When Mariah Carey released her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the superstar opened up about her career and her life as she shared stories like never before. She also divulged that she had recorded a secret alternative rock album under the name "Chick" during the Daydream era in 1995, and now, Mariah is opening up about the project and whether or not fans might hear it one day on Questlove's Questlove Supreme podcast.

Mariah recalled that her Chick alt rock record was inspired by the grunge/alternative rock music that was happening at the time. She was inspired by the fact that she noticed these artists and bands were "carefree" and explained, "Me and my friend call it so carefree. Like, how are you so carefree that you can do whatever you want? You can wear whatever you want now?" Carey then said that even though she would listen a lot of R&B and soul, she also listened to artists like Blondie and Pat Benatar, and so she was inspired by a "heavy rock quotient that was around where [she] was going."

During her sessions for her 1995 album Daydream, at night with her band, Mariah would eventually record rock-inspired songs. She remembered, "I would be working on, for example, let's say 'One Sweet Day,' like mixes or whatever, we were doing overdubs. And the band would be there, like my band from the little touring that I did. So I just, one night, was like, I was just singing stuff and making fun of like, not making fun of, but just doing my own little impersonations as I do. And then I said to Gary, who was my guitar player at the time, I was like, 'Can you just play [guitar riffs]?' And he was doing overdubs on something totally different. So he starts playing it and, that's the song called 'Joe.' That's not the one I would love to hear, I would love to hear 'Hermit.' So then, I just started writing stuff down, like anything I wanted to say, finished it in like five minutes or 10 minutes. And it was for laughs, but then as the projects that — like every night when we would be working, and actually the corporate people were on a trip to Italy at that time, so they weren't there to stop the flow." She added, "I just ended up, every night, recording something new and writing something new, and it was just a creative outlet. But then we actually mixed it, and did it, and recorded it, you know, recorded it, mixed it mastered it."

Podcasts