Mariah Carey plays a great beard

You know drag has gotten mainstream when Mariah Carey busts out a beard for the camera.

In her new music video for the "Obsessed" single, Carey dresses up as two male characters, one in a bellhop uniform, the other clad in a hoodie with some chin hair.

While Mariah’s features are still quite delicate and feminine, she pulls of the masculine look pretty well. The side burn stubble fuses with the full goatee quite elegantly, offsetting the eyes, which are heavily made up with eyeliner and mascara. The result is a slick looking metrosexual that one could certainly create gender confusion and doubt. Is this a hot gay bellhop or a lady sporting a fake ‘stache and sweats?

But beyond the fun of gender-play lies some drama on set. "Obsessed" has been called Carey’s response to Eminem’s "Bagpipes From Baghdad" wherein the rapper spits about taking Carey back from Nick Cannon (Carey has denied Eminem's claims that they dated for six months) with the lyrics, "Nick Cannon better back the f--- up/ I'm not playing/ I want her back, you punk."

Initially Cannon fired back with an angry blog post that included the rant:

A mediocre (at best) Eminem record that sounds like it was written in 2001. At first, I thought it was old material that had been dug up from when dude 'fantasized' about having a pretend fling with Mariah. ... But all of a sudden I hear my name in the verse! My first reaction was like, "This is his new sh--? Wow, that's too bad."

Maybe I'm going too far, but I thought we got past the days where white men could spew vulgar obscenities at our beautiful queens and get away with it. What's next? Are we going to let this trash say something horrible about our lovely first lady, Mrs. Michelle Obama? Or would Marshall have talked sideways out of his neck like this about Oprah Winfrey? This act of racist bigotry cannot go unnoticed. Calling my wife a "c---" and a "whore" is way worse than anything Don Imus could have ever said. So trust, repercussions will be served. Anybody got Al Sharpton's number?! LOL Let's not forget about Eminem's amateur mixtape rants of calling African Americans 'ni----' and how he hates "black bi---es."

And while Em may have tried to apologize in a later BBC interview, Carey herself spews some pretty harsh response lyrics of her own, including references to Eminem’s struggle with drugs.

Why are you so obsessed with me/ Boy I wanna know/ Lying that you're sexing me/ When everybody knows/ It's clear that you're upset with me ... Why are you so obsessed with me? You're delusional/ Boy, you're losing your mind ... It must be the weed, it must be the E/ 'Cause you be poppin', you get it poppin'…

Despite, or perhaps enhanced by all the drama, Carey’s hip-pop first single is sexy and catchy. You can stream it now on her website, though the single isn’t available for purchase until July 7. (Don’t worry, there’s a handy countdown calendar.) The album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, drops August 25.