I’d been resisting, one way or another, since I’d written a cover story about Bay Area rap in 1989. Tupac’s Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z was offensive. Tim White made it clear to me, via his pops by my cubicle, that gangsta rap was a menace, and that it made sense to cover it from that stance. So it was really about Mariah, Janet, and Whitney. Mariah Carey’s Music Box closed out the year with eight weeks in the number- one slot. took over for eight weeks, and then there were brief stints at number one for U2, Cypress Hill, Garth Brooks, Pearl Jam, and Snoop Dogg. Minus a week here and a week there from Eric Clapton and Depeche Mode, Whitney Houston’s Bodyguard soundtrack pretty much dominated the first half of 1993. Terri told me without looking up from her work that there were not enough homemade biscuits in the world.Īuthor and Billboard editor-in-chief Timothy White, who wrote 1983’s Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley, was presiding over the magazine and charts in the new SoundScan era, and the industry was still agog at the “new” strength of R&B, hip hop, and country. “And biscuits.” I waited on confirmation of this idea. “Lamont loves smothered pork chops,” I told Terri. In Terri’s office one morning, I told her I was going to try to get home earlier, and to cook more, as I had in Oakland. As Carey faced snubs at the 1996 Grammys, Smith dealt with “colleagues who undermined and/or didn’t respect taste or position or both.” Even more compellingly, Smith reflects on her time as an editor at Billboard and Vibe (she eventually headed the masthead at both) from the Nineties into the aughts, championing acts including Carey during the singer’s incredible reign. In ‘Mariah,’ she meditates on Carey’s genius the ever-relevant diva helped push Atlanta rapper Latto’s “Fantasy” sampling “Big Energy” to the top of the Billboard charts just last month. Across 11 chapters, Smith recalls the lives, accomplishments, myths, and realities of a range of artists, from the Dixie Cups to Mariah Carey - whose chapter is excerpted below. Smith does her part to honor Black women’s musical and cultural contributions with her new book Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop. In a call with Rolling Stone from her Southern California home, with her Cairn Terrier puppy playing with a squeak toy in the background, she fires off some means of respecting the genius of Black women in pop: documentaries focused on their art and not their traumas, magazine covers from the start of their careers, and bookings on late night television, for starters. This is not an abstract goal to the legendary music journalist. Danyel Smith knows charts and awards are flawed metrics of success, but she also understands they are the ones we have, and wants to see Black women earn their due.
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