| "Up Out My Face" | |
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| Song byMariah Carey | |
| from the albumMemoirs of an Imperfect Angel | |
| Released | September 29, 2009 |
| Recorded | 2009 |
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| Length | 3:41 |
| Label | Island Def Jam |
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| "Up Out My Face" | ||||
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| Single by Mariah Carey featuringNicki Minaj | ||||
| Released | January 26, 2010 (2010-01-26) | |||
| Recorded | 2009 | |||
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| Length | 4:23(main version) 3:58(radio edit) | |||
| Label | Island Def Jam | |||
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| Mariah Carey singles chronology | ||||
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| Nicki Minaj singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Up Out My Face" onYouTube | ||||
"Up Out My Face" is a song by American singer-songwriterMariah Carey from her twelfth studio album,Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009). Written and produced by Carey,Tricky Stewart andThe-Dream, it is a song which includes amarching band in its instrumentation. The lyrics for the song have been speculated to be directed at American rapperEminem, whom Carey has a longstanding feud with since the early 2000's after his claims that they were in a relationship.
The song received generally positive reviews from music critics for its humorous lyrics and the addition of rapperNicki Minaj on the remix. Carey released Minaj's version as a single in January 2010 for a proposed remix album titledAngels Advocate, which was ultimately shelved. A music video was released nevertheless and was directed byNick Cannon, Carey's then husband, which also received positive reviews.
"Up Out My Face" was written and produced byMariah Carey,Tricky Stewart andThe-Dream, for Carey's twelfth studio album,Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009). Carey later intended to re-releaseMemoirs of an Imperfect Angel as a remix album under the titleAngels Advocate, which would have consisted of remixes of the standard songs with featured artists.[1] Some of these artists includedMary J. Blige,R. Kelly,Gucci Mane among others.[1][2] "Angels Cry" and "Up Out My Face" were released as remix singles withNe-Yo andNicki Minaj respectively.[2] In an interview forMTV News atDylan's Candy Bar, Minaj revealed that she had kept her remix of the song a secret from everyone she knew because she was "so surprised" at being asked to work with Carey.[3]
Minaj and Carey's duet of "Up Out My Face" was released torhythmic contemporary andurban contemporary radio in the United States on January 26, 2010.[4][5] It was made available fordigital download on February 16, 2010.[6] Despite the release, in March 2010, production ofAngels Advocate had halted and the project was shelved indefinitely.[1][7] Island Def Jam stated that the singer was instead working on a new project and "new surprises".[1]Metro revealed that Carey was recording asecond Christmas album.[8]
Aclub music song that lasts for three minutes, forty-one seconds, "Up Out My Face" appears as the ninth track on the album; track ten is a fifty-one secondreprise called "Up Out My Face (The Reprise)".[9][10] Its instrumentation makes use of a "thumping"marching bandcoda,[10][11] while its lyrics are about expressing "anger at an incompatible lover".[12] Brian Mansfield ofUSA Today highlights the lyrics "If we were twoLego blocks, even theHarvard University graduating class of 2010 couldn't put us back together again" as one of the album's "many funny lines".[13]Rolling Stone writer Jody Rosen wrote that the singer "gets in touch with her funny bone" on "Up Out My Face".[11] Sal Cinquemani ofSlant Magazine described the references to Lego, Harvard University andHumpty Dumpty as "a whole new level of lyrical ridiculousness".[14]
Musically, the remix does not greatly differ from that of the original apart from added rap verses by Minaj interspersed throughout the track.[15] She adds some "spunky rhymes" including "Mariah, I was in the million dollar meetin's, he was cheatin' / All up in the church he was sneakin' with the deacon,"[15] and referencesTrey Songz 2009 single "LOL :-)" in a British accent.[16] While the original version is three minutes, forty-one seconds in duration,[10] the remix lasts for four minutes, twenty-three seconds.[6]
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Brian Mansfield speculated that Carey was addressingEminem in the lyrics,[13] with whom she has had a longstanding feud.[17][18] Carey has reportedly been romantically linked with several male celebrities during the course of her career, some of which she has openly spoken about and acknowledged, while others she has denied dating.[18] Eminem has claimed on multiple occasions that he dated Carey, but Carey has always firmly denied that she knew him on a romantic level.[17][18] In 2001, Carey contacted Eminem to discuss the possibility of writing a song together for inclusion on Carey's ninth studio albumCharmbracelet (2002), and they reportedly started dating soon after.[18]
In 2002, Eminem mentioned the singer twice onThe Eminem Show, his fourth studio album, on the tracks "Superman" and "When the Music Stops", both of which were revealed to have been inspired by their relationship in Eminem's 2008 autobiography,The Way I Am.[18][19][20] The former track contained the lyrics "What you trying be? My new wife? / What, you Mariah? Fly through twice,"[17] while the latter suggested that he begged to be taken back by Carey.[18] Later that year, Eminem confirmed that they had been in a relationship in an interview forRolling Stone, but claimed to have not been fully committed to it and that he disliked her as a person, while Carey toldMaxim that it was never a "sexual relationship" and interviewerLarry King "I hung out with him, I spoke to him on the phone. I think I was probably with him a total of four times. And I don't consider that dating somebody."[17][18] Carey recorded a song called "Clown" forCharmbracelet which "ambiguously addressed the relationship" with the lyrics "Should've left it at I like your music too" and "You should've never intimated we were lovers/ When you know very well we never even touched each other."[17][18]
In 2005, Eminem played voicemails to the audience during hisAnger Management Tour allegedly from Carey and reported as saying "Why won't you see me? Why won't you call me?".[18] Eminem reiterated his dislike of Carey the following year on a track called "Jimmy Crack Corn" from his compilation album,Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, with the lyrics "Your mind's on us like mine's on Mariah / And y'all are just like her, you're all fucking liars / But I'll just keep fucking you like I fucked her / Right in the ass with KY yes sir."[17][18]50 Cent referenced Carey's denial of the relationship on a track called "All of Me" from his third studio albumCurtis in 2007: "Em predicted it all, I don't know how he knew it / He said women from Hollywood they liars, liars, liars / You fuck them, they get you heated, deny it like Mariah."[17][18] Two years later, Eminem released a song called "Bagpipes from Baghdad", on which he took aim at Carey's husbandNick Cannon by calling him a "prick" and wishing him "luck with the fucking whore".[17][18] The lead single fromMemoirs of an Imperfect Angel was "Obsessed". Many critics believed the track to be about Eminem, and its accompanying music video portrayed Carey being followed by a male stalker which critics also thought bore a strong resemblance to the rapper.[17][18] Mansfield thought that the lyrical content of "Up Out My Face" appeared to be a continuation of "Obsessed" and her feud with Eminem, as Carey sings "I know you're not a rapper, so you better stop spittin' it."[13]
"Even though this version [...] was originally meant to be included on theAngel Advocate remix album that never materialized, the buoyant clap-back anthem with Mariah and her future American Idol co-star/frenemy took off with its own set of wings. The Nicki Minaj-assisted hit serves up a double whammy that hoisted the song onto the Hot 100, like both stars' scornful hand gesture from the dolled-up music video."
Upon release, the song received generally positive reviews. Bill Lamb ofDotdash placed "Up Out My Face" in his list of the album's top four tracks.[12] Although J. Edward Keyes ofNewsday described the track as "exuberant", he was critical of its placement on the album: "The production, courtesy of the reliable Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, feels boilerplate at best. At 17 songs, the record is far too long, and by the time the exuberant 'Up Out My Face' arrives, it feels like it was grafted on from a better record."[22] Ann Powers ofLos Angeles Times thought that Carey lacked conviction in her approach to the song, writing that despite its aggressive tone, "restraint stops serving her agenda".[23]
Similar to the original track, the remix had a blended reception.The Washington Post Alison Stewart praised the track, writing that the addition of Minaj made it more lively: "Sometime in the past six months, Minaj became the go-to girl for artists who wanted to add some skank to their tracks without sullying themselves in the process. Here, she enlivens an otherwise polite track from Carey's upcoming remix disc".[24] Robbie Daw ofIdolator felt that the track was too reminiscent to one of Carey's previous singles "Don't Forget About Us", which he thought in turn was very similar to another preceding single, "We Belong Together". He contained to add "But still, if Mimi's going to mine from her own extensive back catalog of ballads, those are the primo melodies to go for."[15]
Billboard placed the remix at number 28 on their100 Greatest Mariah Carey Song list in 2020, during the release of Carey'sThe Rarities.[21]
Carey has performed the solo version of the song many times on theAngels Advocate Tour.[25][26] She also performed the song on her four-evening promotionalconcert residency, Live at the Pearl, which was among nine other songs released on aniTunesdigital album in 2014, calledAt the Pearl Palms Concert Theatre.[27]
The accompanying music video for the remix of "Up Out My Face" was directed by Carey's husband,Nick Cannon.[28] Minaj spoke about filming a video with Carey and how she did not believe that the video would ever be released: "I didn't even tell anyone I shot a video with Mariah, because I didn't even believe. In the back of my mind, I felt like, 'This video is not gonna come out. There's no way I'm gonna do a video with Mariah Carey before I even put out my album.' Then, when it came out, I think it was the number one video on YouTube in one day, something crazy like that."[3] It premiered simultaneously with the video for "Angels Cry" with Ne-Yo onVevo on January 28, 2010.[28]
Carey and Minaj play different characters, includingBarbie dolls who escape from their boxes, sexy nurses in matching outfits, two women in anail salon and two divas shopping. Carey's doll box has "She sings" written on the front, while Minaj's say "She raps". Cannon makes a cameo appearance in the video, which Chris Ryan of MTV Buzzworthy thought was a reference to the 2002 film,Drumline.[16] According to Anna Pickard ofThe Guardian, the escape from their packaging demonstrates a theme of being independent women and that they will not be restrained by men.[29]
Melina Newman ofHitFix thought that it looked like one of Carey's lowest-production budgets for a music video to date, but explained that it was not necessarily "a bad thing", and that Carey looked "adorable" in a nurses outfit.[28] She likened the use of a red and white color scheme for the video to aTarget commercial.[28] Furthermore, the red and white aesthetic of the music video led many fans to also compare it to a "Target commercial", especially with the scenes involvingBarbie doll-like characters, shopping carts, as well as Mariah Carey'sJack Russell terrier Jack reminding some of the Target mascotbull terrier.[30] Anna Pickard commented that Carey and Minaj looked "grumpier" than what dolls usually do because "their men are low-down dirty dogs who should henceforth get up out of Mimi and Nicki's faces".[29] She compared the use of a red and white palette toKylie Minogue's music video for "Can't Get You Out of My Head",Cheryl Cole's "Fight for This Love" andLady Gaga's "Bad Romance", and that it appeared to be a "go-to device for directors who want their pop video to pop visually, without the need for too much pesky plot to worry about".[29] Minaj herself went on to praise Carey in an interview withMTV News noting that,
"A lot of times, more famous artists or more confident artists take from a younger artist but they’ll never include you in that. I feel like she liked the whole doll thing and she wanted to do it with me. But she said that: She said, 'Everybody’s gonna say 'she’s doing Nicki.' But I told her, she’s always had a doll persona, like all that 'doll baby' [stuff]. So it goes perfect with Barbie and we had fun. That's all that matters".[3]
Chris Ryan thought that Minaj outshined Carey in the video.[16] In a review of Minaj's ten best videos in December 2014,Rolling Stone ranked the video for "Up Out My Face" at number eight, and wrote that Carey and Minaj had "great on-camera chemistry".[31]
| Chart (2009–10) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| South Korea International (Gaon)[32] | 25 |
| USBillboardHot 100[33] | 100 |
| USHot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[34] | 39 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[35] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Country | Date | Format | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | January 26, 2010 | Rhythmic contemporary[4] | Island Records |
| Urban contemporary[5] | |||
| February 16, 2010 | Digital download[6] |
