No one from our generation played both sides of the fence better than Mariah Carey

[Wear My Dawg's Hat]

When Mariah Carey debuted, she was initially promoted on the radio and in the press as "the white Whitney Houston."

Mariah Carey in 1990: Critics Loved Her, Thought She Was White

9/16/2015 by Joe Lynch

When Mariah Carey entered the music world via her blockbuster self-titled debut in 1990, many critics hailed her practically peerless voice and parade of No. 1 hits. Some were less enthused, however, praising her technical talents but opining she needed to develop a more distinct musical approach.

Whether critics were right about Carey's style circa 1990 is a matter for discussion, but one prevalent viewpoint espoused by several writers 25 years ago is just plain wrong.

Namely, that Mariah Carey is white.

As (hopefully) everyone knows at this point, Mariah Carey is not white -- or perhaps more specifically, she's not just white. She's African-American and Venezuelan on her father's side and white Irish on her mother's. But publications from Los Angeles Daily News to Playboy to the Herald Sun described her as "white" throughout 1990, an error that at least two publications (New York Post and USA Today) wrote to correct.

Mariah Carey in 1990: Critics Loved Her, Thought She Was White

 

[Dwayne_Taylor]

Mariahs story is why I dismiss that nonsense talk about Drake being white. Black people were not dismissing Mariah as white in the early 90's like the trolls do with Drake in this decade. U ever notice, no one ever questions Mariahs Blackness like they do with Beyonce? U never hear, "whats Mariah doing for the Black community?" or "why is Mariah dying her hair to look like a white woman?"

She's about 20 years behind the curve, her main fan base anit on social media like that. Young people are probably more familiar with her marriage to Nick Cannon than her music.

 

[Ya?]

People refused to acknowledge on this site but mixed race women and mixed race men aren’t perceived the exact same way.

Mariah Carey doesn’t push the I am black woman shtick and I am glad for it. She know she isn’t. The woman is mixed and an ambiguous one at that. Her pushing I am black down the public throat would be contrived and she knows this. People just put their racial hang ups on mixed people and then want to be disappointed when they don’t bite.

People claim they dislike Drake because of his music but I don’t believe it. A lot of rappers have crossover into rap pop. Why is Drake the only one being pulled over the coals. Music is a business just as much as it is a creative outlet.

Clearly, his tunes are popular and he knows how to evolve his sound and still be a hit. I’ll be here when the coli is ready to admit the real reason they are bothered by him.

 

[Donny]

I’ve always considered Mariah Carey black didn’t even know she was mixed until a couple years back just thought she was light skin lol and mixed people up until a few years back were always considered to black no matter what they were mixed with white, Asian, Latin if you had a black parent we just called considered you black

 

[invalid]

I'm talking about this standard of Blackness that Beyonce is currently held to that isn't shared with Mariah. In 2018 They do not question Mariahs Blackness at a standard like they currently do with Beyonce. Thats what I'm talking about.

To be fair, I don't follow Beyonce much at all so have been unaware of people questioning her blackness. That doesn't even sound like it's a thing?

 

[Emoryal]

People refused to acknowledge on this site but mixed race women and mixed race men aren’t perceived the exact same way.

Mariah Carey doesn’t push the I am black woman shtick and I am glad for it. She know she isn’t. The woman is mixed and an ambiguous one at that. Her pushing I am black down the public throat would be contrived and she knows this. People just put their racial hang ups on mixed people and then want to be disappointed when they don’t bite.

People claim they dislike Drake because of his music but I don’t believe it. A lot of rappers have crossover into rap pop. Why is Drake the only one being pulled over the coals. Music is a business just as much as it is a creative outlet.

Clearly, his tunes are popular and he knows how to evolve his sound and still be a hit. I’ll be here when the coli is ready to admit the real reason they are bothered by him.

What is the real reason?

 

[Kenny WRLD]

drake's overwhelming authenticity in this respect will be ignored. he doesn't have records with taylor swift like kenny and even my dude future. but let it be known, like pusha said, he's terrified of not being black enough. and that's actually why he can't make a classic.

speedin bullet 2 heaven is a 808s & heartbreak level classic. cudi can make something like that, cause while they'll question his "professional skill" as a musician, they'll never question his blackness. we often makes classic breaking those rules.

if drake strays from traditionally black music, and makes cookie cutter pop, he runs the risk of losing someone like me as a fan. idk if its necessarily his lack of blackness tho. kendrick lost me a long time ago.

idt drake needs to do the cookie cutter stuff tho. he's already the greatest pop star in the world without compromising his hip-hop sensibilities.

Speeding bullet to heaven is not a classic lmao that shyt is Cac school shooter music

Album had like 2 good songs

 

[Yo Mama]

In the book Puddinhead Wilson by Mark Twain, An ex slave who has a white looking baby which looks just like massas' baby , one day switches the babys fooling massa into believing her baby is really his just so her baby can have a better life.

Iceberg Slims novel Trick Baby is the story of a Black hustler who looks white and dwells in the white world.

Law And Order even did an episode on a Caucasian looking Black Man who was able to fool everyone.

Caucasian looking black men!!!!????

Don't you mean biracial men who look more like their white half/third/quarter...

*********************

As for Mariah she never looked white or black to me. She always looked biracial. Even with the blonde hair.

She never said any c00n shyt so maybe that's why even now it's not addressed by many? She had kids with a black man.

Beyonce never said c00n shyt neither. She said she was black on her dads side and said she was creole/multiracial on her mother's side. Which is the truth.

She too married a man who many insult and call ugly because he looks too "negroid" for their tastes. Even on this problack forum. Their beautiful child is also insulted in the same way, on supposedly pro black forums.

But somehow Beyonce having a blonde weave is worse than other celebritys "talking" pro black but make sure that they erase their blackness in their offspring.

 

[Somebody]

Speeding bullet to heaven is not a classic lmao that shyt is Cac school shooter music

Album had like 2 good songs

but he don’t gotta run to paul mccartney to do it.


ppl would have labelled kanye the same way if paul mccartney didn’t show the establishment his papers.

the critics might have loved tpab but the kids loved sb2h, because it gave kids of the culture an older piece of their identity back.

uzi vert, xxx, juice wrld, lil peep, frank ocean, rihanna, travis scott, drake, lil tracy, young thug, playboi carti, trippie redd, and assp rocky all make or have made post sb2h music.

they all worked in that school shooter sound. only difference is it’s not school shooter music when we do it. we use it with range, so we kno how to change the vibe.

to put it simply, it has tons of influence and will be re-rated.

 

[tater]

Caucasian looking black men!!!!????

Don't you mean biracial men who look more like their white half/third/quarter...

*********************

As for Mariah she never looked white or black to me. She always looked biracial. Even with the blonde hair.

She never said any c00n shyt so maybe that's why even now it's not addressed by many? She had kids with a black man.

Beyonce never said c00n shyt neither. She said she was black on her dads side and said she was creole/multiracial on her mother's side. Which is the truth.

She too married a man who many insult and call ugly because he looks too "negroid" for their tastes. Even on this problack forum. Their beautiful child is also insulted in the same way, on supposedly pro black forums.

But somehow Beyonce having a blonde weave is worse than other celebritys "talking" pro black but make sure that they erase their blackness in their offspring.

Nobody thinks Jay-Z is ugly because he looks too negroid. He's just ugly.

 

[smokeurobinson]

My guess is because mariah isn't currently in the public eye like that. How many albums has mariah dropped this decade vs beyonce?

Beyonce has been on a run so i can see why gets more scrutinized

No.



I'm talking all thru out their careers. Once Mariah started fukking with Puffy ODB and Bone Thugs. Her Black card was forever sealed. None of that questioning of what is she doing for the Black community was pushed on her like we currently see with Beyonce. We didnt see it in 97, 99, 2001....None of those years. In 2005 Mariah had a rebirth and took the spotlight one last time before Beyonce would start to dominate. That "We Belong Together" song shut the game down for a good minute. When that song was hot the critics were nagging about Beyonce wearing weaves while bopping their heads to Mariahs hit.



off topic..after Mariah dropped Tommy and started getting that melanin dikk down on the regular, her whole appearance changed.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

This is so true.... in the 90s and early 2000s all her love interests in videos were white... Jerry O’Connell in the heart breaker video, the dude from bay watch in honey....always felt a way about that but I was like whatever.

She didn’t start messing with brothers publicly until she was washed.

 

[Nicole0416_718_929_646212]

I've been feeling a type of negative way about Mariah ever since I heard she stole a song and her whole style from Brenda K. Starr. Remember when I was younger, seeing a movie with Brenda Starr and hearing her song - "I still believe" - think my mother was playing it. I can see the similarities stylistically and the vocal ranges. But I don't know the whole background story behind that.

 

[smokeurobinson]

Caucasian looking black men!!!!????

Don't you mean biracial men who look more like their white half/third/quarter...

U need to go read that book before speaking.

Wasn't no "biracial men who look more like their white half/third/quarter" technical terms. The mom was negro the baby was negro and they treated him as such. There's a scene were both of the kids are now adults and massas' son who believes he is Black is the servant of the son who is really the ex slaves. And massas' son is abused as a servant by the exs slave son.

 

[Yo Mama]

...She's African-American and Venezuelan on her father's side and white Irish on her mother's side...

Mariah Carey in 1990: Critics Loved Her, Thought She Was White

Are there non-white Irish "natives"?

Or do people mean black/others living in Ireland like "black british"...?