Latest / DISGRACELAND / Mariah Carey: Armed Guards, Gang Burglaries, and the True Meaning of Christmas

Transcript

Mariah Carey: Armed Guards, Gang Burglaries, and the True Meaning of Christmas · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgrayland as a production of Double Elvis At The stories
0:14
Speaker 1: about Mariah Carey are insane. Her sister drugged her and
0:19
Speaker 1: pimped her out when she was only twelve years old.
0:22
Speaker 1: Her first husband hired not one, but two security guards
0:26
Speaker 1: to follow her every move. Then he held her at
0:29
Speaker 1: knife point, well a butter knife, in front of his friends.
0:33
Speaker 1: She lived under a microscope in a mansion full of
0:36
Speaker 1: hidden cameras and recording devices. A squadron of armed guards
0:40
Speaker 1: patrolled her home. That same squadron almost shot her colleagues
0:45
Speaker 1: when she disappeared for a thirty minute joyride. But even
0:48
Speaker 1: when she endured an oppressive home life, no one could
0:52
Speaker 1: imprison the decade defining five octave voice of Mariah Carey.
0:57
Speaker 1: She wrote countless number one albums and number one singer
1:00
Speaker 1: while essentially in lockdown, including that undying harbinger of holiday
1:05
Speaker 1: joy that starts playing the moment You're Thanksgiving leftovers hit
1:09
Speaker 1: the freezer. I'm talking, of course, about all I want
1:12
Speaker 1: for Christmas is you, because under any circumstances, Mariah Carey
1:18
Speaker 1: made great music, Unlike that music I played for you
1:22
Speaker 1: at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
1:25
Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my melotron called doodlely
1:29
Speaker 1: Do Doodle Doo MK one. I played you that loop
1:33
Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to That's the Way
1:36
Speaker 1: Love Goes by Janet Jackson. And why would I play
1:39
Speaker 1: you that specific slice of moth to a Flame Cheese?
1:43
Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
1:47
Speaker 1: song in America on June fifth, nineteen ninety three, And
1:51
Speaker 1: that was the day twenty four year old Mariah Carey
1:54
Speaker 1: married sony CEO Tommy Mottola, locking her into eight years
1:58
Speaker 1: of constant surveys in one hell of a marriage. On
2:03
Speaker 1: this episode, Sister pimps Mansion Imprisonment an all time holiday
2:09
Speaker 1: banger in the Diva Mariah Carey. I'm Jake Brennan and
2:14
Speaker 1: this is Disgraceland. Mariah Carey tells us every year that
2:45
Speaker 1: she doesn't want a lot for Christmas. Not presents, not packages,
2:50
Speaker 1: boxes or bags. She just wants a little old fashioned
2:53
Speaker 1: holiday joy, that feeling you get when you hear Nat
2:57
Speaker 1: King Cole sing about chestnuts and open fires, or when
3:01
Speaker 1: you take the first bite of a warm sugar cookie
3:04
Speaker 1: fresh shot of the oven. Every year, like clockwork, Mariah's
3:08
Speaker 1: ubiquitous holiday hit reminds us that all she wants for
3:12
Speaker 1: Christmas is You, nothing else, and every year we believe her.
3:19
Speaker 1: But on this particular Christmas, Mariah carry had so much more.
3:25
Speaker 1: If Santa's workshop is in the North Pole, his secret
3:29
Speaker 1: second home is a ski chalet in Aspen, Colorado, aka
3:33
Speaker 1: Mariah Carrey's holiday House. Every room in the chalet looks
3:37
Speaker 1: like a Norman Rockwell painting. Two Christmas trees glow in
3:41
Speaker 1: the windows. One sparkles with homemade ornaments and family photos,
3:45
Speaker 1: and the other is decorated with butterflies and cherubs, snow
3:49
Speaker 1: angels and sleigh tracks dimpled the fresh coat of snow
3:52
Speaker 1: outside Inside, rich sects wafted through the halls, stuffed shells,
3:57
Speaker 1: linguini with white clam sauce, coco cookies, and decading cakes.
4:04
Speaker 1: This is Martha Stewart level hosting on your Italian Grandma's
4:08
Speaker 1: pep pill stash, the ultimate winter wonderland for the woman
4:12
Speaker 1: who owns Christmas like no one else, Especially today, because today,
4:18
Speaker 1: December twenty fifth, twenty nineteen, Mariah Careyes inescapable Christmas song
4:23
Speaker 1: All I Want for Christmas is You is at number
4:26
Speaker 1: one on the Billboard Hop one hundred, twenty five years
4:30
Speaker 1: after its release. Not that she needed another number one song. Hell,
4:35
Speaker 1: she already broke Elvis Presley's record for the most number
4:38
Speaker 1: ones eleven years earlier, back in two thousand and eight.
4:41
Speaker 1: She was doing just fine for herself with or without
4:44
Speaker 1: a new chart topper, But this one just felt different personal.
4:49
Speaker 1: All I Want for Christmas was never a love song.
4:53
Speaker 1: It was a wish, a prayer for her Christmas just
4:56
Speaker 1: like today, filled with family harm, joy. Because it wasn't
5:03
Speaker 1: always like this. There wasn't always children's laughter in the
5:07
Speaker 1: air and sleigh bells were ringing on Christmas Day from
5:09
Speaker 1: Mariah Carey. Often there was screaming, arguing, insults flying across
5:15
Speaker 1: the room, and maybe even fists. There was no Christmas
5:22
Speaker 1: music at the carry household tonight, only a chaotic symphony
5:26
Speaker 1: of raised voices, harsh words, sharp as knives meant to
5:30
Speaker 1: cut right to the bone. Mariah was eight years old
5:34
Speaker 1: or maybe ten, didn't matter. Most Christmases went down like
5:38
Speaker 1: this in her family. The pattern was always the same.
5:42
Speaker 1: Mariah's mother would scrape together whatever she could, deck her
5:45
Speaker 1: modest home with holiday cheer, advent calendars filled with chocolates,
5:49
Speaker 1: mulled wine with a hint of cinnamon in every sip.
5:52
Speaker 1: She worked with what she could afford in order to
5:54
Speaker 1: make every Christmas a memorable one. And they were memorable Christmases,
6:00
Speaker 1: not in a good way, because Mariah's older siblings sucked
6:03
Speaker 1: the holiday atmosphere out of the air the second they
6:06
Speaker 1: stepped through the door. Their names were Morgan and Alison,
6:12
Speaker 1: and they didn't think twice about stealing Christmas from their
6:15
Speaker 1: little sister. They resented Mariah and their mother for living
6:19
Speaker 1: together without the two of them away from their quick
6:22
Speaker 1: tempered father. Morgan, Alison, and Mariah shared the same parents,
6:28
Speaker 1: a white Irish mother and a black Venezuelan father, but
6:32
Speaker 1: they didn't share all the same traumas. Morgan and Alison
6:36
Speaker 1: dealt with the wreckage of their parents' divorce when Mariah
6:38
Speaker 1: was only three years old, around the same time, their
6:42
Speaker 1: mother seemed to grow a backbone and told their father
6:44
Speaker 1: that quote he would not beat this one unquote in
6:47
Speaker 1: reference to Mariah. You can read between the lines. Morgan
6:51
Speaker 1: and Alison thought Mariah got off easy with the divorce.
6:54
Speaker 1: They thought she got off easy with everything. The way
6:58
Speaker 1: Morgan and Alison saw it, Mariah was the golden child.
7:02
Speaker 1: Mariah had lighter skin, dirty blonde hair, but Morgan and
7:06
Speaker 1: Allison didn't know that the same hair remained an unkempt
7:09
Speaker 1: tangle throughout Mariah's childhood because their mother didn't know how
7:12
Speaker 1: to properly style and maintain black hair. They didn't know
7:16
Speaker 1: the kids still cornered Mariah and sleepover. It's just to
7:18
Speaker 1: hurl racial slurs at her. She wasn't immune to the
7:22
Speaker 1: ugliness of racism, no matter how light her hair or
7:24
Speaker 1: her skin was. Morgan and Allison, though they couldn't see
7:28
Speaker 1: any of that. They just saw a white passing girl
7:30
Speaker 1: shielded by her white mother in a white neighborhood on
7:33
Speaker 1: Long Island. Mariah was more protected than Morgan and Allison
7:37
Speaker 1: ever were, and that's why Morgan and Allison didn't give
7:39
Speaker 1: a shit about protecting Mariah. Go ahead, let her dream
7:43
Speaker 1: about a happy holiday season, a corny one filled with
7:46
Speaker 1: caroling in snowball fights. Mariah could wish all she wanted.
7:50
Speaker 1: It wasn't going to happen, not here, but not if
7:53
Speaker 1: Morgan or Allison had anything to say about it. The
7:59
Speaker 1: man was before the smoke from the gunshot could clear
8:02
Speaker 1: blood spouted from the wound in his neck as he
8:04
Speaker 1: fell to the floor with a thud. His wife surveyed
8:07
Speaker 1: the grizzly mess before. She wasn't supposed to be here.
8:10
Speaker 1: She wasn't supposed to be the murderer who was supposed
8:13
Speaker 1: to be Morgan. Morgan was the kind of young adult
8:17
Speaker 1: who mingled with the wrong crowds, the kind that could
8:20
Speaker 1: get blood on your hands if you weren't careful. Morgan
8:23
Speaker 1: was no stranger to violence. Physical fights with his father
8:27
Speaker 1: taught him how to fend for himself at an early age.
8:30
Speaker 1: The police were sick of prying the two men off
8:32
Speaker 1: of each other, to the point where Morgan and his
8:33
Speaker 1: father couldn't even legally be next to each other anymore.
8:37
Speaker 1: So it's not that surprising that the wife of a
8:40
Speaker 1: man named John William Maddox reached out to Morgan through
8:42
Speaker 1: a mutual connection and made him attempting offer kill her
8:46
Speaker 1: husband and she'd fork over thirty grand Morgan agreed and
8:51
Speaker 1: accepted twelve hundred dollars up front. Morgan never thought twice
8:54
Speaker 1: about tearing into his own father, but in the end,
8:57
Speaker 1: he couldn't tear a stranger's head off, even if paid well,
9:01
Speaker 1: he let the future black widow do her own dirty work,
9:04
Speaker 1: and then he snitched. Mariah was in the third grade.
9:09
Speaker 1: She saw the courtroom sketches, heard Morgan whisper to their
9:12
Speaker 1: mother about avoiding jail time. The fact that her brother
9:15
Speaker 1: was involved in her murder case wasn't shocking to her.
9:18
Speaker 1: She understood what Morgan was capable of, but she couldn't,
9:21
Speaker 1: for the life of her, figure out her sister Allison.
9:24
Speaker 1: Alison's attacks on Mariah were sporadic. She drug Mariah with
9:29
Speaker 1: a full tab of value. She tossed a cup of
9:32
Speaker 1: boiling tea unto Mariah's back, giving her third degree burns.
9:35
Speaker 1: One time, Alison even offered Mariah a long fingernails worth
9:39
Speaker 1: of white powder, which thankfully Mariah didn't accept. Alison egged
9:44
Speaker 1: her on, just try it, just a little bit. Who cares?
9:49
Speaker 1: Twelve year old Mariah cared, thank you very much. She
9:52
Speaker 1: booked at home and abandoned Alison in her hefty bump
9:54
Speaker 1: of cocaine. Then Alison did what she always did, acted
10:00
Speaker 1: normal and loving for a little bit, just long enough
10:03
Speaker 1: to quell Mariah's anxiety. She rang Mariah one afternoon and
10:07
Speaker 1: said she and her boyfriend would be by to pick
10:09
Speaker 1: up Mariah for some quality time together. Mariah eagerly waited
10:13
Speaker 1: outside to watch for their car. Sure enough, Alison's boyfriend
10:17
Speaker 1: pulled up right on time, but there was no Alison
10:20
Speaker 1: in the passenger seat. It was just him and the
10:23
Speaker 1: handgun on his thigh. Twelve years old is a funny age.
10:29
Speaker 1: Mariah was just old enough to know that her sister's
10:32
Speaker 1: mystery powder was actually drugs, but she was too young
10:35
Speaker 1: to know her sister's boyfriend was also her pimp. As
10:39
Speaker 1: Mariah got in the car, the pimp boyfriend promised her
10:43
Speaker 1: they'd link up with Alison later. In the meantime, he
10:46
Speaker 1: had places to be, like the drive in movie theater.
10:50
Speaker 1: The boyfriend parked the car, Alison never showed, so Mariah
10:54
Speaker 1: became the boyfriend's date by proxy or maybe by design.
10:59
Speaker 1: He knew better than to take Mariah, a twelve year old,
11:01
Speaker 1: to the drive in, and he definitely knew better than
11:04
Speaker 1: to kiss Mariah on the lips in the front seat
11:06
Speaker 1: of his car. It was unspeakably wrong not to mention
11:11
Speaker 1: unspeakably stupid in a gast onlooker in the car parked
11:15
Speaker 1: next to them gockd at the assault and plane view
11:17
Speaker 1: through the passenger window. The pinp boyfriend backed down and
11:20
Speaker 1: drove Mariah home without another word. Finally someone was looking
11:25
Speaker 1: out for her. Thank god, someone was watching. Mariah carries
11:53
Speaker 1: black Mercedes race towards her mansion, one hand on the
11:56
Speaker 1: wheel and the other holding the half eaten French fry.
12:00
Speaker 1: Mariah's friend, Chicago rapper De Bratt, claimed the last one
12:03
Speaker 1: of the fries in the fast food bag from the passage.
12:05
Speaker 1: You see. They exchanged a glance and burst into giggles
12:09
Speaker 1: over absolutely nothing. Debrat's phone buzzed. She didn't have to
12:15
Speaker 1: answer to know who was interrupting their bubble of girl time.
12:18
Speaker 1: It was Jermaine, who was back at Mariah's home recording
12:21
Speaker 1: studio with the girl group Escape. He was blowing up
12:24
Speaker 1: the Bratt's phone every five minutes. Jermaine Duprie wasn't the
12:28
Speaker 1: kind of guy to crack down on a thirty minute
12:30
Speaker 1: break when it was time to record a new collaboration.
12:34
Speaker 1: Mariah's husband, Tommy Mottola, on the other hand, he was
12:37
Speaker 1: a different story. The Brat snapped her phone open again.
12:42
Speaker 1: You'll brad get the hawk back here. It was panic
12:45
Speaker 1: in Jermaine's voice. De Bratt didn't get it. They were
12:48
Speaker 1: one mile away at tops after picking up a Lozzi
12:51
Speaker 1: order of drive through French Fries. What was so wrong
12:53
Speaker 1: with that she couldn't see what was developing on the
12:56
Speaker 1: other end of the phone. Back in the studio, the
13:01
Speaker 1: guard leaned over the console and looked Jermaine Dupre dead
13:04
Speaker 1: in the eye. He was going to ask him one
13:07
Speaker 1: more time, where is she? Jermaine repeated that he had
13:11
Speaker 1: no clue. The guard escalated from a question to a demand,
13:15
Speaker 1: tell us where she is. The guards began to pull
13:18
Speaker 1: their guns for their holsters. Jermaine's blood iced over. No,
13:22
Speaker 1: not today. He wasn't going to get shot over a
13:24
Speaker 1: joy ride. He dialed the Brat again, but the guards
13:28
Speaker 1: were sick of waiting. They were on the move, now
13:31
Speaker 1: filing into two black SUVs for a rescue mission. The
13:34
Speaker 1: men did have far to go. Mariah's Benz was already
13:37
Speaker 1: winding up the lengthy driveway, passed the security station, passed
13:43
Speaker 1: both gates directly towards the small militia of men assembled
13:47
Speaker 1: outside the mansion. Mariah's home looked like something out of
13:50
Speaker 1: a kid's imagination. The Georgian style mansion sprawled across the wopping.
13:55
Speaker 1: Twenty two thousand square feet French windows punctuated its timeless
14:00
Speaker 1: red brick exterior, staggering double stacked chimneys on the roof.
14:04
Speaker 1: Two gazebos, one for each pond in the backyard, separating
14:07
Speaker 1: Mariah from her neighbors, fashion designer Ralph Lauren and film
14:10
Speaker 1: producer Stanley Jaffey. It was a vision straight out of
14:14
Speaker 1: a picture book, like a fairy godmother dropped a castle
14:16
Speaker 1: in upstate New York. Mariah called it storybook manner. Her
14:21
Speaker 1: extravagant hamlet was nestled in Bedford, New York, forty miles
14:25
Speaker 1: outside of Manhattan. Out Here, New York City was just
14:29
Speaker 1: a concept. There were so many things to do with
14:32
Speaker 1: Storybrook Manor that Mariah and her husband, Tommy barely needed
14:35
Speaker 1: to leave the estate. And that's exactly how Tommy liked it.
14:41
Speaker 1: The thing is, Tommy wasn't just Mariah's husband, He was
14:44
Speaker 1: her boss too. He was the CEO of Sony Music
14:48
Speaker 1: Entertainment in a big wig at Columbia Records, one of
14:51
Speaker 1: Sony's main record labels. In nineteen eighty eight, Tommy signed
14:55
Speaker 1: Mariah to Columbia Records and proceeded to pump Sony's flush
14:58
Speaker 1: budget into her debut album. Sony forked over eight hundred
15:02
Speaker 1: thousand dollars just to produce the record, another million for
15:05
Speaker 1: marketing and promotion. Tommy topped it off with another five
15:08
Speaker 1: hundred grand to remake one of Mariah's music videos. He
15:12
Speaker 1: didn't flinch at the frightening amount of zeros it took
15:14
Speaker 1: to roll out Mariah's self titled debut. Everything in Tommy's
15:18
Speaker 1: world was big by design, big security measures, big block
15:22
Speaker 1: in his briefcase, big chauffeurs driving big armored limousines. The
15:28
Speaker 1: acts he worked with were even bigger. To his credit,
15:31
Speaker 1: Tommy kick started the careers as some of music history's
15:34
Speaker 1: biggest names, starting with Hall and Oates. He go on
15:38
Speaker 1: to sign decade defining artists of the nineteen nineties and
15:40
Speaker 1: early two thousands, including Celine Dion, Destiny's Child, Shakira, and
15:45
Speaker 1: Jennifer Lopez. When artists said yes to Tommy Mottola, they
15:50
Speaker 1: won big. It was not in your best interests to
15:53
Speaker 1: tell him no under any circumstances, even if he asked
15:57
Speaker 1: to start a romantic relationship with you despite the one
16:00
Speaker 1: age gap, even if he wanted to get married and
16:02
Speaker 1: build a thirty million dollar mansion. In Mariah Carey's case,
16:06
Speaker 1: all of the above. Mariah wielded an earth shattering five
16:10
Speaker 1: octave voice, but she didn't have an actual voice. Tommy
16:14
Speaker 1: was the only person allowed to say no in the relationship.
16:18
Speaker 1: No music that a man like him couldn't easily relate to,
16:21
Speaker 1: no social outings with friends, no acting lessons, no privacy period.
16:28
Speaker 1: Tommy hired two bodyguards to specifically follow Mariah's every move,
16:33
Speaker 1: even within their own home. They had strict orders trail
16:36
Speaker 1: Mariah like a shadow everywhere except the bathroom, and when
16:40
Speaker 1: she has to powder her nose, wait for her outside
16:42
Speaker 1: the door. So long as Mariah was that storybook manner,
16:46
Speaker 1: Tommy never had to wonder what she was doing. He
16:48
Speaker 1: could watch over his wife at any hour, like a
16:51
Speaker 1: shepherd guarding his flock, or more accurately, stalking it. He
16:55
Speaker 1: loved the buzz Mariah using the intercom system installed throughout
16:58
Speaker 1: their mansion, or take a peace and his wife through
17:00
Speaker 1: one of the hidden cameras and recording devices nested throughout
17:03
Speaker 1: the house. Mariah didn't even know where they all were,
17:07
Speaker 1: and that was Tommy's secret because Tommy was allowed to
17:09
Speaker 1: keep secrets, but for Mariah, keeping secrets was a serious offense.
17:17
Speaker 1: She still managed to keep a few things to herself, though,
17:20
Speaker 1: like her inside joke about storybook manner, which she privately
17:24
Speaker 1: nicknamed Sing Sing, a reference to the infamous maximum security
17:28
Speaker 1: prison in New York. Not that Mariah could share the
17:31
Speaker 1: joke with anyone, since she wasn't even allowed to see
17:34
Speaker 1: or make her own friends. Then there was the emergency
17:37
Speaker 1: bag that Mariah stashed underneath their bed, filled with just
17:41
Speaker 1: enough necessities to leave on a moment's notice, and that
17:44
Speaker 1: was laughably sad too. Mariah couldn't even sneak into the
17:47
Speaker 1: kitchen at night to write lyrics without Tommy butting in
17:50
Speaker 1: on the intercom. What you doing? So Mariah found the
17:55
Speaker 1: workaround the one place she knew Tommy hadn't planted any
17:59
Speaker 1: recording devices, her shoe closet, one of the opulent touches
18:03
Speaker 1: Mariah tacked on when the home was designed. Tommy got
18:07
Speaker 1: a subterranean shooting range replete with the bona fide artillery
18:10
Speaker 1: of weapons, and Mariah got a sixty four channel recording
18:13
Speaker 1: studio in a shoe shrine modeled after Coco Chanel's own closet.
18:17
Speaker 1: So when de Bratt wanted a grand tour of Storybook
18:20
Speaker 1: Mansion earlier that day, Mariah knew that the shoe closet
18:23
Speaker 1: was the only place they could speak freely. That was
18:26
Speaker 1: where they could hatch a daring plan. Mariah spoke softly,
18:30
Speaker 1: as if she were talking about scoring a brick of cocaine.
18:34
Speaker 1: I want to go get some French fries, sneaking out
18:38
Speaker 1: a sing sing, I mean storybook manner was that serious.
18:42
Speaker 1: De Bratt didn't understand that. At first. She didn't get
18:45
Speaker 1: Mariah's tone or Jermaine's frantic calls. But when the two
18:49
Speaker 1: women returned home to an army of guards, each armed
18:52
Speaker 1: and ready to reclaim Mariah, it clicked. Mariah and de
18:57
Speaker 1: Bratt were gone for maybe thirty minutes, but even half
19:00
Speaker 1: a minute out of Tommy's jurisdiction was unacceptable. It was
19:04
Speaker 1: a close call, a little too close for Tommy's comfort.
19:07
Speaker 1: He needed to crush Mariah's desire for these little excursions.
19:11
Speaker 1: But from Mariah, the road to freedom was just beginning.
19:19
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. After this word, word word, She
19:29
Speaker 1: felt the cold metal dig into her cheek and her
19:33
Speaker 1: mouth went dry. She didn't dare breathe, let alone shift
19:37
Speaker 1: an inch in her seat. She just stared at the
19:39
Speaker 1: fireplace in front of her, careful not to let her
19:42
Speaker 1: gaze wander, not over to Tommy, not to his colleagues
19:46
Speaker 1: gathered at the dinner table. The nerves in her face
19:50
Speaker 1: prickled with fear. She could feel the metal warming against
19:53
Speaker 1: her cheek. Now the situation was inevitable. Frankly, it was
19:58
Speaker 1: amazing that Tommy hadn't corn sooner. Mariah Carey was well
20:02
Speaker 1: aware she was in a dead end marriage, locked inside
20:06
Speaker 1: a designer dungeon they called home, a nineteen nineties version
20:09
Speaker 1: of Ronnie and Phil Spector, she fully expected to die
20:13
Speaker 1: at storybook manner, and then haunted her trademark whistle notes
20:17
Speaker 1: rattling the rafters for all of eternity. At least it
20:21
Speaker 1: wasn't a gun being held to her face. Tommy could
20:24
Speaker 1: have pulled a pistol on her, or any of the
20:26
Speaker 1: other weapons he kept at home. No, this was a knife,
20:30
Speaker 1: a butt, her knife. Tommy grabbed it and slowly swiped
20:34
Speaker 1: it across his wife's face, right in front of their company.
20:40
Speaker 1: Tommy could sense a breakup was on the horizon, and
20:43
Speaker 1: he wasn't the one doing the dumping, so we started
20:45
Speaker 1: making concessions to smooth things over. He let Mariah take
20:49
Speaker 1: those acting lessons. She was allowed to attend social events
20:53
Speaker 1: without him, as long as she was accompanied by armed security.
20:56
Speaker 1: Of course, he even bought her a red convertible Jaguar,
21:00
Speaker 1: but these were empty gestures. Mariah was ready to walk,
21:04
Speaker 1: and she was strong enough to walk. That's what pissed
21:07
Speaker 1: Tommy off the most. The Mariah had the audacity to
21:10
Speaker 1: leave him after everything he did for Tommy took Mariah
21:14
Speaker 1: in when other labels couldn't make heads or tails of
21:16
Speaker 1: her groundbreaking bund of pop and R and B. He
21:19
Speaker 1: gave her a home at Columbia and Sony when Atlantic
21:22
Speaker 1: said they already had their teen girl star or when
21:25
Speaker 1: Motown said they didn't want quote another Tina Marie situation
21:28
Speaker 1: unquote meaning a situation where listeners couldn't tell if she
21:32
Speaker 1: was white or black. Honestly, though Tommy's attitude about Mariah's
21:36
Speaker 1: biracial identity wasn't much better. He tried to steer her
21:40
Speaker 1: away from anything adjacent to hip hop for as long
21:42
Speaker 1: as possible. In his eyes, it was a successful strategy.
21:47
Speaker 1: Mariah's self titled debut album went to number one in
21:49
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety on the Billboard Hot two hundred. It remained
21:52
Speaker 1: there for eleven consecutive weeks. Mariah maintained a stranglehold on
21:56
Speaker 1: the top of the Billboard Hot one hundred two, bagging
21:59
Speaker 1: four back to back number one singles with the iconic
22:02
Speaker 1: rollout of Fantasy Always Be, My Baby, Honey, and My
22:06
Speaker 1: All between nineteen ninety five. In nineteen ninety eight, Fantasy
22:10
Speaker 1: actually debuted at number one, an unprecedented feat in Billboard
22:14
Speaker 1: history for a female solo act. Tommy even convinced Mariah
22:18
Speaker 1: to make a hit Christmas album at the time when
22:20
Speaker 1: original holiday music took a back seat to the same
22:23
Speaker 1: old bing Crosby jingles. Tommy did all that for Mariah,
22:29
Speaker 1: or maybe Mariah did all that for Tommy. Maybe Tommy
22:34
Speaker 1: had it all backwards. Mariah was the one who wrote
22:37
Speaker 1: all these genre defying hits, and she curated a sound
22:40
Speaker 1: that was mature for teen pop, yet too danceable to
22:43
Speaker 1: be dismissed as easy listening. Tommy had a little saying,
22:47
Speaker 1: you do what you do and I'll do my magic.
22:49
Speaker 1: But Mariah didn't need magic when she had talent and spades,
22:53
Speaker 1: and deep down, perhaps Tommy knew it too. Back at
22:59
Speaker 1: the dinner table in front of the guests, Tommy drew
23:02
Speaker 1: the moment out let Mariah sweat. With the knife pressed
23:05
Speaker 1: to her cheek. He flexed what little power he still
23:08
Speaker 1: held over her. Their colleagues didn't tell Tommy to knock
23:10
Speaker 1: it off, just like everyone else in Mariah's life, too
23:14
Speaker 1: scared to say anything. People who worked with Tommy Mottola
23:17
Speaker 1: knew about the poorly concealed wrath that simmered just below
23:20
Speaker 1: his cool facade, ready to boil over at any moment.
23:23
Speaker 1: Saying no to Tommy Mottola never worked out well for anyone.
23:28
Speaker 1: And then again, Mariah's reward for saying yes to Tommy
23:31
Speaker 1: for eight plus years was a knife digging into her face.
23:36
Speaker 1: She officially had nothing left to lose. After that night,
23:42
Speaker 1: she used her five octave voice to make one of
23:44
Speaker 1: the biggest moves of her career. She said no, No
23:48
Speaker 1: to constant surveillance, no to sleeping with a getaway bag
23:52
Speaker 1: under her bed, no to public humiliation and fearing her
23:56
Speaker 1: own husband. Mariah Carey filed for divorce in nineteen ninety
24:00
Speaker 1: seven and started chatting up labels who could buy her
24:03
Speaker 1: out of her contract with Columbia. Virgin Records stepped up
24:06
Speaker 1: to the plate with one hundred million dollar deal. So
24:09
Speaker 1: long Sony and Syonara sing sing. As of two thousand
24:13
Speaker 1: and one, Mariah Carey was free of Tommy Mottola. That's
24:16
Speaker 1: both a boss and a beau, or so she thought.
24:21
Speaker 1: In reality, nothing was ever that simple, because you don't
24:25
Speaker 1: just leave Tommy Mottola. What's my motherfucking name? The deep
24:36
Speaker 1: voiced rapper delivered that line and the booming opening moments
24:40
Speaker 1: of the song playing on Mariah's stereo, and Mariah couldn't
24:44
Speaker 1: believe what she was hearing. She knew that voice, not
24:48
Speaker 1: just because she was a fan of the artists that
24:50
Speaker 1: it belonged to, because it was in her new music too,
24:53
Speaker 1: her unreleased music. Jah Ruhle thundered over another pop stars
24:59
Speaker 1: delicate voice chorus of the song. Someone clearly wanted to
25:02
Speaker 1: beat Mariah to the puncheon dropping a collab with him,
25:05
Speaker 1: and whoever it was, wanted it to feel like a
25:07
Speaker 1: slap in the face. Mariah didn't have to sit and
25:11
Speaker 1: wonder who was behind all this. There were certain coincidences
25:14
Speaker 1: pertaining to Mariah's new music that had her ex's name
25:17
Speaker 1: written all over them. Coincidence Number one. Rainbow, Maria's final
25:23
Speaker 1: album with Columbia, received a suspiciously low amount of promotion,
25:27
Speaker 1: and we're not just talking about a low budget and
25:30
Speaker 1: lack of planning. Mariah heard that Tommy actually pulled her
25:33
Speaker 1: stand up ads and promotional materials from record stores. The
25:37
Speaker 1: gloves had come off. Coincidence number two. Mariah sampled the
25:41
Speaker 1: song Firecracker by Yellow Magic Orchestra for her new song
25:45
Speaker 1: lover Boy, but before Loverboy could hit airwaves, another artist
25:50
Speaker 1: sampled the same track, a new girl on the block
25:53
Speaker 1: named Jenny Jennifer Lopez, Columbia's new it girl. She not
25:59
Speaker 1: only stole this, but she turned around and released her
26:02
Speaker 1: own song I'm Real in record timing. It felt staged, deliberate,
26:08
Speaker 1: but apparently that blow wasn't enough. Coincidence number three the
26:13
Speaker 1: I'm Real Remix featuring none other than Ja Rule, directly
26:18
Speaker 1: after he and Mariah worked on a new collaboration called
26:21
Speaker 1: if We Not To mention the negative stories about Mariah's
26:25
Speaker 1: personal life that were popping up the papers seemingly out
26:27
Speaker 1: of the blue. It all added up to one thing sabotage.
26:32
Speaker 1: Mariah suspected Tommy Mottola had industry spies lurking around reporting
26:36
Speaker 1: back to him in Columbia. Fine, if Tommy was going
26:40
Speaker 1: to hire moles, then Mariah was going to hire a
26:42
Speaker 1: spy of her own. She dialed a San Francisco detective
26:45
Speaker 1: whose former clients included President Bill Clinton in Courtney Love.
26:51
Speaker 1: Mariah's heart skipped a beat when the private investigator contacted
26:54
Speaker 1: her with the results. No, she wasn't imagining things. Yes,
26:59
Speaker 1: her beliefs were founded. That's a quote. Mariah never took
27:03
Speaker 1: Tommy to court over the whole ordeal. She didn't need to.
27:07
Speaker 1: Once the private dick started making comments to the papers
27:10
Speaker 1: about the case. The coincidence is mysteriously tapered off. Even
27:14
Speaker 1: though Tommy denied everything. Less than two years later, in
27:18
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, he left Sony. Maybe Tommy's magic
27:22
Speaker 1: with Columbia finally ran out, and maybe it was all
27:26
Speaker 1: sleight of hand to begin with. The men reviewed the
27:50
Speaker 1: plan one more time. This property was more complicated than
27:54
Speaker 1: their usual hits four point two acres of land, nearly
27:58
Speaker 1: thirteen thousand square feet of mansion, nine bedrooms, thirteen bathrooms,
28:04
Speaker 1: unlimited potential for looting, but also unlimited potential for failure.
28:10
Speaker 1: This robbery would be a big one if they could
28:12
Speaker 1: pull it off, Bigger than robbing the Rapper Gunna or
28:16
Speaker 1: any of the airhead social media influencers they targeted in
28:19
Speaker 1: the past, even bigger than stealing from players for the
28:22
Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons in the Atlanta United The so called Drug
28:26
Speaker 1: Rich Gang pulled off those burglaries without even cracking at gatorade.
28:30
Speaker 1: They were efficient, slick. Their members have been swiping from
28:34
Speaker 1: homes in the Atlanta area for years. Their men marked
28:37
Speaker 1: themselves with hats and chains branded with the letters r X.
28:41
Speaker 1: One of the men got those letters inched on his face.
28:45
Speaker 1: They flaunted their affiliation the way celebrities cloaked themselves and
28:48
Speaker 1: Louis Vauton's LV logo and Gucci's signature interlocking gs. Drug
28:53
Speaker 1: Rich membership was something to be coveted. Nothing intimidated their men,
28:58
Speaker 1: not luxury card acting, not armed home invasions, not even
29:03
Speaker 1: committing false imprisonment and holding a sixteen year old girl
29:06
Speaker 1: hostage killing time. While the other men made off with
29:09
Speaker 1: their families, Beamer and Mercedes Drug Ridge took care of business.
29:15
Speaker 1: The gang had ways of keeping pesky tenants in their
29:17
Speaker 1: place if they interfered with a burglary. It was nothing
29:20
Speaker 1: to force someone out of the shower at gunpoint, even
29:23
Speaker 1: less to fire in the direction of a family member
29:26
Speaker 1: lingering at home. And if the threat of bullets didn't
29:28
Speaker 1: keep nuisances out of the way, the Drug Ridge Gang
29:31
Speaker 1: had more inventive ways of securing the bag, like tying
29:36
Speaker 1: up an unlucky homeowner with a makeshift dogged leash and
29:39
Speaker 1: walking him on all fours until the job was done.
29:42
Speaker 1: But the gang didn't have to worry about anything like
29:44
Speaker 1: that today. The owner of the targeted estate wouldn't be home.
29:49
Speaker 1: She made that clear on Instagram with posts from the
29:51
Speaker 1: BET Awards in Los Angeles. She shared a photo of
29:54
Speaker 1: her goddess like figure wrapped in a luxurious black belt
29:57
Speaker 1: chain debona dress that cascaded into her gold train. The
30:01
Speaker 1: estates owner had a taste for extravagance that was unmatched.
30:05
Speaker 1: Legend had it that she even had a room in
30:07
Speaker 1: her house just for shoes. That's how the Drug Ridge
30:10
Speaker 1: Gang knew that they'd have plenty of clothes to choose
30:13
Speaker 1: from Mariah Carry's house. On June twenty seventh, twenty twenty two.
30:19
Speaker 1: The gang sent three men for the task, just enough
30:22
Speaker 1: hands to carry a serious amount of loop. They crept
30:27
Speaker 1: across the estate's sprawling acreage, broke down the back door
30:32
Speaker 1: with brute force guns on their hips, bags in their
30:35
Speaker 1: hands to fill with clothes and shoes. The gang left
30:38
Speaker 1: all electronics in their place. This trip was all about
30:42
Speaker 1: the designer drip. Later, the men left as quietly as
30:46
Speaker 1: they entered, the bags over their shoulders, bulging with blink.
30:50
Speaker 1: It was just like Christmas. It was that time on
30:57
Speaker 1: December twenty fifth, when everyone's Chris started to wind down.
31:02
Speaker 1: Signs of a successful holiday were scattered around Mariah ski chalet,
31:06
Speaker 1: empty cups of cocoa and eggnog, shredded wrapping paper overflowing
31:10
Speaker 1: from trash cans. A seasonal playlist on low volume but
31:14
Speaker 1: still humming in the background. All I Want for Christmas
31:18
Speaker 1: Is You was naturally tossed into the mix, which was
31:21
Speaker 1: one hundred percent appropriate. On Christmas Eve twenty twenty two,
31:26
Speaker 1: All I Want for Christmas Is You crushed the record
31:28
Speaker 1: for single day's streams on Spotify's global charts with over
31:32
Speaker 1: twenty one point two million spins. It was just as
31:36
Speaker 1: true with twenty twenty two as it had been in
31:38
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four. Mariah Carey owned Christmas. But owning Christmas
31:44
Speaker 1: doesn't come from streams and record stores. For Mariah Carey,
31:49
Speaker 1: it meant a little bit more. It meant making her
31:52
Speaker 1: own security in her happy place when no one was
31:55
Speaker 1: protecting her, or someone was protecting her too much. Her
32:00
Speaker 1: burglary at her Atlanta home was behind her by now.
32:03
Speaker 1: Mariah put the estate on the market that fall. The
32:06
Speaker 1: Drug Ridge gang invasion had shattered her sense of safety,
32:09
Speaker 1: so she moved out, and she moved on. It wasn't
32:13
Speaker 1: the first luxurious match and she had to walk away from,
32:16
Speaker 1: and it might not even be the last. But she'd
32:19
Speaker 1: leave all over again if she had to, because Mariah
32:24
Speaker 1: knew that the real luxury was finding security, even if
32:28
Speaker 1: it meant walking away from the people who claimed to
32:30
Speaker 1: love her, even if she had to make her own
32:33
Speaker 1: sense of peace and preserve it in a Christmas song.
32:38
Speaker 1: And no sibling, no husband, no burglary could take that
32:42
Speaker 1: away from Mariah Carey. I'm Jake Brennan in this this disgraceland.
33:01
Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in
33:04
Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
33:07
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33:11
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