Mariah Carey Explains Infamously Saying She Doesn't Know Jennifer Lopez

The holiday season is here, so we should expect to hear a lot more Mariah Carey these days. But beyond the famous Christmas songs that she sings, Carey is back in the spotlight thanks to her new album, Caution, which came out earlier this month. In the midst of doing interviews for the brand new release, Carey also touched on some of her earlier career moments -- including her infamous comments about Jennifer Lopez.

Specifically, Mriah Carey was asked why she said she didn't "know" Jennifer Lopez in the early '00s, which has since sparked a meme in recent years. Particularly when, in 2016, Carey claimed she "still" didn't know her. While the comment is famous for being reportedly filled with shade, Carey claims that she was actually being nice.

Mariah Carey's blunt admission about Jennifer Lopez came during an expansive interview with Pitchfork. While many people over the years have taken Carey's comments to be pure sass, the "Always Be My Baby" singer claims in this conversation that she was actually trying to be civil and kind to her fellow musician those years ago. Evidently, that wasn't how it was received by numerous people, who turned it into a meme for dismissing people.

It's hard to know for sure if Mariah Carey is telling the truth here or not, but it's pretty common for innocent comments to be taken wildly out of context. It wouldn't be the first time people on the Internet took what was meant to be inoffensive and turned it into something sneering. Alas, that might be the case here, based on what Carey is claiming in this recent interview from over Thanksgiving's festivities. You can never be too sure of anything, after all.

Admittedly, Mariah Carey is used to everything she says being dissected in one way or another. Rather than be exhausted by all the noise, the musician thinks it's best to tune a lot of things out. Because Carey believes that if you spend too much time obsessing over it, you can "drown in that."

Neither do we. Alas, that's probably the healthiest way to go. It's never good to be obsessed with what other people say about you, because you might find yourself too caught up in all the noise. There is a lot that is written and said about Mariah Carey, and she doesn't seem too interested in hearing it.

In the spirit of opening up, Mariah Carey recently admitted that she has bipolar disorder. Although she knew back in 2001, Carey didn't tell the public, because she claims she "didn't want to believe" it was true. It took her years of self-reflection before she came to terms with the diagnosis. Particularly with the new album currently available in stores, we should expect to hear even more from (and about) Mariah Carey in the next few weeks.