It’s Like That

"It's like That" is a song written by Mariah Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal and Johnta Austin, and produced by Carey, Dupri and Seal for Carey's tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). It borrows the hook "it's like that y'all" from the Run-D.M.C. track "Hollis Crew" (1984), showing the strong influence of old school hip hop on Carey's 2005 sound. It was the first single to be released from the album, in 2005 (see 2005 in music). It was a top twenty hit in several countries, including the United States, and was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance".

Background

Vorlage:Stubsection "It's like That" was among the last songs recorded for The Emancipation of Mimi. After recording nearly twenty tracks for the album, Carey was satisfied with her output, but her boss, L.A. Reid, thought something was missing. He asked her to write more songs with Dupri, and the results were the songs "It's like That" and "We Belong Together". Although the song has rapped/spoken parts from Dupri and Fatman Scoop, they are not credited for technical reasons. The protagonist of this club-inspired track declares that she "came to have a party" and briefly (jokingly) dabbles in alcohol and marijuana usage. She then notes that "it's her night" and relaxes, before chanting "It's like that, y'all".

Chart performance

"It's like That" was one of Carey's biggest commercial successes in years, reaching number sixteen on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The song's relatively high peak position on the Hot 100 contrasted with the chart performance of most of Carey's previous singles released between 2001 and 2005, some of which had failed to chart on the Hot 100 or even its "bubbling under" chart. It stayed in the top forty for fifteen weeks and was ranked sixty-ninth on the Hot 100 2005 year-end chart. It was certified gold by the RIAA, becoming Carey's twenty-fourth gold single and her first gold digital single. In May 2006, over a year after its official release, the song charted in the top forty on Billboard's Hot Adult R&B Airplay.

As a result of the digital music explosion in 2005, many changes were being made to Billboard magazine charts early in that year. Because of these changes concurrent to the released of "It's like That", Carey was one of the first artists to enter the new charts. Late in February 2005, Billboard added the Hot Digital Tracks (which is based on digital download sales statistics from various online outlets) and began using statistics when calculating a song's subsequent position on the Hot 100. Because "It's like That" was released to the U.S. iTunes Music Store on January 25, 2005 (a few weeks before the debut of the Hot Digital Tracks chart), a significant number of the song's downloads never contributed to the its weekly position on the Hot 100. Also in early 2005, Billboard replaced the Top 40 Tracks chart with the new Pop 100 chart. "It's like That" was Carey's last single to chart on the Top 40 Tracks, and subsequently peaked at number twenty on the Pop 100.

The single was slightly more successful outside the U.S. It reached the top twenty in Germany, France and Norway, the top ten in Australia and the top five in United Kingdom, where it peaked at number four. "It's like That" became Carey's seventh number-one hit on the Tokyo Hot 100 airplay chart, but it reached only number 130 on the official Japanese Oricon single sales chart.

Remixes and music video

An official remix produced by Scott Storch has a more Middle Eastern flavor and a rap by Fat Joe. Dance remixes, with re-recorded vocals by Carey, were produced by David Morales. Peter Rauhofer and Pound Boys (a.k.a. Mayhem & Craig C.) also remixed "It's like That", but their remixes were not released. Because many singles by 2005 did not have commercial CD single releases, the remixes were only released on twelve-inch vinyl maxi single. Two maxi singles were released.

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A scene from the music video.

The single's video was directed by Brett Ratner, who directed some of Carey's other videos. Initially, Carey had wanted Paul Hunter to direct the video. Carey, a close friend of Ratner, was reluctant at first because Ratner had stopped directing videos for the most part, but after hearing a proposed treatment, she approved. The main setting of the video, which was shot on location at Greystone Park Mansion in Beverly Hills, California, is a party at a mansion turned nightclub on the night before Carey's character's wedding to Eric Roberts. Several guests are seen wearing masks, and there are celebrity cameo appearances by Brian McKnight, Randy Jackson, and the two featured rappers on the track, Dupri and Fatman Scoop. Carey is singing along to Fatman Scoops's outro rap when she sees a party guest (played by Wentworth Miller) taking off his mask and revealing himself to be an ex-lover of hers. The video ends on a cliffhanger, which leads to the video for the album's second single, "We Belong Together" (the two videos were filmed simultaneously).

Track listings

UK CD single/European CD single

1. "It's like That" (album version)
2. "It's like That" (David Morales radio mix)

UK CD maxi single/European CD maxi single

1. "It's like That" (album version)
2. "It's like That" (no rap)
3. "It's like That" (David Morales club mix)
4. "It's like That" (David Morales classic mix)
5. "It's like That" (Stereo Experience)

Charts

Chart (2005)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	9
Austria	33
Brazil Hot 100 Singles	52
Canadian Singles Chart	29
Croatian Singles Chart	1
France Top 100 Singles	16
Greek Top 50 Singles Charts	11
Hungary	3
Ireland Top 20 Singles	11
Italy Singles Chart	5
Netherlands	13
Dutch Top 40	26
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	16
Norway Singles Top 20	13
Philippine Top 40	1
Romanian Top 100 Airplay	1
South African Airplay	1
Sweden Top 60 Singles	47
Switzerland Top 100 Singles	10
Tokyo Hot 100	1
UK Singles Chart	4
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	16
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks	17
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	20
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Top 40	16
U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40	9
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play	1
United World Chart	6
Chart (2006)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Adult R&B Airplay	37