[3] Accompanied by Starr, Carey handed Mottola her demo tape, featuring four of the eleven songs that would eventually comprise her debut studio album.
[3] In what has been largely described as a "Cinderella-like story", Mottola heard the tape in his Limousine ride home, and quickly returned to the event to find the girl with the "elusive voice".
During the recording sessions for her fifth album Daydream (1995), the couple had already begun "fighting at the drop of a feather", due to his controlling nature over their personal life and her career.
"[15] Although Carey never mentions Mottola's name, many critics believed that she was addressing him directly in the lines "Shining like a chandelier/ That decorated every room inside/ The private hell we built", "Sleeping with the enemy, aware that he was smothering every last part of me" and "Said you were strong/ Protecting me/ Then I found out that you were weak/ Keepin' me there, under your thumb/ Cause you were scared that I'd become much/ More than you could handle.
"[15][16][18][19] After confessing that she would "[wake] up scared some nights, still dreaming about the violent times," Carey decides to walk away from the relationship, and declares "but I still live with the side effects".
I’ve been through too much at this point, I want happiness and I want pure and real love, but the side effects of what other relationships have put me through cause me to be kind of on the defensive a lot of the time.
"[20] The Guardian's Alex Macpherson praised the song, writing "the magnificent Side Effects finds Carey at the height of her powers.
[16] Writing for Fox News, Roger Friedman described Carey's vocals performance as "gorgeous", Jeezy's rap verse as "cool" and the hook as having Top 40 appeal.
[15] Describing the song as "a not-so-thinly-veiled swipe" at Mottola, Evan Sawdey of PopMatters thought that the lyrical content would "raise some eyebrows".
[17] The New York Times writer Ben Ratliff labeled the track as a "drama bomb" which recounts how Carey lived under the spell of Mottola during their marriage.
Freedom De Luc thought that "Side Effects" was one of the album's highlights along with "Touch My Body" and "I Wish You Well", and continued to write that Carey appears to be unloading onto her ex-husband.
[22] Jayanthi Daniels of The New York Sun was critical of "Side Effects" as well as "I'm That Chick", describing them as "throwaway pop tracks" on a hip-hop album.
[14] On July 31, 2008, Carey performed a free concert at the Hollywood and Highland Center shopping mall in Los Angeles, California, for 2,000 people.