Despite alienating some of her loyal fans with this move, “Honey” was still a hit single. It debuted at #1 on the Hot 100, giving Mariah the distinction of being the only artist to achieve this feat with more than one single (it was her 3rd time) and continued her streak of Platinum-certified singles for sales of 1 million copies.

As part of our retrospective series on the iconic Butterfly album last year, we’ve already discussed “Honey” in depth in its various aspects: the revamping of Mariah’s musical identity, the symbolic value of the music video and the metamorphosis the original track went through with its remixes.

It’d be redundant for us to propose the same lecture over and over, so we’ll just invite you to check those pieces out to reminisce and celebrate this pivotal moment in Mariah Carey’s career with us in light of the 25th Anniversary of her legendary career.

The post Mariah Carey was always longing for another taste of #1, “Honey!” appeared first on THE 97.

“Honey”
The video that introduced pop culture to a post-divorce Mariah was “Honey.” Mariah has said that the concept of the “Honey” video was influenced by the ‘Bond Girls’ from James Bond movies, and she has said the video was just an excuse for her to wear different outfits. A lot of people thought there was more meaning in the video than Mariah let on, though. In the opening of the video, Mariah is being held captive by an Italian mobster, perhaps a reference to the Italian roots of ex-husband Mottola who likened himself to ‘The Don’. One of Mariah’s captors had a look similar to Tommy, and he was holding Mariah captive in a mansion. Tommy and Mariah were living in a mansion in Bedford, NY up until their separation, and Mariah has dubbed the mansion ‘Sing Sing’ because it felt like a prison to her where all she did was “sing sing.”

In the video Mariah escapes her captors, jumps off a balcony into a pool, and shreds her black dress to emerge in a bikini. Mariah has publicly decried how she wore a black dress a lot early in her career, and how she wasn’t allowed to wear what she wanted. The shedding of the black dress when she escapes the mansion is pretty on-the-nose. As Mariah’s frequent co-producer Walter Afanasieff told Entertainment Weekly, “Everything in the video is ‘Fuck you, Tommy.'”

The bikini in the pool scene is modeled after Bond girl Honey Ryder, who emerged from the ocean in a similar biniki in Dr. No. Bond girls are typically thought of as ‘eye candy’ in the James Bond movies, and they are usually victim roles. In the “Honey” video, however, Mariah escapes from her captors and rides away from them on a jet ski. Mariah was assumed to be a victim in her marriage, so just as Mariah broke free from Tommy, perhaps she was breaking free from the Bond girl stereotype.

Tommy spied on Mariah in general, and perhaps wanted more from her physically (Mariah has said there wasn’t a lot of sex in the marriage). Baby Doll and Mariah were both virgins before getting married. In Baby Doll, Archie’s failures as a businessman add to his failure to get intimate with Baby Doll. Archie clings to the notion of the “position” he has, as well as his friends and connections (similar to Tommy being the head of Mariah’s record label). In a story reported by Vanity Fair and other sources, Mariah taunted Tommy after the 1996 Grammys by criticizing his lacking enough power and connections to get her a Grammy. Baby Doll is a woman-child, which Mariah literally describes herself as in the Butterfly song “Close My Eyes” (she also has a song titled “Babydoll” on the album).

At one point in Baby Doll, she and her pursuer run around the house and he taunts her with a chandelier. The “Butterfly” video shows Mariah visiting different parts of the house during the day as the male figure is presumably off at work. At one point a chandelier is shown in the foreground, and we see Mariah on a staircase looking at it. She seems apprehensive about coming downstairs, and the chandelier perhaps offers a reminder of the lucrative life she could be leaving. The one thing that seems to bring Mariah happiness is a horse, which she ultimately runs down the stairs and outside to set free. In the Here Is Mariah Carey TV special, Mariah rides horses at the home she shared with Tommy. Perhaps letting the horse go in “Butterfly” was symbolic of letting Tommy go. Mariah told MTV that the scene in the video where she cuts her hands on a barbed wire fence came from a dream she had. In dreams, barbed wire is known to represent difficulty in breaking through and feeling trapped in a relationship. That description clearly mirrors Mariah’s relationship with Tommy.

The post Emancipating Visuals: Mariah breaks free with “Butterfly” and “Honey” appeared first on THE 97.

While the original track is already heavily influenced by hip-hop, Mariah took it a step further with it’s Bad Boy and So So Def remixes.  The Bad Boy remix, already mentioned in my first “Honey” article, is not drastically changed from the original.  There are minor changes to it’s production, such as the omission of certain string elements, which make the song a bit less pop and a little more hip-hop.  Of course, the song also features verses from Mase and the L.O.X. who were new, upcoming hip-hop stars.  This makes the song seem more like a collaborative effort rather than a pop song featuring guest rap verses.  One of the highlights of this collaboration is how Mariah layers her low octave background vocals beneath Mase’s verse, truly melding her sultry voice with Mase’s hip-hop flow.  This sort of seamless fusion has become a trademark of Mariah’s hip-hop collaborations.

Bad Boy was the leading hip-hop label in 1997, and its artists were crossing over to pop radio in a big way.  Its leader, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, appeared in the remix video, co-produced the original and Bad Boy remix, as well as his own hit singles that year, such as “I’ll Be Missing You.”  Additionally, Mase had crossed over as well, appearing on alongside Puffy and Biggie’s “Mo Money Mo Problems,” another #1 hit.   They owned the charts and the airwaves and Mariah stayed current by working with these artists.  However, with Mariah it didn’t appear forced.  “Honey” feels fresh and natural, almost effortless, even today.

For the So So Def remix, Mariah teamed up with “Always Be My Baby” collaborator Jermaine Dupri who co-produced and provided a guest verse on the remix alongside Da Brat.  By using different elements from “Hey DJ,” sampled in the original, and a new Jackson 5 sample, the So So Def remix transformed “Honey” into a completely different song musically and vocally.  All that remains from the original version are its lyrics.  This remix has a playful vibe, as its bouncy beat encourages the listener to bop along.

Finally there is the Classic Mix, a house version of “Honey,” co-produced by David Morales.  On this remix, Mariah took the song’s essence of sexual yearning to the next level.  The vocal is more impassioned and sung over the vivacious house track provided by Morales.  While the original song is sexy and sensual, and the So So Def remix is a bit more playful,  the house mix is best described as intense.  Mariah closes the remix by very zealously repeating of the phrase “I need it” with soaring, soulful runs that jump octaves in a way only she can.

This innovative approach of creating multiple reincarnations of the same song in the form of remixes was not completely unique to Mariah.  However she indeed pioneered the art of creating hip-hop and house remixes of “pop” songs.  If you listen to the “Honey” CD single, it’s almost like listening to four different songs.  By the end, you’ll be saying, “I can hardly wait for another taste of honey…”

The post The Many Forms of Metamorphosis: A review of Mariah Carey’s “Honey” remixes appeared first on THE 97.

But for the first time ever, she took a “year off” (but not really; she was actually on tour and still promoting Daydream).  In July of 1997, Mariah dropped “Honey” and shocked the music world with a liberating “new” sound, and look.  Really, though, the sound wasn’t all that new for her … but read more on that here.

The song was a collaborative effort, written and produced by Mariah (of course) alongside Puff Daddy, Q-Tip and Stevie J.  For the first time, Mariah’s lead single was undeniably urban.  If you stripped away the vocals on “Honey,” you would think it was a hip-hop track, thanks to its two ’80’s hip-hop samples: “Hey DJ” and “The Body Rock.”   The remix featured guest raps from Ma$e and the LOX, who were fresh to the scene in ’97.  Of course, the guest rappers were relegated to the remix (she only won half the battle with the label this time), but “Honey” was still a defining moment for MC.

A large reason that “Honey” became so iconic was its video.  It was Mariah’s biggest production yet, and with MTV arguably at its height, every artist was trying to make great videos.  “Honey” was no different.  The video had a storyline that began with Mariah tied to a chair in a large, empty mansion, under interrogation by an older Italian man.  This storyline became quite controversial.

Why?  Because it created quite the parallel to her own life.  In real life, Mariah actually lived in a big mansion in upstate New York with her then-husband, Italian-American Tommy Mottolla (head of Sony Music at the time).  She later referred to their home as “Sing Sing,” nicknamed after an infamous prison also in upstate New York, because she was trapped and the only thing she was allowed to do, was sing.  At the time, she denied the comparisons and refuted any claims that it was related to her life.  However, the imagery insinuates otherwise.

After breaking free from her entrapment, Mariah jumps into a pool and strips out of her clothing to reveal a sexy new ensemble before running off to a remote island to be with a new, younger man.  This was compared to her budding relationship with New York Yankees star Derek Jeter.  Not long after the release of “Honey,” Mariah and Tommy announced their split and eventually divorced in 1998.  Shortly thereafter, Mariah and Derek became an item.

“Honey” is a pivotal moment in Carey’s career, not only because she had her third #1 debut on the Hot 100 with it, but because of the symbolic significance of the song.  She broke out of her shell, and experienced a metamorphosis… like a butterfly reborn from her cocoon prison.  She was finally allowed to show the world her true self: musically, visually, and personally.

And she never looked back.

We will explore the Butterfly album in greater depth beginning on September 16th, its 17th anniversary.

Bonus: the remix video!

The post Breaking Out of the Cocoon: A look back at the debut of Mariah Carey’s “Honey” appeared first on THE 97.