Mariah Carey: Revolutionizing the Rap Feature

A little while ago, in a video, I was wondering about where the rap feature became popular, as in a pop or r&b singer doing a song, and then having a rapper feature on it. And a lot of you guys said mariah carey actually popularized that, and i've been meaning to do another mariah video, so here we are. As I’ve alluded to, in current times, it’s relatively popular and has been popular for pop stars to collaborate with rappers on their songs, or for a remix version. But, prior to a collaboration

of Mariah’s it wasn’t as popular. Today, no one would bat an eye at a rapper working with a pop star, or even a rapper themselves also being a popstar. But, just a few decades ago, those worlds were more or less kept separate. Mariah Carey is often credited as the artist who popularized the crossover between hip hop and radio pop and r&b music. However, she wasn’t the first artist to do it. In 1990, She Aint Worth It, a collaboration between Hawaiian pop star Glenn Medeiros and Bobby Brown toppe

d the Hot 100. The new jack swing single was the first chart topper to include a mixture of singing and raping, and also one of the first to have the term “featuring” in the title. And still, “She Aint Worth It” was’t even the first sung/ rapped collaboration to ever exist, just the first to top the charts. Regardless, it showed the importance of a featured spot, as it could translate into crossover success for the smaller artist, and introduce the larger one to an even bigger audience. It also

showed that hiphop collaborations wouldn’t necessarily hurt an artist, but could give their songs a more modern, upbeat edge. Even before that, one could look back to songs like Walk This Way, Run DMC’s 1986 collaboration with Aerosmith. Though it wasn’t pop or r&b, the song was proof hiphop mixed well with other genres and audiences. Walk This Way was actually the first hip hop song to get regular play on rock radio. And since then, we’ve seen other collab between rappers and rock artists, Like

Jay-Z and Likin Park teaming up on numb. We’ve also seen successful rap collaborations between rappers and country artists, like Lil Nas X and Billy Cyrus, or Nelly and Tim McGraw. By the mid 90s, Mariah already had 4 studio albums to her name, including her holiday album, Merry Christmas. Her successful self-titled debut earned Mariah the Best New Artist award at the 1991 Grammys, as well as best female pop vocalist. Her vocal ability was often likened to that of Celine Dion and Whitney Housto

n, and Mariah regularly incorporated a blend of pop, r&b, soul and gospel into her music, which shifted seamlessly from top 40s pop to heartfelt ballads. By the release of her sophomore album, Emotions, Mariah became the first artist in history to have their first 5 singles top the Hot 100. Her third album, Music Box, produced Without You, Mariah’s most successful International single to date, and her Christmas album produced the holiday staple, All I Want for Christmas is You. After Music Box,

which is Mariah’s most successful album to date, she was left wanting to go in a different direction musically. Mariah was growing a bit tired of the ballads and the pop songs that wanted to be a little urban, but not too urban to be off putting to her regular fanbase. For her next album, Mariah wanted to create music truer to her roots and personal interests than the music that her label head and husband Tommy Mottola encouraged her to make. When it came time for Mariah to work on her next albu

m, 1995’s Daydream, she sought to take the project in a direction that truly was urban contemporary. With more creative control than her past works, she wanted her deeper foray into the hiphop and r&b spaces to be unmistakable and undeniable. Daydream opens with the lead single Fantasy, which samples the Tom Tom Club’s Genius of Love. Mariah chose the sample because it reminded her of growing up, and it worked with the melody and lyrics she already had in mind for Fantasy. Because of the sample,

the original version of Fantasy already has a sort of classic hiphop and funk sound to it. Mariah worked with the writer and producer Davie Hall on Fantasy. He was brought in on the project because while Tommy Mottola controlled a lot of the pop world, he didn’t hold much weight in urban, or hiphop music, genres he wasn’t well versed in. Hall and Carey had worked together previously on her song Dreamlover, which was their first collaboration. Hall said sampling wasn’t as big in pop at the time,

so the Tom Tom Club sample even gave the original version of Fantasy a bit of an urban edge. In Fantasy, Mariah sings of someone she thinks incessantly about and fantasizes a relationship with, yet to whom she can’t confess her feelings. Fantasy was critically acclaimed, and the single made Mariah the first woman to debut atop the hot 100. Several critics considered Fantasy one of Daydream’s best tracks, and a career standout for Mariah. When it came time to remix Fantasy, Mariah of course soug

ht out some of the top producers in hiphop to work with. Corey Rooney, a producer who worked with Mariah at the time, proposed Diddy for the remix. Rooney said about this, “First Tommy shot it down. He said, ‘We need someone more musically inclined.’ I said, ‘Tommy please — we need the opposite. We need a guy who’s going to completely disrespect this record.’ That was Puffy in my eyes, all day long. He ran it by Mariah, who loved the idea because she was a huge fan of Puffy’s. I reached out to P

uff right away, who said, ‘Absolutely not, she’s whack. I’m on a little streak right now.’ You know that’s the way he talks. He said, ‘I don’t need no whack juice on me right now.’” After Diddy realized Mariah was in fact not whack and was a globally successful artist, he was on board to produce the record. Mariah herself suggested Ol Dirty Bastard be the featured rapper. Not only was she a fan, but she also liked Anything, a song he did with SWV. Unsurprisingly, Tommy wasn’t as fond of the idea

. When he remixed Fantasy, Diddy actually re-looped a different part of the Genius of Love sample, saying Mariah and David had chosen the wrong part to sample on the original. The remixed version of Fantasy was slower, and had a more traditional hiphop sound. In addition, Diddy had Mariah re-record some of her vocals rather than just remix the ones on the original track. Some of Mariah’s vocals were also slowed on the remix. According to Rooney, when Old Dirty Bastard showed up to record, he was

all over the place. He showed up late, arguing on the phone, and demanding Moet before he started recording. He didn’t start laying down his lines until after midnight, despite Mariah calling the studio throughout the day and night to hear updates on the record. ODB’s verse was recorded in separate parts that were cut together, because he fell asleep three separate times during the recording session. He apparently said to the engineer, “ Y’all better have your shit set and record it right, caus

e I’m not doing it twice.” Mariah loved the final product, and it was actually Tommy’s idea to have ODB shout out more cities and countries in the song’s intro. After its release, Cory Rooney told a story of a night he went to dinner with Mariah and Tommy, and several clubs and cars were playing the Fantasy remix. He said that hearing the song not just in the nicer areas, but the hood too made Mariah cry. She felt she was finally getting respect in the urban music space, something she’d always w

anted. According to Rooney, Mariah often talked about wanting to be respected in a similar way to Mary J Blige, where she was both loved as a mainstream artist but also an urban one. Mariah said about this, “Mary doesn’t have to sell 28 million records to be respected — people respect Mary, and I just want to be respected like her.” Aside from being an r&b legend in her own right, Mary J Blige has collaborated with several rappers, and had them feature on her songs. Examples include I can love y

ou, which features lil Kim, and of course the real love, remix, which features the notorious big. The real love remix actually came out back in 1992, and again, Mariah didn’t invent the rapper feature, but simply popularized it and made it a staple in her music. It was probably something she always wanted to do, but I can imagine seeing artists she genuinely loved like Mary do it too probably inspired Mariah even more. The popularity of the Fantasy remix further proved pop and hiphop weren’t com

pletely separate worlds and could be successfully combined. Throughout the rest of the 90s, Mariah continued on with her hip hop collaborations. Not only were they representative of her change in sound as she gained more creative control in her music, but were also reflective of her genuine interest in hip hop. In 1997 Mariah released Butterfly, her follow-up to Daydream. Both albums represent a shift in Mariah’s music, which I also saw called a loss of innocence in some regards. Mariah was taki

ng more control over her sound, the producers she worked with, and was also maturing her image. Butterfly’s lead single, Honey, was her first since her separation from Tommy Mottola. Some critics saw Honey as the single that officially earned Mariah her way into hiphop and R&B. No longer was she just seen as a pop star who would sometimes crossover into those genres, but as an artist who had standing and credibility within them. Aside from Mariah, Honey was written and produced by Diddy, Stevie

J, and Q-Tip. The success of the Fantasy Remix proved mutually beneficial for Mariah and Bad Boy, so it only made sense for them to team up again. In addition, by the late 90s, hip hop was becoming more and more popular, making it a sort of sect of pop music on its own. Hiphop was more mainstream than it had been even at the beginning of the decade, and Bad Boy had contributed to its popularity. The original version of Honey already has a clear hiphop influence, made even more evident by Diddy's

ad- libs throughout. He said Mariah wouldn’t even record her vocals in front of them, and admitted it was likely because of his reputation of being hard on artists in the studio. Honey is more suggestive than Mariah’s earlier music. Some attributed this to Mariah’s closer alignment with R&b and hip hop, genres in which it’s normal for the music to be sexual in nature. Fun Fact, the Hey DJ sample used in the song was requested by Mariah, and seems to be a reference to Derek Jeter, who she was da

ting at the time. Honey debuted at #1, ironically replacing Mo Money Mo Problems. This made Diddy and Stevie J the third producers in Hot 100 history to land 3 consecutive #1s on the chart. The Bad Boy Remix of Honey featured Mase and The Lox. It was praised for blending r&b, pop, and hiphop seamlessly. Critics also noticed Mariah seemed more confident and comfortable in this era, which was likely attributed to increased freedom in her artistry, and honestly in her life. Mariah also released the

Honey EP, which included other versions of the song, including club mixes and the So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat and JD. Butterfly was full of collaborations with other hip hop greats. Missy Elliot wrote a song with Mariah called Babydoll, which she said Mariah’s team had gotten in touch with her and Timbaland to produce. Missy said she and Mariah had different writing styles which when combined, came together to make a hot song. Stevie J ended up producing Babydoll with Mariah, and he and Cor

ey Rooney also helped write it. Like Honey, Mariah gets a little more intimate on Babydoll song than was typical of her earlier albums. She also recorded Breakdown with Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone of Bone Thugs N Harmony. Her song, the Roof samples Mobb Deep’s the Shook Ones Part 2. So yes, Mariah wanted no mistakes to be made about her love for hiphop and its influence on her music. Heartbreaker, the lead single from Mariah’s 1999 album Rainbow, included a feature from Jay-Z. Like her other rap

collaborations, it’s a perfect mix of pop and hiphop, complete with adlibs and Mariah's dreamy voice. A lot of Mariah’s hiphop collabs also have a sort of funk sound to them too, which I think bridges the pop, and hiphop well, and the r&b when she leans into it. Mariah and Jay wrote and produced Heartbreaker together. Mariah said about the song, “It was from the standpoint of girls who keep going back to that same guy and they can’t help themselves. They knew they’re going to get hurt. I’ve been

one of those girls, so I know there’s a lot of them out there.” DJ Clue also helped produce, and he had recently joined Jay-Z, DMX, Method Man, and Redman on the Hard Knock Life Tour. The song samples the 80s song, “Attack of the Name Game”, which is where the funk sound comes from. Though Heartbreaker had positive fan reception, critics felt it was too similar to the Fantasy Remix, and that the Fantasy Remix was better. To be fair, Mariah completed the entirety Rainbow in only three months, as

it was the final album she owed Columbia Records. By that time, she and Tommy were divorced, and Mariah was ready to be done with the label and move on with her career. Regardless, Heartbreaker went #1 on the Hot 100. Mariah also went all out for the video, hiring the director of Rush Hour and some of Jackie Chan’s stunt coordinators to create a mini action film in which she confronted her cheating boyfriend. Jay-Z was unable to appear due to a deal in which he couldn’t appear in other music vi

deos for a few weeks, as he’d just worked on a song and video for the movie Blue Streak. Mariah also recorded another version of Heartbreaker with Da Brat and Missy Elliot. This version was also produced by DJ Clue, and sampled Snoop Dogg’s Ain’t No Fun If The Homies Can’t Have None. Snoop also made an appearance on Rainbow, featuring in the song Crybaby. It’s another step of Mariah’s into that territory at the intersection of R&B and Hiphop. The song features those synths that were typical of W

est Coast hip hop at the time. Crybaby was Mariah’s first single to not chart in the top 20, though this seems to be due to lack of promotion from Columbia, and the fact that it was ineligible for the charts when it was initially released. Even solo songs on Rainbow like Did I Do That? Have a clear hiphop influence. It’s so obvious this album was another one where Mariah was taking control of her art, and simultaneously giving Tommy the finger. As she should. Mariah’s collaborations with rappers

were so successful that she pioneered a musical trend. So naturally, other artists sought out rappers to feature on their songs, or to team up with on remixes of their songs. Destiny’s Child’s first big hit, 1997’s No No No Pt 1, was a slower, sultry r&b jam. However, the remix, No No No Pt 2, was a more uptempo, hip hop influenced track, complete with a rap feature from Wyclef Jean. The songs were renamed part 1 and part 2 at Wyclef’s suggestion after doing the remix. Beyonce’s first solo hit,

Crazy In Love, also followed the formula, including a feature from her now-husband, Jay-Z. Ironically, though Mottola didn’t support the hiphop direction when it was Mariah’s idea, he eventually tried to use the trend she popularized to undermine her. While Mariah was working on her single, Loverboy, she requested the song “Firecracker” by Yellow Magic Orchestra to sample. Mattola and Sony noticed this, and acquired the sample to create a song for J Lo. Firecracker was by no means a hot sample

at the time, so they clearly requested it to sabotage Mariah. The sample was eventually used for J Lo’s song I’m Real. Soon after, the Murder Remix was released, which featured Ja Rule. The Murder remix has different lyrics and production, so the Firecracker sampleisn’t in this one. However, having Ja Rule on the song was yet another shot at Mariah, as she had planned to release a collaboration with him too. The sabotage was later confirmed by Irv Gotti, a producer and co-founder of Murder Inc R

ecords. He said, "He [Tommy Mattola] called me because he found out that me and [Ja] Rule cut a record with Mariah Carey. And at the time he hated Mariah Carey. So he was pumping Jennifer Lopez to compete.” According to Irv, Mottola said to him, "I need you to make a record with J.Lo, but I want you to put Ja Rule on it and make it a duet kind of a record.” The I’m Real Murder Remix was a success. It went #1 and stayed at that spot for 5 weeks. The release of I’m Real forced Mariah to rework Lov

erboy and change the sample. She ended up sampling the song Candy from the Funk band Cameo, who feature on the track. Loverboy was the lead single for her album glitter, and was her first to not go number one. Glitter was released just three days after the I’m Real Remix went number one. Unfortunately, this day was September 11th, 2001, so of course no one’s attention was on Mariah’s album. Due to Mariah’s struggles with her mental health, and the failure of the glitter album and movie, Virgin R

ecords cut ties with mariah. Nearly half the songs on Glitter, contain features from hiphop artists. The album has collaborations with Mystikal, Busta Rhymes, Fabolous, Nate Dogg, Ludacris, and Da Brat. Ludacris and Da Brat feature on the Loverboy remix, along with Shawnna and Twenty II. It still has the funk sound of the original, but obviously has a more hiphop sound too, helped by the rap features. Several other hit songs of the 2000s capitalized on this trend. Aaliyah’s We Need A Resolution

featured Timbaland, and he has a verse in the song rather than the adlibs and short quips he was known for contributing to Aliyah’s songs, along with the production of course. Timbaland collaborated in a similar way with several pop and r&b acts of this time including Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Madonna, and the Pussycat Dolls. Aside from Crazy in Love, Beyonce released Baby Boy on her debut album, which featured the Jamaican rapper Sean Paul. On Goodies, Ciara collaborated with Missy Elli

ot on One Two Step, Ludacris on Oh, and Petey Pablo on the title track. Fergie also took advantage of this trend with Fergalicious and Glamorous, which were collaborations with Will I Am and Ludacris respectively. One of Rihanna’s earliest hits, Umbrella, contains a feature from Jay Z in the intro. The rap feature was no less popular for pop artists in the 2010s. Ariana Grande collaborated with several rappers early on in her career. One of her earliest hits was the way, which featured Mac Mille

r. Break your heart right back, which features childish gambino, interpolates mo money mo problems, a direct reference to the era when this musical trend became popular. Best mistake and right there featured Big sean. Problem, which featured iggy azalea was Ariana’s highest charting song at the time, peaking at #2 on the hot 100. Big sean is also featured on the song, though his whispered vocals are uncredited. Nicki Minaj was another common collaborator of arianas. They collaborated on songs li

ke Side to side, bang bang (which also featured jessie j), and the light is coming. Justin Bieber also collaborated with Nicki Minaj, as well as other rappers like Ludacris, Big Sean, Drake, and Quavo. Despacito, one of the biggest songs of the 2010s, was a Latin pop collaboration between Luis fonsi, with a rap feature from daddy yankee. Justin Bieber featured on the remix, the success of which is credited with reviving Latin pop music in the American music market. Despacito broke several record

s, and at one point was the most viewed music video, and video in general online. Two more of the decade’s biggest pop songs, Dark Horse and the Bad Blood remix also contained rap features. Throughout her career, Mariah never really stopped working with hiphop artists. Almost all of her albums after Daydream contain at least a few collaborations with rappers. I think one of the more random, yet entertaining ones is the 2015 remix of obsessed, which featured Gucci Mane. By this time, the nature o

f song remixes had kind of changed. Now, they typically have the same production as the original song as the original, but with another artist on it. Caution, Mariah’s most recent studio album, contains features from Ty Dolla Sign, Slick Rick, and Gunna. In 2017, Mariah was honored for her hip hop collaborations at VH1s Hip Hop Honors ceremony. That year’s event was officially titled Hip Hop Honors: The 90s Game Changers. She performed at the event, along with TLC, Lil Kim, and Montell Jordan. M

ariah was honored alongside Jermaine Dupri and Martin Lawrence. Jermaine has produced several songs for Mariah over the years, including Always Be My Baby, the so so def remix of Honey, We Belong together, and Shake it Off. Jay Z and Jeezy actually feature on the remix of shake it off. Mariah’s collaborations with hiphop producers and rappers worked well not only because it was something she genuinely liked, but also because it leaned into growing popular tastes in music. The increasing populari

ty of hiphop meant that it influenced a lot of pop music, and in a sense was becoming part of pop music. Including both genres in one song, appealed to two fanbases at once, and potentially introduced a new artist, and even a new genre, to some of Mariah’s fans. It sounds silly to say some people were completely oblivious to the hiphop world in the 90s but people were, and even still are to this day. At first glance, it could seem Mariah’s hiphop collaborations were out of place, and that Mariah

’s sweet, feminine image was the polar opposite of that of a rapper. But, Mariah’s approach to music has a lot in common with that of many rappers. She writes and produces her own music, and personally selected a lot of the samples, all of which are foundations of hiphop. In addition, Mariah had always been a fan of hiphop music, and could personally relate to a lot of the struggles that rappers discussed in their music. Pop songs with rap features are still popular in the 2020s. Dua Lipa’s song

Levitating has been one of the decade’s most popular songs so far. The second remix, which featured DaBaby, revived interest in the song and pushed it higher on the charts. Levitating also went viral on tiktok. After DaBaby’s controversial statements at rolling loud, it was dua’s own version that got most of the promotion and attention. In 2021, Levitating was named Billboard’s number one hot 100 song of the year. The song is also the longest charting song for a woman on the hot one hundred, ch

arting for 77 weeks. In 2020, ariana grande released a remix of her song 34+35, which featured megan the stallion and doja cat. Another song on Positions, motive, also features doja cat. Ariana said about the collaboration, “She [Doja cat] had a whole verse done, everything was done. She was like, How many bars can I take? Because this is mad inspiring and I want to just go.’ And I was like, ‘Take as many bars as you want. Do it. If you're inspired to say stuff, let's go.’ And so she just goes o

ff on it, and it's so much fun, and I love it. It's my favorite so far.” On Positions, Ariana also collaborated with Ty Dolla Sign on the song Safety Net. Just recently, Pink Pantheress and Ice Spice teamed up for a remix of Boy’s A Liar, titled Boys a Liar Part 2. Though it was already one of Pink Pantheress’s most popular songs, the Ice Spice feature helped it soar in popularity. At the time I’m recording, the song is currently #3 on the hot 100. In addition, the song’s success is exposing eve

n more people to Pink Pantheress, who’s been on a steady rise for the past couple years now. Another example of such a song is Metro Boomin’s Creepin. The Weeknd provides the vocals for the track, and 21 Savage delivers a rap verse. Creepin is actually a cover of Mario Winans 2004 song, I Don’t Wanna Know, which itself samples Enya’s song Boadicea. More accurately, the song is a sample of a sample, since it’s based on the Fugees Ready or not, which also used the Enya sample. So whenever you’re l

istening to your favorite pop star collab with a rapper, you can thank Mariah. Again, not saying she invented the trend, but she definitely made it as popular as it has been for like the past 30 years. And also, I gotta thank yall for even telling me that it was Mariah who did this, because I didn’t even know. Like, I knew she collbaed with rappers, but didn’t know she was the one that really made that pop. So down in the comments, let me know your favorite collab Mariah did with a rapper. There

are so many good ones. And also, let me know your favorite collab between a pop star and rapper in general. There’s an entire Mariah Carey featuring rappers playlist I found while researching, and I’ll link it in the description if you’re curious. But it definitely proves how extensive Mariah’s hiphop collab catalog is. Made me wanna do a separate vid about pop and rb stars featuring or singing the hooks on rappers songs, because that was a big trend from that era too. Songs that already come t

o mind from that are ones like let me blow ya mind and I’ll be missing you, so I’d love to cover that eventually.