| THIS IS ERIC'S HIPHOP AND R&B PAGE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This property was reserved by KillaE I'm 16 years old, from Canada. Welcome to my Music page here are my hippop news | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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MARIAH CAREY There is no reason to expect that Mariah Carey would inevitably have become a musical star of her current proportions. The streets of Los Angeles and New York are filled with men and women with talent, looks, and a briefcase full of songs, none of them recorded, let alone at number one. Mariah's career emerged from her determination (her absolute unwillingness to admit any other possibility), her voice, and a series of circumstances that made the most of those two features. Born in New York in 1970, Mariah always "knew" that, without a doubt, she would be a singing star. When asked by her teachers to do her homework, she'd reply that it was unnecessary- she'd never need to go to college for her career as a superstar. Her mother's request to clean her room was answered similarly: when Mariah was a superstar, she'd have a maid. Mariah, you see, might be the last person in the world to admit that her stardom was not inevitable. Mariah's father was black and Venezuelan. Her mother, the daughter of Irish immigrants, was an opera singer. Mariah took after her mother in the pursuit of developing her vocal talents. Her seven-octave range is certainly, at moments, reminiscent of any number of divas. But her vocal styles are drawn from gospel and rhythm & blues. In fact, upon the release of her first couple of albums, Mariah faced charges that she was just 'another white girl' capitalizing on black music. She immediately confronted the issue in Ebony, telling them that her father was black. In addition, American music styles are themselves so much derived from black music that it might be hard "not" to record an album drawing upon those influences. Mariah says of herself, "My mother is Irish, my father is black and Venezuelan, and me - I'm tan, I guess." As a teenager, she was already devoting an inordinate amount of time to singing- so much so that her nickname in high school was "Mirage." But she met up with song writing partners, and found places to rehearse, and by the time she graduated high school, she moved to New York fully expecting to record any day. She became, like almost every aspiring singer, actor, or musician, a waitress. An astonishingly bad one, to hear her tell of it. She went through any number of waitressing jobs during those years, getting fired from a number of them- many times for her 'attitude,' possible meaning her attitude that waiting tables was not as important as recording music. Perhaps she was right. During this time, she also met Ben Margulies, with whom she wrote many of her early songs. He had a place to rehearse, and they spent an endless amount of time together writing and performing. Eventually she had a demo tape. But nowhere to go with it. One friend was the drummer for a singer named Brenda K. Starr, who had just lost a back-up singer in her band. Mariah began to sing with her, and the two became close. Brenda K Starr was supportive of Mariah from the first, and Carey still has nothing but good to say of her. It was through Starr that the 18-year-old Mariah got her big break. Starr convinced Mariah to come with her to a record-industry party. Mariah brought one of her tapes along. Near the end of the party, Mariah tried to give her tape to Jerry Greenberg, from Columbia Records. Another executive, by the name of Tommy Mottola, who happened to be the president of the label, intercepted the tape. He put it in his cassette player on the way home, and decided to sign her. Once he found her (she had neglected to put her name on the tape), he signed her to Columbia (now Sony), and set her to work on her first album. She was not yet nineteen. The next few years were a rush of cross-continental album production. Her first album, Mariah Carey, was produced by Narada Michael Walden, whose work with Whitney Houston and George Michael was some of their most popular work. One track was also produced by Walter Afanasieff, then fairly unknown, but later to become quite important to Mariah. The album produced four number one singles in a row. This is interesting not only because it's fairly unique, but because Sony has always made a big deal about Mariah's 'number one's,' even to the point of seeming disappointed about one single only hitting #2. The four singles, "Vision of Love," "Love Takes Time," "Some Day," and "I Don't Wanna Cry," all reflect Mariah's lyrical base in romance. It's by far the most popular subject for Mariah's songs. She says that she thinks "that everyone can pretty much relate to songs about love... Love is something that everyone has experienced." She released her second album, Emotions , the following year. She had her fifth consecutive number one single. Emotions was partially produced by Walter Afanasieff and partially by the team of Clivilles and Cole (the C&C behind the Music Factory). The album included a number of dance numbers that pushed her ability to emote, rather than her ability to hit the 'high stuff.' And she began to test the waters on touring. Mariah has always had a different relationship to touring than most artists. She has performed what might be called boutique concerts- avoiding the grueling schedules and long periods away from home that the music business demands of many artists. So her concert tours are always very short, very well rehearsed and to the point, and always sold out. Her most spectacular and successful live performance was not a huge stage show, but an intimate audience show. MTV Unplugged provided Mariah with the opportunity to perform live the way she wanted to. And with the success of the show, the video, the album, and especially her version of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There," Mariah's career was confirmed. Her next move was purely personal. She got married. In June of 1993, to Tommy Mottola, the man who discovered her, provided her with an atmosphere in which she could perform and record, and who had made sure her albums received the full amount of attention that they were due. And the man who, now, cooked for her, cared for her, and married her. In a wedding that Mariah patterned after the one of Prince Charles and Lady Diana a decade before, the two were married in a Manhattan church in front of Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, and Robert DeNiro. Her next album, Music Box, was different from the earlier Emotions, in her decreasing reliance on studio production, and a move to a more spare sound. You wouldn't go so far as to say the album had a raw, live sound. But with the number of producers and writers who worked on the album (including Afanasieff, Babyface, and Clivilles and Cole), the fact that it hangs together as a whole says that no single influence pushed her too far. But the album didn't please critics. Where they had loved the Unplugged album, they found this one 'passionless,' or 'limp.' It didn't stop the album from being a success, nor from it meaning a great deal to people. As a Long Island girl, she was profoundly affected by the LIRR shootings that year, and dedicated "Hero," the second single, to the victims. As she says of "Hero," "One person could say 'Hero' is a schmaltzy piece of garbage, but another person can write me a letter and say, 'I've considered committing suicide every day of my life for ten years until I heard that song and I realized after all I can be my own hero.' ...it meant something to someone." Merry Christmas, her November 1994 release, balanced old Christian hymns and new songs: it was, in fact, two original songs which were the singles from the album. "Miss You Most At Christmastime" and "All I Want For Christmas Is You." And in 1995, she released Daydream- a break with past albums. For one thing, it contained a number of collaborations that weren't simply song "writing" efforts. Her duet with Wu-Tang rapper Old Dirty Bastard, "Fantasy" hit number one (she directed the video for that one herself), and the Boyz II Men collaboration "One Sweet Day" soon followed. Mariah's latest release, Butterfly, features 11 new tracks written by Carey and a host of music's most illustrious collaborators including Sean "Puffy" Combs, David Morales; guest musicians Mase & The Lox and Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone from Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony and covers The Artist's "The Beautiful Ones." "Honey," the first single from Butterfly, debuted on "Billboard's" Hot 100 at No. 1 giving Carey the most chart toppers of any solo female artist in the rock era. According to "Billboard's" Hot 100, only six singles have debuted at No. 1 and Mariah Carey owns half of them. � and � 1997 MTV Networks. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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TUPAC IS MY FAVORITE RAPPER HERE TUPAC'S BIOGRAPHY Who Was Tupac? If you don't know who Tupac was, then this is the page for you to read before you progress to the rest of the site. Here I will give a general overview of who Tupac was, and some links that you can follow to get more detailed information about him. Who was Tupac? Tupac Amaru Shakur was a rapper who also acted in several films. He made seven official solo albums, as well as contributing songs to his film soundtracks and featuring on other artists' tracks. You can see the albums from the Lyrics page. What was his background? I suggest that you read the Timeline page for a basic outline of his life, but in short he was born in 1971. His mother was a member of the Black Panther group, which campaigned for black women's rights in America. His real father left his mother at an early age, and so he knew his Stepfather Mutulu Shakur better. Mutulu was always in jail however, so you could say that Tupac did not have a very good upbringing. His rap career started out with a group called Digital Underground, and then he went solo with his first album, 2Pacalypse Now. So who is Makaveli, then? Makaveli was the name under which one of Tupac's last albums was released. He was still the same rapper, but just with a different alias. This was released after his death, and is considered to be one of his greatest albums. Tell me about Tupac in jail... Tupac was sent to jail after being convicted of the sexual abuse of a woman he met at a nightclub. The jail was called Riker's Island. He was bailed out by the MD of Death Row Records, Marion 'Suge' (pronouned like the 'sug' in sugar) Knight, for $1.4m. This was done in exchange for a three-album deal with Death Row. What is Death Row Records? Death Row was a record company which was known for its manager's violence and its 'true' gangsta rappers. Other rappers on the label in the past and present have included Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr Dre, Daz Dillinger and Soopafly. Death Row became one of the biggest and most successful labels in rap history, but many say that it has fallen now that Snoop and Dre have left it. Suge Knight was jailed over a year ago for violating his probation, and he has been forbidden from having any conbtact with the label. He may be released next week (I am writing this on the 20th September, 1998). For more information, read the About Suge Knight article. So where is Tupac now? Tupac has died (although many theorists believe that he is still alive). He passed away in hospital on Friday 13th September, 1996. For more information, check out the Details of Tupac's Death link down the left side of your screen. How could he be alive? There are many theories, because Tupac left many 'clues' in a lot of his material. People believe that his death could have been faked. There are several pages dedicated to theories on this site. Here are the most relevant. The My Theory page discusses my views on why Tupac is dead, and who had him killed. The Is Tupac Alive? page gives reasons why Tupac could still be alive, and the About Blac Haze page gives information about the new artist, Blac Haze, who some people consider to be Tupac returned to the world of rap. What's next? Tupac has a lot of unreleased material, so dozens of new albums could be made and released. There are several legal battles going on at the moment as to who has the rights to this material - the battles are between Death Row and Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur. Even if any new material was released, it would be a long time coming, and then there would be another long wait for any more to be released. So do not expect too much - there may only be a trickle of new songs.
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