Music Is My Weapon

Mariah Carey's "Don't Forget About Us" led the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for a second week Thursday. Along with the flood of awards, chart records and accolades she's gotten for The Emancipation Of Mimi, Carey took the lead over 50 Cent in a close race for the year's best-selling album. With just a few reporting days left, Mimi slipped ahead of 50's The Massacre by 32,000 copies. In the latest numbers from Nielsen SoundScan, Carey has sold 4.866 million copies to 50's 4.834 million.

The best-selling female performer of the 1990s, Mariah Carey rose to superstardom on the strength of her stunning five-octave voice; an elastic talent who moved easily from glossy ballads to hip-hop-inspired dance-pop, she earned frequent comparison to rivals Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, but did them both one better by composing all of her own material. Born in Long Island, NY, on March 27, 1970, Carey moved to New York City at the age of 17 -- just one day after graduating high school -- to pursue a music career; there she befriended keyboardist Ben Margulies, with whom she began writing songs. Her big break came as a backing vocalist on a studio session with dance-pop singer Brenda K. Starr, who handed Carey's demo tape to Columbia Records head Tommy Mottola at a party. According to legend, Mottola listened to the tape in his limo while driving home that same evening, and was so immediately struck by Carey's talent that he doubled back to the party to track her down.

Yet at her current level of popularity, she doesn't see any end in sight. She plans on making one more Mimi video. When discussing her new The Emancipation Of Mimi: Ultra Platinum Edition on Saturday, Mariah Carey casually plugged the release date after stating the title.

"Rappers do it, why can't I?" she asked, as dozens of rappers were probably doing just that at the Vibe Awards taking place around her.

After tieing Elvis for most hit singles, maybe she will create yet another hit and beat his record. Actually, it's more "when", and not "if." It'll happen soon