Mariah Carey releases the music video for “Type Dangerous” fashionably late. Deadlines? We don’t know her.

As soon as I heard that Joseph Khan was involved with the music video for “Type Dangerous”, I knew the kinda video this would be. He has a very particular style. And at a time when so many music video directors of the early 2000s either don’t make videos any more or no longer have a signature style as they did back then, I dig it. Even if I think some of his opinions are absolute trash. One thing you know you’re gonna get with a Joseph Khan video is multiple looks and setups, a sports car, maybe a motorcycle, video game vibes, some form of reference to something Japanese, unnecessarily extra (but cool) shot transitions and some ugly VFX. And we got all this in “Type Dangerous”. The ugly VFX shots probably the reason this video released later than was originally advertised.

Joseph Khan has worked with Mariah before, having directed the video for “Boy (I Need You)”. And he also shot the horrendously planned video that never came to be for “The One” — which is really unfortunate, because that was one of the best songs on Charmbracelet and had big hit potential.

HENNYWAY.

Joseph and Mariah go back like babies and pacifiers.

The video for “Type Dangerous” was like a combination of Mariah’s “It’s Like That” and “Honey”, Britney’s “Toxic”, Ayumi Hamasaki’s “Startin’” and Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” — two out of four of which Joseph Khan had directed.

It’s a really fun video. I like that in keeping with the song, it featured references and Easter eggs for the Lambs. The casino feeling like a nod to “It’s Like That”. Mariah’s Knicks dress being a reference to the Jersey dress she wore at the NBA All-Star Game in 2003 and that she’s a New Yawka. One of the buildings featuring a neon sign for ‘Bianca Industries’ — Bianca being Mariah’s dark haired nemesis who first swung at Mariah in both of the “Heartbreaker” videos and then tried to run a bitch off the road in the video for “Boy (I Need You)”. And Mariah looking at Mr. Beast and then turning to the camera to say ‘I don’t know him’ — which we all know is in reference to what is one of the most quoted and referenced things that Mariah has said, when she was asked about Jennifer Lopez.

Mariah Carey in music video for “Type Dangerous” | Gamma

Some parts of the video were a bit odd. The cartoon versions of Mariah felt out of place and unnecessary. And the VFX during the motorcycle and car sequences were absolutely awful. The VFX shots of Mariah on the roof also looked terrible to the point that they distracted me from how good Mariah looked. But Mariah fans are accustomed to seeing her in music videos with raggedy VFX shots. Shoutouts to the music videos for “I Want to Know What Love Is” and the green screen classic that is “Auld Lang Syne (The New Year’s Anthem)”. But the video for “Type Dangerous” is still fun. It’s nice to see a legacy act like Mariah, or just any act PERIOD, drop a video with this sort of production value and effort, ‘cos we know what an exception these sorts of videos are these days.

Mariah Carey in music video for “Type Dangerous” | Gamma

I really hope that we get a run of singles from Mariah from this upcoming album and that they each get music videos which carry the same DNA as “Type Dangerous”. Because it would be great for Mariah to have videos which are creatively consistent and feel like they [turns and looks into the camera] belong together.

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💿 Mariah Carey album reviews: Merry Christmas | Rainbow | Charmbracelet | Glitter | E=MC² | Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel | Merry Christmas II You | Merry Christmas II You | Me. I Am Mariah... | Caution

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