Whitney Houston. Give me some classic 90’s Whitney any day and I could tell you hours of my musical childhood. The most prime diva artist I was raised on was certainly Whitney. I wasn’t a big Mariah fan. That came quite late with Celine Dion. But why I chose this 1998 record instead of the forever anthems from The Bodyguard artist is because Whitney showed she was a clever transitional artist without losing any musical integrity. Here she was going for the more urban R&B understated vocals (it was still damn good) route instead of the sappy pop ballads with glass breaking loud long notes ready to be covered on every reality singing show, which she made a legendary career out of. Plus, hip-hop was just about to explode, but instead she still focused on the vocals and wasn’t desperate in needing to have a rapper to be featured on it. Kudos also goes to Wyclef Jean for having such genius in creating this rather simple beat, but it’s just a classic which works in any era. Jennifer Hudson should crucially learn from this record because I personally think this is the type of music she should create. Also, when you dissect this song into pieces, it shows a hybrid of sounds that gives evidence why it stands the test of time. There are the obvious Pop-R&B sounds, but if you listen more closely, there are hints of Reggae in it with touches of old-school throw back soul. This is why records like this are classics because you can’t specify it into a certain genre. It’s like what Michael Jackson has been able to do the best and Whitney is closely behind. Even though of course Whitney will never return to this form again because of the obvious, but she still leaves a catalogue of music that is timeless.
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