Contents [] Song Information By November 2004, Carey had already recorded several songs for her newly-titled tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi. Island Records head L.A. Reid suggested to Carey, however, that she compose a few more strong singles to ensure the project's commercial success.
Noting that she had written some of her best work with Jermaine Dupri, Reid recommended that Carey meet with Dupri for a brief studio session. Carey took Reid's advice and headed to Atlanta to collaborate with Dupri. During this two-day trip, the duo wrote and produced 'Shake It Off' and 'Get Your Number', which were eventually released as the album's third and fourth singles. Following this recording session, 'Shake It Off' was briefly selected as the album's lead single, replacing the originally planned ') Carey returned to Atlanta for a second meeting with Dupri; during this trip, Carey and Dupri penned the last two songs to be included on the album, 'We Belong Together' and '.' In an interview with Billboard, Carey described her sentiments regarding the song during the production stage: ' I had the chills.
I had a great feeling about it when we finished writing the song, and I was flying back from Atlanta at some crazy hour of the morning.But we were listening to it on the plane ride on the way home, and even from the demo version, I really felt something very special.' Carey and her management then decided to release 'It's Like That', which Carey called 'the right fire-starter', as the album's lead single. 
Mariah Carey - Emancipation Of Mimi (2005) [Soul] Post by Dr.E » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:32 pm Mariah Carey - The Emancipation Of Mimi (Ultra Platinum Edition).
Carey later reminisced about her experience with Dupri: ' I am so grateful I went to Atlanta,' she said. 'And I have to say, we wrote some of my favorite songs on the album. I'm so proud of Jermaine – he's so focused, and he knew what had to be done. ' In an interview with MTV, Carey described the album: ' The album is not about making the older executives happy by making a bring-down-the-house, tearjerker ballad, or [something] steeped in the media dramas of my life.
What I tried to do was keep the sessions very sparse, underproduced, like in '70s soul music'.' Music Video The song's music video was shot by film director Brett Ratner in Los Angeles alongside the video for Carey's previous single, '.' Carey had collaborated with Ratner several times in the past, having worked on the video for ' which became one of the most expensive of all time, costing an estimated $2.5 million. The video was filmed in conjunction with 'It's Like That' and serves as the second half to the two-part story. The music video for 'It's Like That' features Carey at her bachelorette party set to wed an older and powerful man, played by Eric Roberts. Towards the end of the video, her ex-lover and past flame, played by Wentworth Miller, arrives at the event, and the video concludes with them staring into each other's eyes as Carey's soon-to-be husband watches from a balcony.
The video for 'We Belong Together' finishes their tale of love, and features Carey on her wedding day. For the scenes of Carey's wedding to the older man, she wore her Vera Wang gown she originally wore during her nuptials to Tommy Mottola in 1993. In an interview with MSNBC, when asked if there was a connection to the use of the dress in the video and reality, Carey responded: ' The wedding dress was a Vera Wang original dress from a while ago that I actually wore on a certain occasion and had it in storage and when we came up with the concept for the video that had the element of a wedding in it, I said, ‘well, I do have my old wedding dress,’. 'It’s still worth [sic] for me ’cause I can’t believe I was ever married but whatever, end of story. And I knew that we wouldn’t be able to get a fabulous dress like in two days so I just took that dress out of the storage – it has a 27-foot train and it was just all hand-beaded and stuff and so I figured we might as well get a use out of it.' The video features Carey preparing for her wedding, and follows her to the altar, as well as her escape from the reception. It begins with a scene of a large mansion, apparently owned by the older man who she is to marry.