Background
During the 1990s, Carey had recorded several albums influenced by pop, R&B and adult contemporary genres. This was due to the fact that her husband at the time, Columbia Records CEO Tommy Mottola, was in control of her career and the music she recorded. Carey's fifth studio album, Daydream (1995), was the first time that Carey took the initiative and chose the direction the album would take. For the album's lead single "Fantasy", she recorded a remix featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard (O.D.B). Columbia executives felt nervously regarding the remix's release, fearing the transition and hip-hop influence would taint Carey's image and "break the formula." The remix however, became a critical success, and was regarded as one of the pioneering songs that began the fusion of R&B and hip-hop collaborations. After her divorce from Mottola however, Carey began taking even more control over her musical styles and creative ideas, pushing her future work into a more hip-hop orientated background; the kind of music she felt more connected to personally. Butterfly was the farthest she had gone in merging into the hip-hop market, working with different and younger record producers and songwriters.
After the album's success, and the following release of her first compilation album #1's (1998), Carey began to work on her seventh studio album, Rainbow (1999). Her main focus on the album was to continue on the same path she began with on Butterfly, producing a subtle combination between inspirational ballads and hip-hop beats. Additionally, "Heartbreaker" marked the first time in Carey's career that a hip-hop star was included on a lead single, following O.D.B who was featured on the official remix of "Fantasy" in 1995. Out of the three months in Capri, Italy, that it took to record the album, Carey claimed to have spent most of the time developing what she felt to be a strong lead single. Originally, "Heartbreaker" was intended to be part of Carey's debut film soundtrack Glitter, however, after the film's delay, it was included on Rainbow. Prior to the song's radio release, Carey spoke of it in an interview: "It's pretty much the classic style of my up-tempo classics like 'Fantasy' or 'Dreamlover,' But it's kind of fun and has a new edge to it, I think, and definitely having Jay-Z takes it to a whole 'nother level. And Clue makes it really fun and stuff."
Read more about this topic: Heartbreaker (Mariah Carey Song)
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