At that point, Mariah Carey says, "I really started second-guessing myself. And then I realized, like, all right, I have to go with my gut. Because everybody's got an opinion, and so many people's opinions about me are like polar opposites. They're like, 'We love it when she does ballads, make her do the ballads.' Then they're like, 'We want to hear a hip-hop record.' 'Why is she dressing like this? She should show less skin.' 'She should show more.' You know what I mean? I'm like, 'Stay in your lane, and I'll figure it out.' "

Mariah Carey says she faced similar problems in the wake of her meltdown. "Every interview became a '20/20' moment. Everybody was like, 'Be vulnerable,' you know? And it's like, can I just be me? Because honestly, this whole thing" — the breakdown — "was blown out of proportion, and I just would love to not even talk about it. But that wasn't possible."

So, Mariah Carey reverted to an earlier version of herself, one who wasn't concerned about the public or its expectations. On Emancipation, she says, "I felt I did the album I wanted to do." She moves beyond her recent save-the-pipes moves of cooing or breathing songs, and really sings. There are collaborations with Snoop Dogg ("Say Somethin' "), Jermaine Dupri ("Get Your Number"), Twista (the call-and-response "One and Only") and Nelly ("To the Floor"). There are innocent love songs and spiritual ballads ("We Belong Together," "Fly Like a Bird"). There are party songs ("It's Like That"), let's-get-busy songs ("Get Your Number," "Stay the Night"), send-off songs ("Shake it Off"), and songs of lost love, too ("Circles"). Being emancipated means you can go anywhere you want. The album, Mariah Carey says, "is not about making the older executives happy by making a bring-down-the-house, tearjerker ballad, or [something] steeped in the media dramas of my life. What I tried to do was keep the sessions very sparse, underproduced, like in '70s soul music, when all the musicians were in there at once, feeding off each other — me showing them vocally where I'm going and giving them the vibe in which to take it all musically.

"When [new Island/Def Jam label chief] L.A. Reid heard that people call me Mimi," Mariah Carey continues, "he said, 'I feel your spirit on this record. You should use that name in the title, because that's the fun side of you that people don't get to see — the side that can laugh at the diva jokes, laugh at the breakdown jokes, laugh at whatever they want to say about you and just live life and enjoy it.'

"So I'm kind of just living in this moment right now, and just enjoying it. It's a happy space that I'm in."

Besides, she adds, "To say 'The Emancipation of Mariah Carey' would've been so obnoxious."

Thriller  Michael Jackson 
26.0 Million

The BodyGuard SoundTrack  Whitney Houston
17.0 million

Purple Rain SoundTrack  Prince & The Revolution
13.0 million

Whitney Houston  Whitney Houston
13.0 Million

II  Boyz II Men
12.0 million

Carzysexycool  TLC
11.0 Million

 Life After Death  Notorious B.I.G.
10.0 million

Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em  Hammer
10.0 million

Music Box  Mariah Carey
10.0 Million

Daydream  Mariah Carey
10.0 Million

Legends Bob Marley & The Wailers
 10.0 Million

Tupac
Since his 1996 murder, Tupac's album sales total more than 18 million units in the United States, with a career total is 24.4 million.




Life After Death  Notorious B.I.G.
10.0 million

            50 Cent

  
    

               The Game



            Missy Elliott


      

             Mike Jones
    

Luther Vandross
17 Gold Albums
14 Platinum Albums
7   Multi-Platinum
      Albums