[Previous entry: "Mariah The Writer: Simple, Memorable, And Absolutely True"]
05/10/2007: "Mariah's Pacifiah Grows Into A Movement"
Often times, trend-setters aren't the first ones to enact the trend, but they are the people who do it well enough and have the charisma to make it mainstream. Mariah Carey wasn't the first artist to utilize a rapper on a song, but when she teamed with Ol' Dirty Bastard on the remix to "Fantasy," Mariah helped usher in a new era in music.
Mariah became known as a pop princess because of her Music Box album. That album was full of AC/pop music, and combined with her marriage to Tommy, it led to her "Cinderella" image. She became known as the inspirational pop singer of "Hero." The reality was that her marriage didn't have a 'happy ever after' ending, and Mariah was more into Wu Tang Clan than Michael Bolton. Mariah worked with Dave "Jam" Hall and Babyface on Music Box>/i> but it was with Daydream that Mariah really started announcing her intentions to combine her pop sensibilities with her love of rap and hip-hop.
In 1995 Mariah shocked the music world when she got rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard to guest on the remix for her single "Fantasy." In fact, Mariah had to call the rapper by his acronym (ODB) when she talked discussed the idea with Sony executives just so she could get the pairing cleared. The remix made headlines, but the album version was just as fresh. That version of "Fantasy" utilizes a Tom Tom Club sample and fuses it with Mariah's pop melodies and a hip-hop beat. In its review of the single, Billboard called "Fantasy" a "pop/hip-hop love song." In a sense, a new soundscape was created in that fusion, and it foreshadowed Lisa Lopes of the group TLC telling MTV a few years later that it's because of Mariah that we have "hip-pop."
What really made waves, though, was Mariah pairing with Ol' Dirty Bastard for the aforementioned remix. Producer Puff Daddy scaled back the pop production elements of the original and emphasized the beat on the remix. The pairing of a 'pop princess' with a hardcore rapper was a surprise, and the fact that the remix was so successful opened up a new avenue of popularity in music. Labels and artists began to see that songs (especially with the benefit of a remix) can appeal to listeners of all ages and ethnicities. It changed the game of music promotion. As Vibe said in 2007, "'Fantasy' shipped Mariah to the 'hood. It also brought ODB into suburban bedrooms." Producer Damizza has said the remix gave ODB his "first light of day past Wu Tang Clan, and [Mariah] invented the whole pop-rap collaboration." While that last part may not be entirely true, it says something that people think Mariah invented it. John Norris of MTV has said the remix "was responsible for, I would argue, an entire wave of music that we've seen since, and that is the pop-hip-hop collaboration. You could argue that that 'Fantasy' remix was the single most important recording that she ever made." Soon after it was common for artists to release remixes to radio to try and target multiple audiences, and it was no longer a surprise when a pop artist utilized a rapper on a song.
A 1998 [i]Trace[/i] article talks about how, "Back then hardcore devotees would never have thought that it would work. After all hip hop was inviolable." Even current friend and frequent co-producer Jermaine Dupri was skeptical when he first worked with Mariah. He told Essence magazine that he didn't realize she was mixed at first and thought, "This white girl is crazy!" Before "Fantasy" and the album it came from (Daydream), Mariah had been marketed as a ballad queen. The discovery of Mariah the music artist and her subsequent marriage to label head Tommy Mottola was called a 'Cinderella story' (note the usage of a term referring to a white princess) by the press. Puffy Daddy was even reluctant to work with Mariah on the "Fantasy" remix because he didn't "know about messing with that pop stuff." It can't be stressed enough that it was the pairing of a "girl next door" with a truly hardcore rapper that made waves in the music world.
Let's not overlook the impact of the original version of "Fantasy" either. That version of "Fantasy" even peaked at #8 on the Adult Contemporary chart, becoming perhaps the first single to start introducing adult audiences to a harder sound. Both versions of the song made their mark on msuci as a whole. It also helped that Ol' Dirty Bastard's famous line, "Me and Mariah go back like babies on pacifiahs" would go down in music and pop culture history.
The reality is that the pairing of a singer with a rapper is still a prevalent trend. The past year has brought us the #1 hits "My Love" (on which pop star Justin Timberlake uses a guest verse by T.I.) and "Glamorous" (on which singer Fergie gets a verse from Ludacris). Would these pairings have happened if not for "Fantasy" and its remix? It's hard to know. But as Toni Braxton has stated, "..."
Often times, trend-setters aren't the first ones to enact the trend, but they are the people who do it well enough and have the charisma to make it mainstream. Mariah Carey wasn't the first artist to utilize a rapper on a song, but when she teamed with Ol' Dirty Bastard on the remix to "Fantasy," Mariah helped usher in a new era in music.
Mariah became known as a pop princess because of her Music Box album. That album was full of AC/pop music, and combined with her marriage to Tommy, it led to her "Cinderella" image. She became known as the inspirational pop singer of "Hero." The reality was that her marriage didn't have a 'happy ever after' ending, and Mariah was more into Wu Tang Clan than Michael Bolton. Mariah worked with Dave "Jam" Hall and Babyface on Music Box>/i> but it was with Daydream that Mariah really started announcing her intentions to combine her pop sensibilities with her love of rap and hip-hop.
In 1995 Mariah shocked the music world when she got rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard to guest on the remix for her single "Fantasy." In fact, Mariah had to call the rapper by his acronym (ODB) when she talked discussed the idea with Sony executives just so she could get the pairing cleared. The remix made headlines, but the album version was just as fresh. That version of "Fantasy" utilizes a Tom Tom Club sample and fuses it with Mariah's pop melodies and a hip-hop beat. In its review of the single, Billboard called "Fantasy" a "pop/hip-hop love song." In a sense, a new soundscape was created in that fusion, and it foreshadowed Lisa Lopes of the group TLC telling MTV a few years later that it's because of Mariah that we have "hip-pop."
What really made waves, though, was Mariah pairing with Ol' Dirty Bastard for the aforementioned remix. Producer Puff Daddy scaled back the pop production elements of the original and emphasized the beat on the remix. The pairing of a 'pop princess' with a hardcore rapper was a surprise, and the fact that the remix was so successful opened up a new avenue of popularity in music. Labels and artists began to see that songs (especially with the benefit of a remix) can appeal to listeners of all ages and ethnicities. It changed the game of music promotion. As Vibe said in 2007, "'Fantasy' shipped Mariah to the 'hood. It also brought ODB into suburban bedrooms." Producer Damizza has said the remix gave ODB his "first light of day past Wu Tang Clan, and [Mariah] invented the whole pop-rap collaboration." While that last part may not be entirely true, it says something that people think Mariah invented it. John Norris of MTV has said the remix "was responsible for, I would argue, an entire wave of music that we've seen since, and that is the pop-hip-hop collaboration. You could argue that that 'Fantasy' remix was the single most important recording that she ever made." Soon after it was common for artists to release remixes to radio to try and target multiple audiences, and it was no longer a surprise when a pop artist utilized a rapper on a song.
A 1998 [i]Trace[/i] article talks about how, "Back then hardcore devotees would never have thought that it would work. After all hip hop was inviolable." Even current friend and frequent co-producer Jermaine Dupri was skeptical when he first worked with Mariah. He told Essence magazine that he didn't realize she was mixed at first and thought, "This white girl is crazy!" Before "Fantasy" and the album it came from (Daydream), Mariah had been marketed as a ballad queen. The discovery of Mariah the music artist and her subsequent marriage to label head Tommy Mottola was called a 'Cinderella story' (note the usage of a term referring to a white princess) by the press. Puffy Daddy was even reluctant to work with Mariah on the "Fantasy" remix because he didn't "know about messing with that pop stuff." It can't be stressed enough that it was the pairing of a "girl next door" with a truly hardcore rapper that made waves in the music world.
Let's not overlook the impact of the original version of "Fantasy" either. That version of "Fantasy" even peaked at #8 on the Adult Contemporary chart, becoming perhaps the first single to start introducing adult audiences to a harder sound. Both versions of the song made their mark on msuci as a whole. It also helped that Ol' Dirty Bastard's famous line, "Me and Mariah go back like babies on pacifiahs" would go down in music and pop culture history.
The reality is that the pairing of a singer with a rapper is still a prevalent trend. The past year has brought us the #1 hits "My Love" (on which pop star Justin Timberlake uses a guest verse by T.I.) and "Glamorous" (on which singer Fergie gets a verse from Ludacris). Would these pairings have happened if not for "Fantasy" and its remix? It's hard to know. But as Toni Braxton has stated, "..."