"fourth of july", one of the album's slower ballads, was also written solely by carey and afanasieff but was not released as a single. the song was perceived to have jazz influences and was compared to some of carey's older work such as "vanishing" and "the wind". the next two tracks on the record, "breakdown" and "babydoll", were described as "the album's backbone, its real declaration of independence" by nickson. "breakdown" was written by carey and puffy and included rap verses from wish and krayzie bone from bone thugs-n-harmony. author chris nickson wrote that "'breakdown' showed mariah treading forcefully into territory that was new for her and making it her own." for "babydoll", carey teamed up with elliott. the track was recorded in atlanta, where elliott resided, and included background vocals from carey's long-time friend, trey lorenz. "babydoll" was described as "a vocally driven piece", with strong jazz harmony provided by cory rooney. other songs that incorporated r&b influence into ballads were "whenever you call" and "close my eyes", which were personally important to carey due to their lyrical content. while both were similar ballads to carey's previous work, nickson said: