- It seems like everything I did in the first year
that I came out with my first album, is like a blur,
because everything happened so fast for me
and I never had the chance to sit down
and go, "Wow, this is actually happening,"
I was just like, went straight ahead, so,
it was almost like when I did the Grammys
the first year and I won,
it was like, I don't even remember.
I was so tired, you know?
I couldn't sleep, I was so nervous.
- [Interviewer] Well, we have the videotape,
you know, anytime you want (laughs).
- Well, I don't know (laughs).
- [Interviewer] Your life is on video, we have it.
(crowd cheering)
- MTV, thank you, love you!
(crowd cheering)
I moved into Manhattan
like, the day after I graduated high school
with a couple of friends,
and we all kind of had mattresses on the floor
and waitressed and did whatever we were
aspiring toward, you know?
Trying to be an actress or a singer
or whatever, whenever we could.
Eventually, I got a job as a background singer
for Brenda K. Starr, who was
really, really supportive of me
and always trying to help me,
and she's a great person.
I really owe a lot to her.
She brought me to a party for the opening of a record label,
and she handed my tape to the head of Sony.
- [Interviewer] So how is this new album
different from the last one?
What can we expect to hear?
- I think it's a little bit more raw, production-wise.
I did co-produce every track.
I worked with C+C Music Factory,
Robert Clivillés and David Cole of C+C
on all the up-tempos, four up-tempos.
I did six ballads, I co-produced with Walter Afanasieff.
And, I'm excited about it.
I think it's a lot more real,
it's a lot more me.
- [Interviewer] Did success turn out the way
you expected it to be?
- (sighs) I don't know, that's really hard to say.
I mean, everything that's happened to me is
just incredible and you know,
I couldn't ask for it to have happened
sooner or better or in any way.
I love writing and I love being in the studio and working.
It's not like they have to, like, force me,
get me in the studio, you know, do this album.
That's all I do, and so,
you know, I feel like it's so much a part of me
that, you know, I have to do it.
It was really interesting, also,
to write the new Christmas songs that I wrote,
because you're coming from, like,
a totally different standpoint
than when you're writing just a regular song
on a regular studio album.
I actually did the video for the,
the videos, before I wrote the originals.
When I'm just in another situation
whenever I'm doing business or whatever I'm doing
that's not music related,
I always have music going through my mind.
I'm always thinking of a song,
I'm always humming something to myself,
so I guess that's sort of the daydream thing.
It's like, you know, no matter what I'm doing,
if it's boring me I'll be thinking of song ideas
or something and pretending to be interested,
you know, in the other thing.
Because that's just... (laughs)
My manager is laughing over there because he knows.
- You're already singing and producing,
why bother directing your own videos?
Don't you have enough work?
- I do have enough work,
and it's a lot more work to direct it
than to just be in it and, you know,
come out when they're ready for you to do the shot,
but it's just that I've always had concepts for videos
and then I work with a director
and it's never exactly how I want it to be,
or there will be shots that
I'm not crazy about or whatever.
So after doing it so many times,
I just figured I might as well try it
and for no other reason, you know,
than the fact that I wanted to get my vision across more.
- [Interviewer] Did you name the record 'Butterfly'
because of some sort of personal metamorphosis
that you went through during recording it?
- I've definitely gone through a lot of personal changes
and a lot of professional changes,
throughout the course of,
the process of recording this album,
much more so than on any other record that I've done.
Except for maybe the first record,
but that was a long time ago,
and that was taking something that had only been demos
and making it into, suddenly I was out there in the world.
And, I don't know,
I feel really, really close to this record.
It's like, I go to sleep with it,
I wake up with it, you know?
I've gone through so many changes
that have gone into the music.
The other day I woke up and I was like,
"I can't believe I'm actually putting this record out."
This is the first time in so long
that it's almost gonna feel
like some sort of a loss to put this out
because it's really so much of a part of me.
My fans are definitely the most important ingredient
in my success equation,
because they really make me,
and that's why when I see people,
whatever country I'm in
in the world, and I see fans,
wherever I am, whatever time of day it is,
whatever's going on, and they approach me,
and they ask me for autographs,
or they ask me for things,
I always try to be accommodating.
I'd already pretty much written "Heartbreaker,"
and [DJ] Clue and I and everybody were really excited about it.
DJ Clue and Duro who co-produced the record together,
and then Jay-Z got on it
and we were just like, "We have to put this out."
This album was all about sequencing
and I did it quicker than any album I've ever done.
I did it in, like, literally three months
and locked myself in a studio.
On this album, I've got, again,
a lot of my upper register, which,
it was a conscious decision to not do so much of it,
because I kind of got ragged on
by some critics about it.
But, you know, it's part of my voice
and my fans like it, so I don't care what,
I care what my fans like and what I like.
I think that I've grown up a lot
since I put out my first record.
I think a lot of things about me are the same,
but I think what's happened is
I've grown into my independence
and my creative and artistic freedom,
so my ability to be more
specific about certain subjects in songs,
to be more connected emotionally to what I'm talking about
is there, you know what I mean?
So, a lot of the songs from my first album were written
when I was in high school, you know,
so, I mean, it's like your perspective changes.
Some perspectives are the same,
but some things are different
and I think, yeah, a lot of people
have grown up with those songs and so have I.
"Through the Rain" was the first song
I wrote for this album.
I really didn't write it for the album,
I wrote it for myself,
but it's also one of those things where
I've always tried to insert positivity
into my songs wherever I can
to inspire other people who go through stuff.
I mean, the stuff they talked about in tabloids
and the things that were so overly exaggerated,
you know, that's one aspect.
But I also went through a lot of personal stuff,
a lot of family stuff this year, you know,
losing a parent is an intense thing for anybody,
so it's like, it's brought me to another place
and I just really feel like,
if you can, with your music,
try to help other people, you know,
with whatever they're going through,
you know, that's always something I've tried to do,
and I think this song is just a
classic example of that type of thing.
My nephew slash brother slash whatever,
grandfather, Shawn...
We have one of those families.
He always calls me Mimi,
so I think L.A. [Reid] had heard him say that
and we were just talking,
he's like, "Oh, that's a cute nickname,"
and I was like, "Yeah,"
and I was just thinking it'd be pretty cool
to use Mimi in the title somehow.
So I was thinking like 'The Adventures of,'
I thought of like a whole bunch of different things,
and then I thought 'The Emancipation' would be kind of cool
because it is kind of like, this album,
to me, the spirit of it is very kind of free and fun
and lighthearted, and when there is like a deeper moment,
it's more of a spiritual moment,
like on "Fly Like a Bird."
You know, songs like that.
When I got the news two weeks ago that "We Belong Together"
became my 16th No. 1 single,
I was like, you know,
how do you even express that feeling?
I never knew that that song could be as big as, like,
some of the songs that I've made, you know, whatever,
"Hero," or those songs, you know what I mean?
It's actually bigger than those songs.
So it's just a godsend and a blessing.
"Shake It Off" is another song that I wrote with Jermaine [Dupri],
and it's actually one of my favorite songs on the record
because sometimes, you know,
I think people can relate to that song,
like, no matter what kind of thing they have to shake off,
be it a bad day, you know, a guy, you know,
a girl, whatever it is, something in your life
that you just have to, like, let go.
I feel like timing is really everything in a lot of ways.
I do feel like I had to go through some struggles
and learn some lessons and kind of
be publicly stepped on in order to be
embraced in a lot of ways,
because that's just human nature,
but aside from that, because if it were me,
like, if I had to rate my own stuff,
I definitely still love 'Butterfly' as an album,
I think, not to be like "Whoa, I'm so ahead of my time,"
but perhaps, it was a little ahead of its time
because songs like "Breakdown," and songs like,
even like, I did a duet with Dru Hill on that record
of a remake of "The Beautiful Ones,"
and "Babydoll," is still one of my favorites.
I was playing it the other day when I was getting ready.
And Tasha, who was doing my hair
said, "Oh, is this something new you put in the set?"
I'm like, "No, this is from 'Butterfly,'
but they never released it."
So it's like, a lot of those songs,
that, to me, are like my favorite little gems,
never got put out.
Even like on an album as big as 'Daydream,'
I was still under the control of a huge conglomerate
that didn't want me to go too urban,
so even after three huge hits,
"Fantasy," which the pop people
were only allowed to know it was a pop song.
They didn't know the [Ol' Dirty Bastard] version.
Now everybody knows that because you know--
- [Interviewer] Version.
- Right! But to the suits that wasn't the version.
So you know, and then "One Sweet Day,"
and then "Always Be My Baby,"
still, they made me put out, like,
a real straight-forward ballad, and I wrote it.
I know how to do that, you know, afterwards,
but I wanted a song called "Underneath the Stars,"
which, to me, is some of my best writing
lyrically, melodically, and in every way,
and it was never released.
So, you know, I think that this time around,
the great thing is the songs that I love
were allowed to be released.
- You happy about this record, and how does it compare,
a couple months into this record,
as to compared to the 'Mimi' record?
- Well you know what, this is, like, an interesting record,
because obviously "Touch My Body" came out,
and it was like, this...
I mean, I don't know,
L.A. Reid and I had really kind of like labored
and really worked hard to figure out
what was the first single,
and then we didn't really know what to do
and we went with "Bye Bye" as the
second single, in a way, more for the fans
and the people who needed to hear that song.
To me, this album is so diverse
because there are songs where you actually, literally
are laughing out loud at certain lyrics,
and then there's songs where they make me cry.
They're from...
It's like, I feel like I wrote them when I was
a little girl and going through difficult times.
I love having the ability to make music
that hopefully my fans will love,
it's representative of where I'm at,
and then if I feel like delving into another world,
always keeping the consistent thread,
me as the writer, producer, and collaborator with whomever.
When I was little, all I did was think about the future.
Like, when I was growing up it was like:
One day I'm gonna be a star, and I'm gonna
have this and that and I'm not gonna have this,
I'm not gonna drive around in a junky car
and I'm not gonna, whatever, you know,
deal with the problems that I deal with
and I'll be accepted, and loved, and yay.
You know what I mean?
But ultimately, you have to love yourself
and get to that point where, whatever happens,
you're cool with that.
But I was so driven as a child that, I mean,
now, I don't really think ahead down the road
because I have already accomplished my goal.