In all honesty, I've never cared much for Mariah Carey because she seemingly snubbed R&B music and its core audience, african americans, upon her debut. I've indicated how personally many blacks took that "snub."
Despite being of mixed descent - her mom is white, her dad black - Mariah seemed to go out of her way to disconnect herself from the black audience, at first.
With the aide of E! True Hollywood Story and VH-1 documentaries, I discovered that Sony and Tommy Mottola had a lot to do with her original direction and that Mariah actually very much wanted to embrace black radio.
Well she's getting her chance. Mariah recently signed with Island/Def Jam in an effort to put her career back on track. But will urban radio embrace her back?
If today's reaction from several radio personalities is any indication - Mariah will have her work cut out for her.
Frank-Ski, radio personality for a show which plays in Atlanta and Baltimore, dropped some knowledge this morning, that I couldn't disagree with.
First, Frank-Ski relayed a recent encounter with Mariah, outlining that while all the other big celebs present at a particular event mingled and availed themselves to fan and media alike - Mariah sat on a couch, surrounded by security, within the VIP area, away from everyone else. She waved and smiled, but no one could get near her. Obviously annoyed by this, Frank went on to rant a little about Mariah's big-headedness and disconnection from reality.
But where Frank drew a valid point - and where many other "urban" radio personalities may agree -is that Mariah's signing with Def Jam will give her access to many of today's hottest hip-hop artists, therfore helping her to re-shape her image in more "blackness."
An obvious move to "come home," as he put it, now that the mainstream (i.e. white) audience has pretty much shunned her. And I agree. Whether or not its a good thing or bad depends on if you're a fan or not.
And whether or not she'll be able to appeal to a more urban audience is debatable. A victim to her own past success, many like Frank-Ski see Mariah's signing with Def Jam as a ploy to snag an audience that was not necessarily buying her stuff in droves.
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