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Thread started 07/08/02 6:11pm

Batdance

Tommy Mottola Tried to Sabotage Mariah

Here's an article from a couple months that says Tommy Mottola tried to wreck Mariah Carey's career.

By Roger Friedman

Mariah Carey may finally have been vindicated. It seems that there was more than a little truth in her accusations last summer that someone was out to get her.

In the new issue of a rap magazine called XXL, record executive Irv Gotti admits that Tommy Mottola, Carey's ex-husband and the head of Sony Music, instructed him to make a record for Jennifer Lopez that sounded exactly like
one Gotti's company had made with Carey for her movie, Glitter — even though Glitter was not finished and Lopez would beat Carey to the punch and undermine a project she was recording for Sony.

In XXL, Gotti is asked by writer Keith Murphy: "Is it true that Tommy Mottola asked Murder Inc. [Gotti's production company] to do the remix of [Jennifer Lopez's] "I'm Real" after hearing a song Ja Rule did with Mariah Carey on the Glitter soundtrack?"

Gotti replies: "Ja wrote a song with him and Mariah singing back and forth on the title track. I get a call from Tommy Mottola, who I have a great relationship with, and he's like, 'I need you to do me a favor. I want you to do this remix for Jennifer Lopez. I want you to put Ja on the record.'

Immediately I knew what he was doing because we just finished the Mariah record."

The Mariah record Gotti refers to is "Loverboy," from the movie Glitter.

Carey had picked out a sample from Yellow Magic Orchestra's recording of "Firecracker" to be the basis of the song. She and Ja Rule worked on it, and the song was included on daily viewings from the filming of Glitter.

But Glitter was a Sony Pictures release, which is a sister company of Sony Music. Mottola, according to sources who worked on the movie, was surreptitiously viewing footage of Glitter while his ex-wife was shooting it.

"Mariah was so paranoid about the music getting out that we had another singer sing the temporary versions," says a Glitter insider.

"When Jennifer Lopez's record came out, and had the exact same song, we knew she had a right to be paranoid. We couldn't believe it."

Indeed, Gotti's statement to XXL suggests that once Mottola heard Carey's song — and knew Glitter was months away from completion — he stole the idea and gave it to Lopez for the remix of her song, "I'm Real."

The hit version of "I'm Real" with Ja Rule was released after Lopez's album was already out. It's substantially different from the original version.

Murphy, the reporter who interviewed Gotti, said yesterday that the rap music executive told him that Mottola wanted Ja Rule to make a record "in the same style" for Lopez that he'd already made for Carey. "It was exactly
the same style — with Mariah and Ja talking back and forth, just the way he does with Jennifer on I'm Real."

But here's a key revelation: the music publisher of "Firecracker" — the sample that Ja Rule used first with Carey and then with Lopez — told me
yesterday: "Mariah Carey called us to license a sample from "Firecracker" first. Then, within a month, Jennifer Lopez also called for it."

The publisher of "Firecracker" also pointed out that the composition, by Martin Denny, had never been sampled before Mariah Carey called about it.

Sony Music spokesperson Patricia Kiehl said yesterday: "One song has nothingto do with the other. This is absolutely untrue."

When the possible theft of "Firecracker" was brought up in Talk magazine last fall, Mottola and Lopez's producers immediately invoked that idea that it was a coincidence that the sample was used twice, though — a different defense altogether.

Ironically, the "Firecracker" case found Carey getting a taste of her own medicine when she — and not Lopez — had been Mottola's darling. During Carey's 11 years at Sony Music, she, Sony, and Mottola were sued at least
three times for plagiarism. Each case was settled out of court for roughly $1 million, with Carey making no admission of guilt. In one instance, Randy
Hoffman — Mottola's business partner and Carey's then manager — wore a hidden tape recorder to a meeting with a witness hoping to get him to change his testimony.

Just as other songwriters had once been affected by having their songs swiped, the impact on Carey of losing the "Firecracker" sample for Glitter was deep. The singer was forced to quickly change the sample on "Loverboy"
from "Firecracker" to Cameo's old hit, "Candy."
"We had to work fast," says a Glitter source, "because we had to find music that would fit what was already filmed."

Nevertheless, the damage was done.
When "Loverboy" was released it was savaged by music industry trade paper Billboard in an unusually harsh review.
Carey — exhausted from working on the project and then knocked out by the scathing reaction — snapped and became the subject of public derision.

Insiders speculate the Mottola-Lopez theft may have had a silver lining.

Carey was able to use it to free herself and Glitter from Sony, even though she still owed them an album on her contract. One source told me: "Mariah
and her lawyer, Don Passman, went to Tommy and told him that if they didn't let her go, she'd let the higher-ups at Sony know what he'd done to her-and to a Sony project."

The speculation is that Mottola had to make Glitter look as bad as possible to Sony's Japanese honchos, who loved Carey and wanted to keep her as an artist. Ironically, Glitter still sold like crazy in Japan. Carey wound up taking Glitter to EMI/Virgin as the first record on an $80
million deal.

When the album tanked, EMI panicked and paid her a total of $49 million to cancel her contract. Carey is now fielding offers from Universal Music Group, J Records, and Warner Music Group for new contract.

Sources:
Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/st...37,00.html


---
fro
batman bat
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Reply #1 posted 07/08/02 6:53pm

Handclapsfinga
snapz

welp, this settles as 2 why she went coo-coo...nuts
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Reply #2 posted 07/08/02 7:03pm

squish

avatar

I thought she already signed to UMG?
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Reply #3 posted 07/08/02 7:19pm

XtrueX

avatar

So does this confirm MJ's allegations that Tommy Mottola IS the devil? eek
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Reply #4 posted 07/08/02 7:31pm

XxAxX

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i do believe it confirms they're in league
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Reply #5 posted 07/08/02 7:36pm

Anxiety

I heard another rumor, that Kurt Cobain used to take a lot of drugs.
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Reply #6 posted 07/08/02 8:29pm

squish

avatar

remember that song that made reference to Tommy mottola?
I think it was called Cherchez la femme or something
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Reply #7 posted 07/08/02 8:33pm

Batdance

XxAxX said:

i do believe it confirms they're in league


Yep. I think it confirms that Tommy Mottola is not the nice guy that Sony is trying to make people believe he is. If he sabotaged Mariah, he would sabotage another artist. J Lo better watch it and make sure she doesn't get on Tommy's bad side or he'll probably find a way to mess up her career like he did Mariah.

fro
batman bat
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Reply #8 posted 07/08/02 8:35pm

twonabomber

Batdance said:

Ironically, Glitter still sold like crazy in Japan.


there's no accounting for taste...
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Reply #9 posted 07/08/02 8:56pm

PurpleJedi

avatar

squish said:

remember that song that made reference to Tommy mottola?
I think it was called Cherchez la femme or something


Yup...he was the manager of that group back then.
By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory!
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Reply #10 posted 07/08/02 9:53pm

twonabomber

he also used to manage Hall and Oates back in the day. Mafia ties go a long way, i guess...
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Reply #11 posted 07/08/02 10:53pm

jnoel

Mariah Carey "sabotage" her career herself
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Reply #12 posted 07/08/02 10:59pm

XtrueX

avatar

Ha! Is there anything that doesn't sell big in Japan?!?
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Reply #13 posted 07/09/02 12:31am

June7

Moderator

avatar

moderator

A-HA!

I think that all this recent defense of Mottola is funny in itself. It goes back 2 that "don't bite the hand that feeds u" warning.

What black artist, or any artist 4 that matter, (producer, director, writer, tv exec...etc) is gonna talk shit about him? Everyone in Hollywood is in direct dealings with him...to fuck with him or concur with anyone fucking with him would b a career ender!

Luckily Michael Jackson doesn't need Tommy Mottola.

The man that takes Mottola on had better have deep pockets and a lot of power in Hollywood. U go Michael!
[PRINCE 4EVER!]

[June7, "ModGod"]
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Reply #14 posted 07/09/02 1:13am

Vagina

Somehow I feel very sorry for Mariah Carey. She has a really beautiful voice. Hearing she had a nervous breakdown just was heartbreaking. If Tommy really Sabataged her he should make Peace. Hey no more fighting anybody. Please!
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Reply #15 posted 07/09/02 2:21am

IrishEcho

Carey's only talent was her voice. She sabotaged it herself by acting & looking like a streetcorner tramp & going on record with rap & hip hop acts which is nowhere near suitable accompaniment for her voice.

And does anyone even care anymore about the song in question?
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Reply #16 posted 07/09/02 6:02am

DavidEye

Nothing surprising about this story.After Mariah divorced Tommy in 1998,she was no longer a priority at the Sony label.Tommy was determined to ruin Mariah's career and make J-Lo the big female star of Sony Records.Notice how Mariah's last album for Sony ('Rainbow' in 1999) got very little promotion.Hmmm...

Let's hope that Mariah gets the last laugh.
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Reply #17 posted 07/09/02 10:00am

Harlepolis

Old news ppl. Waaayyy 2 old!
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Reply #18 posted 07/09/02 11:07am

BattierBeMyDad
dy

avatar

IrishEcho said:

Carey's only talent was her voice. She sabotaged it herself by acting & looking like a streetcorner tramp & going on record with rap & hip hop acts which is nowhere near suitable accompaniment for her voice.

And does anyone even care anymore about the song in question?



You know what Irish, I actually agree with you...redface
-------
A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti...
"I've just had an apostrophe!"
"I think you mean an epiphany..."
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Reply #19 posted 07/10/02 10:40pm

mistermaxxx

DavidEye said:

Nothing surprising about this story.After Mariah divorced Tommy in 1998,she was no longer a priority at the Sony label.Tommy was determined to ruin Mariah's career and make J-Lo the big female star of Sony Records.Notice how Mariah's last album for Sony ('Rainbow' in 1999) got very little promotion.Hmmm...

Let's hope that Mariah gets the last laugh.
Pound,Pound on that.when it was all Good Mariah was able to Use "Emotions" Which was "Best of My Love" by the Emotions&Maurice White&Al Mckay didn't get a dime.fast forward to Her Song "Heartbreaker" which took a good Rip off Stay Latisaw's "Attack of The Game".when all was cool nothing Happen.but when Her&Tommy were done Mariah's Crave Label was Crashed quickly.Mairah herself said that She only got 2-3 Songs out Per Project&Mentioned How Tommy kept away Film Roles.Sony made a Good Penny of "Glitter" in Japan.they had the Rights there.
mistermaxxx
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