Honey (Mariah Carey Song) - Music Video

Music Video

Aside from the attention surrounding the song, the music video garnered much speculation. For the first time in her career, Carey was featured provocatively dressed, giving viewers a "taste of the freer Mariah". The Puerto Rico-filmed video's concept was created by Carey with Paul Hunter filling in as the director. Serving a James Bond theme, Carey was cast as "the very sexy agent M", a woman who escapes a large mansion in which she has been held captive. Carey said of the video that "I don't really think the video is overtly sexual, but for me-I mean people used to think I was the nineties version of Mary Poppins!"

The video premiered on MTV and BET in September 1997 and was shot in Puerto Rico on July 26, 1997. The video begins with Carey, playing as "Agent M", being held hostage in a large mansion. The captors are played by Eddie Griffin, Frank Sivero, and Johnny Brennan of The Jerky Boys, who continue to taunt Carey over her capture and eventual death. "Agent M" speaks in Spanish to the captors, saying she can not understand them. After a series of dialogue, Carey escapes her Griffin's character and dives into a swimming pool from the mansion's roof. After an ensemble change, Carey dons a swimsuit and escapes the island via a watercraft. The video's antagonists continue their pursuit of Carey throughout a large body of water, until she arrives aboard a large ship. It is unclear if both scenes are happening separately or side by side. Throughout most of the video, Carey is seen posing on a large sailboat, while wearing a white bikini. After boarding the ship, Carey begins dancing and is soon joined by a group of male sailors. After a sequence of dance light dance routines, Carey is seen on an island with her lover, male model David Fumero, and her real life dog, Jack. They frolic together on the island, while Carey happily enjoys her romance.

"It was a grueling process; I'm not going to say it was easy. I got up at 3 A.M. every day, and worked until 9 in the morning the next day – for four hours in a row, swimming in my Gucci pumps! I can't say that I really jumped off the roof, but dive into the pool. But I did wear and swim in those pumps, and I was not happy"

—Carey, on her exhausting experience on the set of "Honey."

During the time of the video's release, Carey and Mottola were in the midst of their divorce and this led to many speculation on the video's message. Tabloids and critics were linking the video's theme to Carey's marriage, writing how Mottola would lock Carey in their mansion. While Carey denied the allegations, many found it to be very obvious. Carey's writing partner of six years, Afanasieff, felt the video was undeniably about Mottola. While speculation about the video grew, Carey continued to deny any intention of portraying her marriage in the video. In an interview, Carey said that "Tommy loves the video, he says it's my best video yet."

The song's Bad Boy remix featured a different music video as well. It features the same concept, however not emphasizing on the kidnapping and escape. The video begins with Carey diving into the pool, and driving a watercraft. As she reaches a point far into the body of water, she is offered a rope lift from a helicopter. After she accepts and ascends the line, Carey boards the aircraft alongside its pilots, Puffy and the members of Bad Boy Entertainment. Other scenes sequence Carey dancing with Puffy in a golden indoor tunnel. As the video concludes, more staff from the helicopter join Carey in the golden entryway, as they dance an enjoy themselves.