Mariah Carey’s album Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse debuted at No. 3 last month, selling 58,000 copies. While the first-week sales were the lowest of her career (for a non-holiday album), Jermaine Dupri is not sweating it. The So So Def mogul, who manages the pop diva and executive produced Chanteuse, is confident that it will build over time.
“I actually feel like it’s probably one of her best albums she’s ever made,” he told Rap-Up TV at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards. “I’m excited to see where the album ends up. I tell a lot of people, this era of music and this genre, they don’t understand records that come out small and sell a lot of records.”
He compared the situation to Kris Kross and Bow Wow, who both put up low first-week sales, but went on to sell millions. “So it’s like the first-week sales sometimes don’t really matter,” he said. “I think people gotta start understanding. If you have a plan and you can put the plan in play, you just gotta keep livin’ it out.”
Mariah is moving forward with plans to shoot a video for her next single, the J.D.-produced “You Don’t Know What to Do” featuring Wale.
J.D. has also reunited with Jagged Edge and will executive produce the R&B group’s upcoming album J.E. Heartbreak 2. “If you like J.E. Heartbreak, you’re gonna love this new album,” he said. “We don’t really feel like we have no competition in the R&B world. When I say that I’m talking about real ballads, music that people actually have sex to. I just don’t believe that nobody cares about that area no more and we’re getting ready to really, really kill it.”
