UPDATE: 2/16/22 4:00 p.m. ETCannon clarified the track’s true meaning on his talk show on Wednesday, February 16. “The song is really about [the] reflection of the process of when somebody … [realizes], ‘Man, I really messed up. I had probably the greatest situation. I had my dream girl and I messed it up,'” he explained. “The song wasn’t really about trying to get [Carey] back, it was taking ownership of what I did as a man and owning my flaws and expressing it through song.”Original Story Below:
It looks like Nick Cannon has a clear “Vision of Love” — and it involves his ex-wife, Mariah Carey. The Wild ‘N Out host released his new single, “Alone,” on Valentine’s Day, and he doesn’t hold back his emotions for the pop star on the track.
“‘Alone’ is an ode to Nick Cannon’s ex-wife Mariah Carey,” reads a press release about the song obtained by Us Weekly. “Sampled from Mariah Carey’s ‘Love Takes Time,’ Nick speaks to his feelings then and now.”
The rapper, 41, also explained via Twitter on Monday, February 14, that he “had to come Raw from the heart on this one.”
The tune opens with a clip of Carey’s 1990 ballad. “I had it all / But I let it slip away,” the iconic vocalist, 52, sings on the nostalgic hit. “I don’t want to be alone.” After Cannon echoes the chorus, he raps, “I say I’m cool when I know I miss it / I’d trade it all for the case / If I could have you back / If I could go back to where we started at.”
Still, the Masked Singer host knows their romance is not meant to be, particularly because the Glitter actress has been with her boyfriend, Bryan Tanaka, for years, and Cannon, who is dad to seven kids, is admittedly working through his complicated dating life after having four children by three women in less than a year.
“As much as I want you back / It’s probably better where you at,” the Drumline actor raps. “‘Cause I’m still running the streets / I’m still all in the sheets / Having babies, models and singers and actresses saying they pregnant by me.”
Carey and Cannon are parents to 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe. The comedian is also father to Golden, 4, and Powerful Queen, 13 months, with Brittany Bell; twin sons Zillion and Zion, born in June 2021, with Abby De La Rosa, and late son Zen with Alyssa Scott. (Zen died from a brain tumor at 5 months old in December 2021.) The former Nickelodeon star also has a child on the way with Bre Tiesi.
Though the entertainers may not share the same romantic feelings, Carey and Cannon have had love and respect for each other since calling it quits in 2014.
“Mariah and Nick are really great coparents and have a good relationship [and] friendship now,” a source told Us in January when speaking on the hitmaker’s feelings about her ex-husband’s news he is about to become a dad for the eighth time. “So any time Nick has exciting news to share, she’s just happy for him. They’re in a good place and they’re supportive of each other no matter what.”
Cannon himself gushed about the “Always Be My Baby” artist to Us in 2018. “That’s my homegirl. Always will be. Whatever she does, that’s Mariah Carey,” he told Us at the time. “She can do no wrong in my book.”