Crybaby (song)

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"Crybaby"

Single by Mariah Carey featuring Snoop Dogg
from the album Rainbow
Released	2000
Format	CD single
Genre	R&B
Length	5:19
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Trey Lorenz, Teddy Riley, Aaron Hall, Timmy Gatling, Gene Griffin
Producer(s)	Mariah Carey, Damizza
Chart positions
#28 (U.S.)
Mariah Carey singles chronology
"Thank God I Found You" (2000)	"Crybaby"/"Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" (2000)	"Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" (2000)
Snoop Dogg singles chronology
"Chin Check" (2000)	"Crybaby" (2000)	"Story to tell" (2000)

"Crybaby" is a song written by American singer Mariah Carey, Trey Lorenz and rapper Snoop Dogg, and produced by Carey and Damizza for Carey's sixth studio album Rainbow (1999). It features Snoop Dogg and its production is built around a sample of the song "Piece of My Love", originally performed by Guy and written by Teddy Riley, Aaron Hall, Timmy Gatling, and Gene Griffin. Its protagonist reveals the struggles of dealing with insomnia and thoughts of past lovers as she "spirals out of control" and declares "I gotta get me some sleeeeeep". The word "crybaby" is never mentioned in the song, though Carey does say "I cry, baby, over you and me...". Despite its lack of success on the charts, the song was highly respected by critics^{[citation needed]} and remains a fan favorite.

[edit] Commercial release

It was released as the album's third single in 2000 (see 2000 in music), as a double A-side with the song "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)". Its release was the subject of conflict between Carey and Sony/Columbia Records. Although Rainbow had yielded two U.S. number-one singles, Sony executives did not feel that any more singles were needed from the project. Carey believed otherwise, and began to publicly criticize Sony through messages left on her official website. Sony made a compromise to release the single as a double A-side, but Carey said they did not promote it sufficiently and once again denounced them on her website.

"Can't Take That Away" was emphasized at Mainstream Top 40 radio stations and "Crybaby" at Mainstream Urban stations. It was actually intended that the former would chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, while the latter would focus on the R&B charts. Both singles picked up very limited airplay, and because Billboard magazine rules at that time stipulated that the song from a double A-side with the most airplay (in this case, "Crybaby") would be credited only, "Crybaby" was eligible to chart. Double A-sided singles were credited together on the charts until 1998 when the Hot 100 changed from a "singles" chart to a "songs" chart, and consequently every song was credited individually.

"Crybaby" did not appear on the Hot 100 Airplay chart and debuted on the Hot 100 at number twenty-eight only after its release as a commercial single. It sold strongly but its minimal airplay prevented it from ascending the Hot 100, and it remained in the top forty for two weeks and on the chart for just seven. It became Carey's first single to miss the top twenty, her lowest peaking single before this being "When You Believe" (1998), a duet with Whitney Houston which had reached number fifteen.

The single's music video, directed by Sanaa Hamri, shows Carey on a restless night in her apartment as Snoop Dogg arrives via her television screen just in time to perform his rapped parts. As the album version of "Crybaby" is five minutes long, a radio edit was created, but the only known remix of the song is an unofficial one by Junior Vasquez which leaked onto the internet. Carey collaborated with Snoop Dogg again on "Say Somethin'" (2005), a song from her fourteenth album The Emancipation of Mimi.