Mariah Carey, Kelly Rowland and Ravyn Lenae on the Impact and Legacy of R&B for ELLE Magazine

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Mariah Carey, Kelly Rowland, and Ravyn Lenae are three distinct voices who define R&B today. In the premiere episode of ELLE’s new series, “Three Generations,” which brings women together for cross-generational conversations, the legendary superstar, the global hitmaker, and the trailblazing newcomer sit down for a rare conversation about the journeys that brought them here.

On the impact of Mariah Carey:

Kelly Rowland: “I actually was you. Dancing in the fields to ‘Dream lover,’ holding flowers to my face and whipping my hair. I was like, ‘I am Mariah.’ I had the shorts like Mariah. I had the tops like Mariah. I decided to get into butterflies like Mariah. Somebody was like, ‘For God’s sake, like dragonflies!’ I was like, ‘No, it’s about the butterfly.’”

Ravyn Lenae: “Leading up to today, I was thinking about my first moments with your music. It’s so vivid in my brain of the summers with my little sister and my little cousins in the basement, putting on your album and making up dances to the whole thing, top to bottom…but also, seeing women of color float so effortlessly, between R&B and pop, and whatever she wanted to be, was so divine and important for me.”

KR: “The first time I met you, it was with [Destiny’s Child]. I remember we were so stoked. I was like, we’re going to look crazy when she turns around and sees us…we were so happy any time there was an encounter with you, period. You were always very warm and very cool.”

On Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not”:

Mariah Carey: “Ravyn, I’m just getting to know your music. But I really do like ‘Love Me Not.’ It’s really good. It has something about it that takes you back to childhood.”

RL: “Thank you. I think the most interesting thing people say is that is that it feels like it could be from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s.”

KR: “I remember thinking, ‘Oh, she likes to break the rules,’ in the best way. Not putting you in a box, I think that’s the best thing about listening to all your records, because coming up…people like to put you in a box.”

On songwriting:

MC: “I always loved writing songs, even as a little girl. Being a little kid and just drawing, writing, you know, little things like that. That’s how I grew up to become a songwriter.”

KR: “Do you remember what [the] first song you wrote was?”

MC: “There’s so many [that are] a little bit older. I’m trying to think of when I’m little, but I had this song ‘I’ll Get Back at You.’ That’s a reveal for the first time. No one’s ever heard that.”

RL: “Somebody made you mad. I wrote my first song when I was 15. I remember I was working with a producer from Chicago at the time. There was a studio literally right around my high school, and I was a freshman. I was doing a summer program for kids where you would go, you would do music all day, and they would give you a stipend for it at the end of the summer. So I used my $300 to book that studio session and I recorded that song and the studio, he said, ‘You don’t ever have to pay for studio time ever again.’ And I was like, “Good. ‘Cause I ain’t got no more money.’”

KR: “I enjoy songwriting when it’s with a whole bunch of people. I don’t actually think I’ve ever sat down to write a song by myself, to be honest. I should actually really try that.”

MC: “It releases. Even if you have someone just playing on the keys and you’re telling them which way to go.”

On making hits:

KR: “[Mariah], you have 19 number-one hits?”

MC: “But I’ve only written 18 of them.”

KR: “You’ve written 18 number-one records? That, in itself, is crazy. I’d probably have it on a shirt, and on the back of a jacket, and maybe on a hat.”

MC: “The thing is, people don’t want to give you your propers. They don’t. They’re like, “We don’t know if she’s a songwriter.” I’m like, hello, I’m in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. That was a huge deal for me. I can’t even explain it.”

On being a woman in the industry:

KR: “When I first heard about women writing and producing, and then watching certain MTV and VH1 specials, you would be working everything out. Even what you did with “One Sweet Day” with Boyz II Men, you could tell you were in it. Everything was so consistent. The sound, and the way you put things together, even how you found just these moments to slide down notes. It was just honey, no pun intended. It was just so empowering to know that you could write and produce, and people everywhere would love it.”

MC: “I didn’t realize that people were allowing me to do that. I was just doing it.”

RL: “Taking control of your vision, period, is producing, and I think that’s left out of the conversation a lot with women. I think we get in the studio with men, and they tell us what to do, and we do it. But then, even if that’s not the story, some people don’t believe it.”

On producing music:

MC: “I started producing my vocals when I was working on my demo. Before I had a record deal, before anything. I was in this woodshed that this guy had in New York. From there, I just kept doing it. Once I got a deal, I still did that. I was doing all my own backgrounds. My main thing is the background vocal production. That’s what I love to do the most, but not necessarily in the woodshed.”

RL: “Backgrounds are the first thing that I hear in music. It’s my everything. People like you or Janet Jackson or Patrice Rushen…I heard those and I was like, “How do you make a world with your voice in different tones and different feelings and colors?” That is the most memorable thing to me about music.”

KR: “Sometimes I like to do vocal production by myself, and sometimes I like someone in there with me. What I love the most is bringing out the sass and personality, when you say words a certain way or are our noticing what things need to be caressed or finessed more than others.”

[Photo Credit: Michael Schwartz for ELLE Magazine – Video Credit: ELLE/YouTube]

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