Butterfly is the sixth
studio album by American
singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, released on September 16, 1997, by
Columbia Records. The album contained both
hip-hop and
R&B sounds, as well as some softer and more contemporary melodies. Throughout the project, Carey worked with
Walter Afanasieff, with whom she had written and produced most of the material from her previous albums. She also worked with many famed hip-hop producers and
rappers, such as
Sean "Puffy" Combs,
Kamaal Fareed,
Missy Elliott and Jean Claude Oliver and Samuel Barnes from
Trackmasters. With the latter acts producing most of the album,
Butterfly deviated from the contemporary sound of Carey's older work, and was hailed as a defining album of the 1990s and of pop and R&B music.
With
Butterfly, Carey continued the transition that began with previous album,
Daydream (1995), which pushed her further into the R&B and hip-hop market. The record pushed her music into an R&B sound, leading her away from the contemporary-pop background of her previous work. During her marriage to
Tommy Mottola, Carey had little control over the creative and artistic steps she took on her albums, however, after their divorce mid-way through the album's conception, Carey was able to reflect her creative maturity and evolution into the album's writing and recording. According to the booklet from Carey's twelfth studio album,
Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, she considered
Butterfly her
magnum opus and a...
Read More