B-Side Bangers: Mariah Carey

May 30, 2025

Get into any heated music debate, and the first thing a true fan will do is pull out the deep cuts to defend their favorite hitmaker. Sure, the singles and Billboard #1’s will do the trick, but if you really want to win an argument while also gaining some brownie points it’s all about coming through with the b-sides.

As we launch “B-Side Bangers,” a fan-focused editorial series that we’ll be curating from time to time for all the audiophiles out there, it really wasn’t a hard decision to kick things off with the incomparable Mariah Carey. Ironically enough, the era-defining pop queen has her own reason to celebrate today (5/30) with the release of her latest milestone project, The Emancipation of Mimi: 20th Anniversary Edition.

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Recognized by many as her comeback album after a highly-publicized breakdown in 2001, less-than-stellar reviews of her shift into Hollywood with Glitter that same year and the criminally-ignored Charmbracelet in 2002, The Emancipation Of Mimi was a flex in every sense of the word and solidified her as an unbreakable force in the industry with no signs of slowing down. Even a full two decades later, what Mariah proved on this album resonated on future projects and the overall trajectory of her career. We don’t even need to mention the legacy alone of “We Belong Together” as a record-breaking single to make the point clear.

As you get through the greatest cuts on The Emancipation of Mimi: 20th Anniversary Edition, in addition to some new remixes by way of Solange, KAYTRANADA, esentrik and others, take a look at our own b-side playlist that we put together of Mariah Carey deep cuts. We expect diehards to be singing along, and you can thank us later if some of these are new to your ears.