New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Mariah Carey is working on her next album and it will arrive on no one else's schedule but her own. She tells V Magazine that while most artists are inclined to play by the rules and release a single by summertime and premiere their album ahead of the Grammys deadline (usually by the end of September), she's got no use for their little award show.
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. I mean, I have five Grammys. That's cute," she says. Carey says she feels slighted by the institution because, although she's been nominated 34 times, there's a glaring gap between her wins and which of her work they've chosen to reward. (Carey won for Best New Artist and "Vision of Love" in 1991, and then nothing all the way until 2006 with her three wins for The Emancipation of Mimi.) She explains:
"There's people that have been doing this half the time that have twice as many [Grammys]. I won two Grammys the first year I started, but after that, [the Grammys] are like, 'We don't go with the people that are selling a lot of records and are popular; we're gonna go the opposite way.' So I got screwed out of certain years. I wasn't bitter about it. I was just like, okay, well, I guess I'm not standing here barefoot onstage singing and trying to go a certain way. I'm just me."
The project is in the early stages. "I had a really incredible meeting-just a musical, good meeting of the minds-with Jay Brown, JAY-Z, and Ty Ty [Tyran Smith], who's an incredible person," she added. "We all just kind of threw some ideas around, so we're starting from the musical place rather than, like, what's the hook? It's gotta be done that way."
This isn't entirely new for Carey, who's collaborated with Jigga on songs like "Heartbreaker," "You Got Me," and "Things That U Do." "We just have a history as friends and as collaborators, so it's kind of a thing that's already been established," she said. "Now, I've been getting to know Jay Brown a lot better: I've always known who he was and really respected and admired him so much. The way he does business is just awe-inspiring, you know what I mean? Like, they've really done an incredible job together, he and Jay. And they're both named Jay [laughs]. So we've been going back and forth with different writers, different ideas. When I say writers, I mean cowriters, because I am a writer."
In regards to her process with new music, Carey revealed, "I've already been in the studio last year and the year before that, just playing around and doing some music, some other things. I don't want to give away too many people that I'm working with, but there's a different approach that I'm taking as an artist. I think it's like a fresh start. A lot of people see that whole other image. They see this diva; they see hair, makeup, bod, clothes, whatever it is—and hand gestures [laughs]—and they're like, oh. They don't think songwriter. But I look at myself as a songwriter first, and then a singer. That's what I love to do the most."
This will be Carey's first album since 2014's Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse. Last year, she released the Jermaine Dupri-produced single "I Don't" featuring YG and appeared on a remix to French Montana's "Unforgettable."
