Mariah Carey is celebrating the anniversary by doing what she does best: throwing shade.
It’s hard to believe, but it has already been 12 years since the iconic singer first topped charts with her hit single, “Obsessed.” As most fans and pop culture fanatics already know, the song is supposedly aimed at rapper Eminem and what she saw as his obsession with Mariah, though the songstress never officially confirmed those rumors.
Now, in honor of the song being more than a decade old, Mariah decided to use the classic track as background music for her entry into the popular “Wipe It Down” TikTok challenge, which was all over the internet at the beginning of the quarantine last year.
In the short clip, Mariah goes from dressed down to completely glammed up in seconds through an absolutely seamless transition. But after that is where the real fun comes in, as there’s another “cameo” from the “Slim Shady” rapper...well, played by Mariah. Of course, this is the same way she portrayed the Eminem-like character in the song’s 2009 music video.
“Just for laughs,” she wrote in her caption on Wednesday, June 16. “From last year‘s lockdown when all I did was wipe tings down. #HappyAnniversaryObsessed.”
As emphasized by Mariah, this old feud is all jokes 12 years later--but back in the day, the feud between the two musicians was quite serious. At one point, as recently as 2019, the “Stan” rapper even went back and forth with Mariah’s ex-husband, Nick Cannon.
This whole saga started in 2001, when Eminem claimed to have dated the Carey for six months. The only problem? She denies this ever happened. The rapper went on to release a number of records throwing shade at the songstress, including one titled, “Bagpipes From Bagdad.”
That is what prompted Mariah to release her huge hit, “Obsessed” in 2009. While she never refers to Slim Shady by name, in the music video, Mariah sported grey sweats, a hoodie, and even has a goatee, which some fans saw as a nod to Eminem’s wardrobe. The visual features the character following Mariah throughout the video as she sings, “Why you so obsessed with me? Boy, I wanna know.”
Eminem has yet to respond to her recent acknowledgment of the song, so it seems like things are all good between them...at least for now.