"Breakdown" is an R&B, hip hop, and hip hop soul song recorded by American singer Mariah Carey for her sixth studio album, Butterfly (1997). Columbia Records released the song to American rhythmic contemporary radio stations in January 1998 as the third single from Butterfly. The track features rap verses by two members of the group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone. In the lyrics, Carey describes the aftermath of a partner ending their love for the other and the trouble of hiding the pain, or breakdown, it caused. 
 Critics judged "Breakdown" in relation to Carey's previous work and compared it to other R&B songs. They considered the collaboration with Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony successful. Some perceived "Breakdown" to be about her separation from husband Tommy Mottola, which she denied.
 Carey publicly criticized Columbia for a perceived longstanding anti-R&B bias against her music after it did not issue a standalone commercial single in the United States. "Breakdown" was thus initially ineligible to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 and instead peaked at number fifty-three on the Hot 100 Airplay component chart. It was later released as a double A-side with "My All" and reached number four on Hot R&B Singles. "Breakdown" experienced consistent airplay on American urban contemporary radio stations and it became Carey's longest-running title on Hot R&B Airplay until 2005. Its success did not crossover to pop radio and the song became her lowest-peaking on Billboard's Rhythmic Top 40 chart at the time. Elsewhere, "Breakdown" peaked at number four in New Zealand and number thirty-eight in Australia. It received gold certifications from music industry organizations in New Zealand and the United States.
 Carey directed the accompanying music video with previous collaborator Diane Martel. It presents her in various roles at a casino such as a showgirl and cabaret performer, the latter of which received comparisons to Liza Minnelli. "Breakdown" received heavy rotation on television channels BET and MTV and was issued as a video single. Clips accompanied Carey's live performances of the song during the Butterfly World Tour. Retrospectively, "Breakdown" is regarded as a turning point in Carey's musical direction and as one of the best songs of her career.
 In the early 1990s, American singer Mariah Carey was known for middle of the road music. Eight of her songs reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart from 1990 to 1993, compared to three on Hot R&B Singles. Stronger contemporary R&B influences became apparent after her 1993 single "Dreamlover". Carey's fifth album, Daydream (1995), contained elements of hip hop music. It received the best critical reviews of her career up to that point. Coupled with separating from husband Tommy Mottola, the head of her record label Columbia, Carey felt confident to incorporate hip hop overtly in follow-up album Butterfly (1997). 
 Experiencing creative freedom, Carey recorded Butterfly during sessions from January to August 1997. She became enamored with The Notorious B.I.G./Bone Thugs-n-Harmony collaboration "Notorious Thugs", produced by Stevie J and Sean "Puffy" Combs. Carey expressed interest in collaborating with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony to Stevie J, and they began studying the rap group's discography. Both he and Combs had already worked with Carey on another Butterfly track, "Honey". One year earlier, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's single "Tha Crossroads" had replaced Carey's "Always Be My Baby" at number one on the Hot 100. It tied Kris Kross's "Jump" (1992) as the rap song with the most weeks at number one (eight). In 1995, Combs had produced the hip hop remix to Carey's song "Fantasy" featuring Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard.
 Dana Jon Chappelle and Ian Dalsemer recorded "Breakdown" at The Hit Factory and Daddy's House studios in New York City. Carey wrote her lyrics after the instrumental was completed and recorded her vocals before Bone Thugs-n-Harmony members Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone. She described her thought process: "I wanted to do a song in their style, so that when they came into the studio to hear it, they would know immediately that I had been totally influenced by them." After Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony's manager informed them that Carey was interested in collaborating, the group was reluctant as they did not comprehend her career. Columbia sent a plane to Cleveland to bring the group members to record in New York. Layzie Bone initially stayed back, but joined the session at Carey's request after the record label chartered a second plane.
 Upon their arrival, Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone were provided with a platter containing cannabis which they passed out from after getting high. Awakened by their manager, the group members were receptive to "Breakdown" because it sounded similar to their previous work. According to Wish Bone, "She had a blueprint laid out for us, and then me and Krayzie started coming up with little things to add to the hook. It really wasn’t nothing for us to do our verses because that’s what we do." After employing them on remixes to her songs "Fantasy" (1995), "Always Be My Baby" (1996), and "Honey" (1997), "Breakdown" marked the first time Carey collaborated with rap artists on a song in its original form. She was initially apprehensive about the outcome: "After I did it, I was like 'Wow, this sounds really different for me. What did I just do?' And I was like, 'Did I do wrong?'"
 Situated among ballads (e.g. "Butterfly") and uptempo songs ("Honey"), "Breakdown" occupies a musical middle ground on Butterfly. It is an R&B, hip hop, and hip hop soul song driven by a slow groove. Carey and Stevie J composed the music, and Carey, Anthony Henderson (Krayzie Bone), and Charles Scruggs (Wish Bone) wrote the lyrics. Stevie J played keyboards and programmed additional keyboard and drum sounds electronically. After Carey, Stevie J, and Combs produced the song, Tony Maserati conducted mixing at The Hit Factory and Herb Powers Jr. mastered it at Powers House of Sound in New York City. The album version of "Breakdown" lasts four minutes and forty-four seconds and the single is four minutes and fifteen seconds long.
 The lyrics of "Breakdown" concern concealing heartbreak after a romantic relationship ended due to rejection. Some, such as "Well I guess I'm trying to be nonchalant about it / And I'm going to extremes to prove I'm fine without you", are directed at the former partner. Others posit questions about how to move on: "So what do you do when / Somebody you’re so devoted to / Suddenly just stops loving you?" The lyrics have a dark tone, and chirping birds in the background elicit an optimistic aura. Some critics perceived the song to be about the demise of Carey's marriage with Mottola. Others felt the references were not as clear. Carey told The Boston Globe it is "all about the [Bone Thugs-n-Harmony] rhythmic and melodic flow that I was inspired by".
 Bone Thugs-n-Harmony harmonize their raps in staccato-saturated couplets on "Breakdown". Affected by reggae and doo-wop, the group rap in a fast-paced aggressive manner. Carey speeds up her vocals to match them, singing in double-time. The New York Times's Jon Pareles perceived this delivery as showcasing she is caught between despair and detachment. Carey incorporates melisma in her vocals and produces vamps. At times half-whispering the lyrics, she adopts a restrained delivery until belting near the end of the song to express her true emotional state. Departing from her practice of having a male singer like Trey Lorenz add background vocals in a low register that complement the lead, Carey provides them herself on "Breakdown". They are featured prominently throughout the track and, according to Grey Cavitt of the Waco Tribune-Herald, "threaten to bring about the psychological break promised by the title".
 "Breakdown" is the sixth track on Butterfly, which Columbia issued on September 10, 1997. Upon the album's release, American newspaper critics deemed "Breakdown" a potential success in its own right. R&B radio stations in the country began playing it in late 1997 amid a lukewarm response to the album's second single, "Butterfly". After the song received over 600 spins without promotion, Columbia serviced it to rhythmic contemporary radio stations in January 1998. "Breakdown" acted as the third single from Butterfly, following "Honey" and "Butterfly".
 Columbia did not issue a commercial single in the United States after the song failed to garner crossover success on contemporary hit radio. Had "Breakdown" been released to retail, the single would have broken Carey's streak of four consecutive number ones on the Hot 100. At the time, chart rules stipulated that songs required retail releases to appear and that airplay from R&B radio stations was not a factor. In an interview later that year, Carey disputed notions about the importance of her streak and said Columbia had a peculiar pattern of not releasing her heavy R&B material as commercial singles since her 1990 debut. "The Roof (Back in Time)", the fourth single from Butterfly, also received little promotion from the label.
 Columbia later released "Breakdown" in the United States as a double A-side with the album's fifth single, "My All", on April 21, 1998. The songs were issued together in many formats: 7-inch vinyl, 12-inch vinyl, cassette, maxi cassette, CD, and maxi CD. In Japan, "Breakdown" is the B-side to the "My All" mini CD single released on May 30, 1998. It was released independently of "My All" in Oceania. Some formats include a remix of "Breakdown" with additional rapping by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. This version, with contributions from Layzie Bone, also appears on the group's 1998 compilation album, The Collection. "Breakdown" is present on Carey's 2003 remix album, The Remixes, in its original form. Columbia and Legacy Recordings released a digital extended play with three versions of the song as part of the MC30 campaign marking three decades of Carey's career on August 28, 2020.
 Critics evaluated the effectiveness of "Breakdown" as a departure from Carey's previous work. Billy Tyus described it as innovative in the Herald & Review, and Daily Herald writer Mark Guarino considered the lyrics unusually substantive. Paul Willistein of The Morning Call and author Chris Nickson suggested "Breakdown" symbolized artistic freedom. Carey's restrained vocals made the song's quality equivalent to that of her traditional ballads according to Vulture's Lindsey Weber. Several critics thought the composition lacked cohesiveness. Writing in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dave Tianen said Carey's "vocals get smothered beneath a rancid glop of synths, samples, raps and choruses". Nicole M. Campbell of The Santa Clarita Valley Signal credited these sentiments to the number of producers, which she considered excessive.
 The song received comparisons to others in its genre. According to Billboard, "Breakdown" eclipses them because "the rhymes are tightly sewn into the track's primary vocal arrangement and are crucial to the evolution of the song's lyric". Conversely, Dave Ferman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram felt it contributed to a pattern of nondescript R&B collaborations in the mid-1990s. Critics contrasted "Breakdown" with "Tha Crossroads". According to Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine, the hi-hats and bassline are duplicative to the point of laziness. For Philadelphia Daily News writer Jonathan Takiff, its hip hop aspects "freshen[ed] the soul-diva formula". Critics likened "Breakdown" to the music of En Vogue, Mary J. Blige, and Janet Jackson. Irish Times writer Joe Jackson thought the song differed dramatically from those of Aretha Franklin despite Carey citing her as an R&B influence.  
 Critics praised the pairing of Carey and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Rather than simply having them appear on the track, Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani thought Carey wholly embraced her collaborators. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Sonia Murray, she adopted their cadence without losing authenticity. For New York Daily News writer Jim Farber, "instead of just co-opting their [style], her sweet tones give Bone Thugs' sound a new fluidity." Richard Harrington of The Washington Post thought Bone Thugs-n-Harmony overshadowed Carey; J. D. Considine of The Baltimore Sun said she adopted their style so effectively that the group's presence was almost unnecessary.
 "Breakdown" experienced success on American urban contemporary radio stations. It reached number nine on the airplay chart for that format published by Radio & Records in March 1998. On the comparative Billboard Hot R&B Airplay chart, "Breakdown" peaked at number thirteen. It surpassed "One Sweet Day" to become Carey's longest-running song on the list (thirty weeks), a position it held until "We Belong Together" in 2005. "Breakdown" reached number eighteen on Rhythmic Top 40, her lowest peak on that chart at the time. Billboard originally listed Bone Thugs-n-Harmony as a featured artist, but now credits Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone individually.
 After the double A-side release with "My All", "Breakdown" debuted and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart dated May 9, 1998. Sales of 25,000 units at R&B music stores accounted for ninety percent of its ranking and R&B airplay contributed ten percent. As the song's radio audience (6.5 million) was higher than that of "My All" (5.2 million), the single charted as "Breakdown/My All". Although "My All" reached number one on the Hot 100, "Breakdown" did not appear alongside the song because it was not within the top seventy-five of Hot 100 Airplay at the time, having peaked at number fifty-three in March 1998. The Recording Industry Association of America awarded "Breakdown" a gold certification in 2022, which denotes 500,000 units based on digital downloads and on-demand streams.
 The song's performance varied in other countries. "Breakdown" peaked at number four on the New Zealand singles chart, outperforming "Butterfly". It continued a pattern of success for Bone Thugs-n-Harmony in the country; four of their last five singles had reached the top five. The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand certified it gold, indicating shipments of 5,000 units. In Australia, "Breakdown" reached number thirty-eight. Although it was not officially released there, the double A-side single "My All/Breakdown" appeared for one week on the UK Singles Chart at number ninety-eight.
 Carey and Diane Martel directed the music video for "Breakdown". Martel had previously directed videos for Carey's singles "Dreamlover" (1993) and "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (1994). "Breakdown" showcases Carey in various roles at a Las Vegas casino. Members of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony appear, as do producer Jermaine Dupri and rapper Redman as a magician. Visuals include Carey's butterfly tattoo and her jumping into poker chips that cover a bed. In one scene performing cabaret, Carey wears a black sequin halter top on a bentwood chair. Writers for The New York Times and Ottawa Citizen felt this gave homage to Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles in Cabaret (1972). In the academic journal Gender & Society, Rana A. Emerson cited the camera's focus on Carey's showgirl outfit in arguing that social standards regarding the attractiveness of female R&B singers are implied.
 The "Breakdown" music video was issued in late 1997. It peaked within the top five on weekly airplay charts for MTV and BET television channels as measured by Broadcast Data Systems. Columbia Music Video released "Breakdown" as a video single on VHS with "My All" on April 21, 1998. It was later included on Carey's 1999 video album Around the World. The video was shown during Carey's live performances of "Breakdown" on the Butterfly World Tour so Bone Thugs-n-Harmony could appear by proxy.
 Critics judge "Breakdown" as a turning point in Carey's transition to hip hop music. Writing for The Root, Stephanie Holland felt the foray influenced her career longevity. According to journalist Elaine Welteroth, the song compelled African Americans to begin thinking of Carey as Black. Bianca Betancourt gauged it as a "game-changing collaboration" in Harper's Bazaar. Scholar Alexander Ghedi Weheliye viewed the song's fusion of singing and rapping as a precursor to the proliferation of this practice in hip hop music after 2010. In his 2023 book Why Mariah Carey Matters, Andrew Chan argued that Carey advanced the style of R&B vocalists by not only incorporating hip hop rhythms, but adopting the flow of rappers.
 Retrospectively, both Carey and her fans consider "Breakdown" one of the best songs in her catalog. It has received a similar reception from critics. Rich Juzwiak of Slant Magazine hailed "Breakdown" as Carey's best track in 2003, and Alex Macpherson of The Guardian described it as "perhaps Carey’s finest song" in 2020. Writers for BET and Gold Derby considered "Breakdown" one of her best tracks that did not reach number one on the Hot 100.