Single Review: Mariah Carey - Type Dangerous

I’m never too hot on Mariah’s lead singles. They usually only fully click for me when I hear them as part of the album or I hear them in the club. And I do not be in the club these days. So, let’s see how I feel about this song when Mariah’s 16th studio album drops.

But as of now? I like “Type Dangerous”. It’s fun. There are a bunch of ‘but’s’, but we’ll get to those.

One thing about Mariah is that she is VERY online. She is extremely aware of what people say about her — good and bad. But she is also very plugged into what the lambs are saying and what they want from her. And “Type Dangerous” really does feel like a ‘Lemme remind y’all real quick’ to the casuals and a wink to the lambily. She reminds everybody that she has hits beyond just that damn Christmas song and that she wrote near enough every single one of them. Everybody has been commenting on Mariah’s unconventional use of multisyllabic words in songs, so she throws one into the song — highlighted brilliantly in the lyric video. Black fans have long lovingly joked about when Mariah goes Hip-Hop, referring to her in these moments as Hoodriah or N***ariah — so, that’s what she gives us with the sound. There was a moment when Lambs joked about the line in “It’s Like That” ‘Them chickens is ash and I’m lotion’ and meme’d it to hell, so we get a new take on that with ‘Then came in three hatin’ ass hoes, they don’t know the meaning of water nor soap’. “Type Dangerous” is such a cool little Easter egg offering for her fans, which extends to the music video. It’s very ‘If you know, you know’. But not to a point that it becomes the entire identity for the song which would exclude those who do not know. But it also acts as a cool introduction to this whole other side of Mariah that the general public has never really seen nor latched onto the way that R&B fans and Lambs have done.

One thing about Mariah — she’s very good at this music shit and she is intentional. And people continue to underplay how smart she is when it comes to her music. And whilst I may have some qualms about “Type Dangerous”, it’s a really smartly put together song that says so much about who Mariah is. It’s kinda like “Obsessed” in this sense, in that they’re not necessarily the first songs which come to mind when you think of Mariah and nor are they songs most would cite as being wholly reflective of who she is as an artist — but they actually speak so much to who Mariah is, more so than a lot of the songs she is probably better known for by wider audiences. And something which “Obsessed” and “Dangerous” both share in common is humour. Mariah has always been fun and had a sense of humour, but this is also something that Mariah was not known for and probably still isn’t known for by those whose only frame of reference for Mariah are “Without You”, “Hero”, “Always Be My Baby” and “All I Want for Christmas You”.

I like that Mariah is at a point in her life and her career where she doesn’t feel the need to uphold a particular image through her music and put out certain types of songs simply because it’s more marketable. This isn’t to say that big ballads aren’t true to who she is. But they are just a part of who she is. And it’s long been evident that Mariah likes Hip-Hop, R&B and having fun. So it’s fun to see her just indulge in that — delivering a song which feels like it’s as much for her as it is for everybody else.

It’s also really cool as a long time fan to hear that despite Mariah being almost 30 anniversaries into her career, she can still surprise and deliver something which feels fresh and new for her, whilst still quintessentially Mariah. “Type Dangerous” features a classic Hip-Hop sample, which is a signature for Mariah at this point. Eric B. & Rakim’s “Eric B. Is President” provides a foundation for the song which gives it its bounce, but then you have this really cool groove which hits during the chorus. The sound of this song is so good — being this really cool fusion of Hip-Hop and lounge-jazz, which gives the hook this almost City Pop-esque vibe.

But as is custom for many of Mariah’s singles, the whole vibe of “Type Dangerous” has so many layers to it — making it primed to be flipped and remixed all manner of different ways. We already got Mariah including Rakim on a version of the song for her BET Awards 2025 performance. This was not only an amazing co-sign given one of his songs is sampled on “Type Dangerous”, but it’s Mariah doing what Mariah has always done — not only sampling a Hip-Hop record, but bringing the artist being sampled into the fold for the song. The same way she sampled Mobb Deep for “The Roof” and then released a version which had Mobb Deep on it and a whole new video which also featured them. The same way she sampled Snoop Dogg’s “Ain’t No Fun (If the Homies Can’t Have None)” for the “Heartbreaker (Remix)” and then had Snoop in the music video. The same way she used the instrumental for Cam’ron’s “Boy” for “Boy (I Need You)” then had him on the song and in the music video. Many of us fans were begging and pleading for Mariah to do the same thing with the “Crush On You” sampled “A No No”, by putting Lil’ Kim on a remix. But, alas it didn’t happen.

Not only has Mariah long been known for her rap features, but also for her remixes. And seeing as “Type Dangerous” seems to be in the business of reminding hoes, it would be really cool to see this song end up with a whole bunch of remixes. Release the version for Rakim. Give us a City pop remix. Get David Morales to do a house remix with all new vocals. [Side note. I originally wrote this review before Mariah had released a Type Dangerous remix EP.]

Mariah Carey - Type Dangerous | Mariah / Gamma

So. I have to talk about them y’all. The vocals. Mariah’s current voice is something that I’m just gonna have to get used to. Because between her appearances on the remixes of “Made for Me” and “Yes, And?” and The Mimi Sessions, it’s clear that how she sounded on these were not just off days. This is her voice now. And credit to Mariah, she does sound better on “Type Dangerous” than she did on the aforementioned. I like that she wrote and arranged the song around her current vocal state. The issue with Mariah’s voice isn’t that she isn’t singing big, but that it sounds like she’s lost musicality and some of the ability to just…sing. It’s not just ‘Oh, she can’t do big notes any more’. It’s more like ‘She can just about do notes, period’. It’s really bizarre. The sticking point for me is that it seems to require a lot of effort for Mariah just to sound how she does on this song. Not just to get sound out, but to ride the beat. And the latter is also noticeable, because singing super in the pocket with the cadence of a rapper is Mariah’s thing — a thing I don’t think she got a lot of credit for when she first started doing it. So to now hear Mariah almost struggle to stay on beat, it did make me go ‘Oooo’. It doesn’t harm the song in any way. But I do wish Mariah’s vocals were tighter on the beat. And it’s an interesting choice that Mariah’s vocals weren’t shifted in the mix to be a bit tighter, because they easily could have been.

“Type Dangerous” is a fun song and a solid choice for a lead single. On one hand I feel that the song is a bit too short. But on the other hand, I wonder how much more the song could have been stretched out, and if doing so would have made it any better — especially given Mariah’s voice. If she was in a state to give us a bigger climax of some sort, some cute vocal layers or a whistle moment, then she would have. But the song has enough legs and space that more can be done with it in the long run. Releases more remixes. Put out an extended mix. Put out the acapella and the instrumental. Put a different version on the album. “Type Dangerous” is the [turns and looks into the camera] type of song which can easily be evolved further and tweaked over time. Not because the original version is bad. But because there is just so much room for the song to be expanded upon in so many different ways. And I hope Mariah and her team see this for “Type Dangerous” the same way that I do.