Music and Lyrics: Breakdown – Mariah Carey feat. Bone Thugs N Harmony

Since Ms V (@vera_ftw) mentioned Bone Thugs N’ Harmony on Twitter, this song has been playing in my head. For me, this is Mariah at her best (I feel that her Emancipation of Mimi is up there too, but it’s really hard because her Daydream album was really good too). Anyway, this is Mariah looking fabulous post Tommy Motola divorce, and the Butterfly album was to celebrate her independence. What I love about this song is that it really embraces the harmony of Bone Thugs N Harmony. We’ll see Mariah liking that because some of her future songs had the same style of having more syllables-than-the-beat-rap (i.e We Belong Together). This is to take us all back to 1998! Enjoy!

Krayzie:

Break break down,
Steady breakin me on down, break break down,
Steady breakin me on down,
Break break down, steady breakin me on down,
Break break down, steady breakin me on down.

Mariah:

You called yesterday to basically say
That you care for me,
But that you’re just not in love
Immediately I pretended
To be feeling similarly
And led you to believe it was okay
To just walk away from the one thing
That’s unyielding and sacred to me

Chorus:

Well I guess I’m trying to be
Nonchalant about it
And I’m going to extremes to prove
I’m fine without you
But in reality I’m slowly losing my mind
Underneath a disguise of a smile
Gradually I’m dying inside
Friends ask me how I feel
And I lie convincingly
Cause I don’t want to reveal
The fact that I’m suffering
So I wear my disguise
Till I go home at night
And turn down all the lights
And then I break down and cry

Mariah:

So what do you do
When somebody you’re so devoted to
Suddenly just stops loving you
And it seems they haven’t got a clue
Of the pain that rejection is putting you through
Do you cling to your pride
And sing “I will survive”
Do you lash out and say “How dare you leave this way?”
Do you hold on in vain as they just slip away

Wish:

Yeah, c’ mon, yeah, c’ mon, c’ mon

Well I guess I’m trying to be
Nonchalant about it
And I’m going to extremes to prove
I’m fine without you
But in reality I’m slowly losing my mind
Underneath the disguise of a smile
Gradually I’m dying inside
Friends ask me how I feel
And I lie convincingly
Cause I don’t want to reveal
The fact that I’m suffering
So I wear my disguise
Till I go home at night
And turn down all the lights
And then I break down and cry

Wish:

It’ll break you down
only if you let it
Everday crazy situations rocking my mind
Tryin’ to break me down
But I won’t let it
Forget it ( forget it )

Krayzie:

I be feelin’ like you bringing me down
Taking me around
stressin’ me out
I think i better go and get out
And let me release some stress ( stress )

Wish:

Don’t ever wanna feel no pain ( pain )
Hoping for the sun
But it looks like rain ( rain, rain, rain )
Lord, I just wanna maintain

Krayzie:

Yeah, I can feel pressures ya’ll
But never the less
Krayzie won’t fall
It’s over, it’s ending here ( here )

Chours

Well I guess I’m trying to be
Nonchalant about it
And I’m going to extremes to prove
I’m fine without you
But in reality I’m slowly losing my mind
Underneath the disguise of a smile
Gradually I’m dying inside
Friends ask me how I feel
And I lie convincingly
Cause I don’t want to reveal
The fact that I’m suffering
So I wear my disguise
Till I go home at night
And turn down all the lights
And then I break down and cry – (x3)