Will Nick Cannon’s Mariah Carey Tell-All Reveal Her Chart Success Was Manipulated?

It’s not a good time to be Mariah Carey. She is not only dealing with poor Las Vegas Ticket sales, but is being widely accused of staging a publicity stunt relationship with Brett Ratner for various reasons. Now, former boy-toy Nick Cannon is about to write a tell-all book on the former superstar, according to the Daily Mail.

“Nick Cannon has signed and sealed a deal to write a tell-all book about his marriage to Mariah Carey – and she is furious about him betraying her. Mariah rejected Nick’s numerous demands for a $30 million divorce settlement so now he’s writing the book — saying he plans get his payday for being married to her one way or another – and there is nothing she can do about it because he already signed the deal last week with major publishing company Simon and Schuster.”

What could Nick Cannon possibly write about that could hurt Mariah Carey? Some believe he will reveal the truth about Mariah Carey’s constant bragging about all of her No. 1 hits: Many of those alleged “hits” were actual flops that were manipulated by her record company and management team.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Billboard‘s Hot 100 was primarily tabulated based on sales. Most singles cost $2.99. When Mariah Carey’s career started to lose steam, her singles were discounted to 49 cents. Fox News explained how Mariah turned chart flops into chart toppers with this type of manipulation.

“Mariah, like a lot of other pop stars, owes the success of her singles not to her fans but to a few distributors who control the record business. Primary among them is Trans World Entertainment of Albany, the company that owns Coconuts Music & Movies, FYE (For Your Entertainment), Camelot, Planet Music, Record Town, Saturday Matinee, Spec’s Music, Strawberries, The Wall, and Waxie Maxie’s. Trans World has been deep discounting Mariah’s singles for years, selling them for a quarter of the price of other records.”

At the time of the article, “Loverboy” was being discounted to 49 cents and many stores were giving the song away for free. That song ended up hitting No. 2, despite tanking on radio. But No. 1 songs such as “Honey,” “My All,” “Heartbreaker,” and “Thank God I Found You” were also released for 49 cents, helping them hit No. 1, even though the songs weren’t technically big hits.

All this isn’t to suggest Mariah Carey hasn’t had legitimate No. 1 hits. “We Belong Together,” “One Sweet Day,” and “Fantasy” were all huge hits that didn’t require chart manipulation. However, it has been suggested that Mariah changed the name of her upcoming concert series from “Mariah Carey #1’s” to “Mariah Carey 49 Cents.”

[Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]