Clown

"Clown" is a song recorded by American singer Mariah Carey for her ninth studio album Charmbracelet (2002). She wrote the track with Andre Harris, Vidal Davis, and Mary Ann Tatum, and produced it with Dre & Vidal. "Clown" is an answer song to the comments that rapper Eminem made about Carey in the media and on the 2002 track "Superman". In the lyrics, Carey denies rumors that their 2001 relationship was romantic and expresses regret that it occurred. She likens Eminem to a liar, a puppet, and a clown whose private personality contradicts his public image. "Clown" received analysis from scholars who thought Carey was contending that Eminem's masculine persona was fake. Music critics considered the song a highlight from Charmbracelet and gave its production mixed reviews. They compared it to Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" (1972), Nas' "Ether" (2001), Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" (2002), and the Pet Shop Boys' "The Night I Fell in Love" (2002). During the Charmbracelet World Tour, Carey performed "Clown" while puppeteers controlled an Eminem look-alike on stage. Background and release American singer Mariah Carey suffered an emotional and physical breakdown in 2001. Ensuing media coverage included rumors about a purported romantic relationship gone awry with rapper Eminem. The following year, he alluded to them in The Eminem Show song "Superman". In it, Eminem disses Carey by saying he ended their relationship because she wanted a strong partnership before having sex. He expounded in an appearance on the television program Access Hollywood: "The Mariah thing, yeah, that's true. Those rumors are true, and I'm not going to deny them. You know, we had somewhat of a relationship." In 2002, Eminem spoke of Carey to Rolling Stone: "I don't want to say anything disrespectful because I respect her as a singer, but on the whole personal level, I'm not really feeling it. I just don't like her as a person." Carey retorted in a Dateline NBC interview: "Well, it didn't seem like that for a while, but OK. If it makes him comfortable to say that, then that's great." She responded further with the answer song "Clown", which Island Records released on November 20, 2002, as the seventh track on her ninth studio album Charmbracelet. Carey denied an intimate relationship with Eminem while promoting the album, telling USA Today, "I can still count on less than five fingers the number of men I've gone there with. And believe me, he isn't one of them."