Some people have a hard time letting things go.
Back in March of this year, GRAMMY-winning singer Muni Long suffered some backlash after what some perceived to be shade to the highest degree served cold by none other than the ice queen herself, pop icon Mariah Carey. While the “Songbird Supreme” never actually did or said anything to badmouth her successor who happens to be a whole 20 years her junior, Mariah’s blank stare as Long performed an ill-received cover of “We Belong Together” all but told how she really felt.
Although many like us figured this was a minor and moot point in the culture, the Revenge singer herself decided to do just that — albeit, her rebuttal arrives months late and quite possibly is using fat-shaming in her approach.
Yikes.
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Using a “mock MiMi” to portray the 1990s Artist Of The Decade in a video skit for her new single titled “Delulu” (seen above), Muni’s decision is a bold one if we ever saw one and may prove to be one she comes to regret. “I just don’t like when other people sing my songs,” she says mockingly after putting a red stamp that reads “Delulu” on a mock photo of mock Mariah — there’s just a lot of mocking going on in an otherwise cringe-worthy skit at best!
It’s a direct quote from an interview Mariah did with GQ back in September where she addressed the aforementioned situation by stating, “Well, I’m very honored and flattered that she did it. I love Muni Long, she’s a great person, umm, but I just don’t like people doing my songs.” In all actuality, Muni might feel slighted that Mariah didn’t even realize it was even a tribute, which came to light after she also told GQ, “I just didn’t know that she had done ‘We Belong Together’ [as a cover] ‘cause her song was so similar to ‘We Belong Together.’ I had no idea that she did ‘We Belong Together.‘”
Ok, now things are starting to make a bit more sense, y’all.
The promo campaign has been running since the song was released on digital platforms last month, with a handful of social media stars jumping in to parody the well-known audition process made famous by shows like American Idol and The X Factor. In Muni’s world, she’s the Simon Cowell of this situation; in short, even Mariah can get it. Unfortunately, even if made as nothing more than a joke, fans have already erupted with disappointment at what some might consider disrespect towards a living legend.
Long followed up with another video soon after to clear up the rumblings of a beef on the horizon, but we think the damge has already been done.
To make fun in any way of an artist who happens to be sensitive about something as minuscule as the lighting in every room she steps in — a detail also made fun of in the aforementioned parody video, ironically enough — just seems like a set-up for a dragging by the Lambily in the foreseeable future. Then again, could all this drama simply be part of the promo?
In a year where we saw Kendrick Lamar dethrone Drake with a GRAMMY-winning diss heard around the world, Cardi B literally lining them up with hit after hit on her latest LP, Am I The Drama? — BIA and JT being the main casualties — and Young Thug trying his absolute best to engage Gunna in a public war of words to no avail, could Muni Long be simply “rolling with the times” and going for the top of the chain? Could her prior work on songs for Mariah — Long sang background on “A No No” and co-write “Runaway” off 2018’s Caution, in addition to co-writing with Carey a decade ago on the 2015 ballad “Infinity” — have her in an overly-confident state of mind?
