This song is about getting over a boyfriend that you broke up with. It was the third US single off The Emancipation of Mimi, and lyrically it's quite different from the first single, "We Belong Together," where Mariah laments the breakup and wishes they were back together.
Carey wrote and produced this with her "We Belong Together" and "It's Like That" collaborators Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox and Johnta Austin.
When Carey realizes she's ready to ditch her cheating boyfriend, she sings: Just like the Calgon commercial I really gotta get up outta here In the '70s and '80s, Calgon bath and beauty products famously used the slogan, "Calgon, take me away!" In this commercial, a woman is so overwhelmed by the hectic demands of work and family that she cries out the catchphrase and finds herself soaking in a bubble bath courtesy of Calgon's bath powder. Carey originally came up with the lyric, "I gotta get away," but thought it was too boring, so Dupri suggested the Calgon line. She told FMQB Magazine: "I was like 'What did they say in the Calgon commercial?' I did not remember it. We were all debating back and forth, so we asked Bow Wow because he was in the studio and he knew about it, contrary to my belief that anyone young would know what that meant! Even though Bow Wow knew it from a Snoop rap [in "Bow Wow (That's My Name)"] and he thought Snoop was saying, 'Calvin got a gun!' So, it was pretty funny, but it's cool because it's like the Calgon commercial, 'I really get outta here, go somewhere' – and the song turned out amazing!"
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