair blowing in the wind” stage moment. JADE has always done her homework when it comes to the pop queens, so it’s no surprise that she would choose a song from THE pop queen to include on her journey to pop stardom. Of all the former Little Mix group members, JADE is clearly the one to watch and she’s just getting started.
MC’S VIRAL PICK
“Soul Survivor” by Jeezy, Akon
Any time that I’ve logged onto TikTok in the last week, I have been bombarded with clips of different “Holy Airball” challenges. It’s a simple concept really – the first clip or image is you pointing out something you said to describe yourself followed by the receiver’s response. The “holy airball” moment comes on slide three when the true answer is something that will clutch your pearls honey. I got to say, some of them are hilarious while others are just plain iconic. I’m talking celebrity children revealing their famous parents, people revealing their family businesses, one guy even revealed a duck he grew himself. There are over 2.5 million uses of the sound for the trend as of now and that number is climbing so you can get lost for hours scrolling through. Here are some of my favourites though…
@gabeaydin holiest of airballs #fyp #foryoupage #viral
♬ ECE Marketing Airball - EC Equine Marketing
@devankey
The sound being used for this trend is “Soul Survivor” by Jeezy and Akon. The song was released in 2005 and was the second single from Jeezy (then referred to a Young Jeezy) and featured a then up-and-coming Akon. This was just as Akon was starting to rise to the eventual mainstream radio royalty he would become throughout the 2000s. The tune was a huge hit at the time, reaching #4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts and #1 on the Rap Songs chart. This song was a staple at all my sixth grade basement house parties – what an era. The song is now earning upwards of 600,000 streams a day on Spotify alone and is the most popular song on the platform for Jeezy and the third for Akon (in terms of daily streams). To that I say – holy f-king airball.
@akon 20 years later, still a HIT 🆠#soulsurvivor
♬ ECE Marketing Airball - EC Equine Marketing
You can also check out my “MC’s MUSIC LOUNGE” Spotify playlist here to keep up to date with my weekly picks throughout the year.
With Love,
MC
