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In 'Butterfly' Mariah Carey spreads Hip-Hop like 'Honey'
The New York Daily News, a tabloid of somewhat suspect repute, recently referred to Mariah Carey as, get this, a wanna be "gangsta bitch," alluding to her current hip-hop/ R&B alliances with folks like Puff Daddy, O1 Dirty Bastard, and Mase. Now I could be wrong, but pop princess Mariah Carey, a "gangsta bitch"? I think not.
What she is, however, is a shrewd superstar, who has already conquered the pop, R&B and adult contemporary markets, and is now banking on conditional street credibility, too. What's really amazing, though, is that not so long ago she was (and still is) the undisputed toast of the pop music elite. and happily married (so we thought) to then manager, Discover and Sony records Big Willy Tommy Matola.
But what a difference an impending divorce and rubbing shoulders on the urban side of town makes.
Today's Mariah is on hip-pop fire. "Honey," the first platinum single from "Butterfly," her latest #1 platinum-plus Columbia album, and produced by Seen "Puff Daddy" Combs, finds Carey at her sexist, most street inspired best. Now we're not putting her in the hardcore rap ranks of De Brat, or sex-u-up sistas Lil Kim and Foxy Brown, or even the ghetto dive style of Mary J. Blige. No. Nonetheless with "Honey," Mariah has simply flipped the script for a moment on the soft, upper crust pop star she still is. After all, that image, originally conceived and cultivated by Matola, dates back to her selling...