Mariah Carey, Kelly Rowland, & Ravyn Lenae on the Impact & Legacy of R&B | Three Generations | ELLE

I love songwriting, but to talk about, like, the hits... Nineteen. You have nineteen, number one. Eighteen of them. That time people like to put you in a box. No, you're pop. No, you're R&B. No, you're rock. No, you're this. And you're like, no, darling, I'm all of it. I used my $300 to book that studio session. And I was like, good, because I don't got no more money. That's a reveal for the first time. No one's ever heard that. I think that they think we get in the studio with men and they tell us what to do and we do it. You know, that does happen sometimes. Right. But a lot of times... Sorry. You look beautiful. You look so gorgeous. You look amazing. Let me see these rings. Gorgeous. I want to do gold again. I love you in gold. What do you call it? Gold gold. Oh, gosh. Where shall I start? Where shall I start with you, Mariah Carey? Hello. I will start with thinking that I actually was you dancing in the fields to Dream Lover, holding flowers to my face. Yes, the hair whip. Everything and whipping my hair. Like, I was like, oh, no, 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 context, like dragonflies. Not rainbows. I was like, no, it's about the butterfly. Leading up to today, I was thinking about, you know, my first moments with your music. And it's so vivid in my brain of the summers with my sister, 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. And I was stripped. I was like, y'all remember what we did yesterday? Okay, let's hit it again. But also seeing a woman of color float so effortlessly between R&B and pop and whatever she wanted to be was so divine and important for me. It wasn't effortlessly. To me it was. I went through some stuff. But yeah, thank you for saying that. But you weren't scared of it. And I think that's something to note and remember. And you just did it with so much grace. You do it with so much grace. I love you. I love you, period. And you know, the first time I met you, it was with the ladies. And I remember we were so stoked. And I was like, we're going to look crazy when she turns around and sees us. Because we were like... I remember it was at Soul Train. And we shared the same publicist, Yvette. Yes, I love Yvette. And Yvette was like, Mariah said she was going to meet you. I was like, oh my God. We had a whole thing. Was it the trailer? There was a trailer when I came to see you. Not you like really killing on the memory and I'm not. Oh my gosh. I came to see you and you guys were in there. And I was just like, let me come in and say hi. We were so happy. Anytime there was an encounter with you, period. You were always very warm and very cool. Do you remember when you sang Fantasy? Yes! I was nervous AF. Like nervous AF. I was so excited that night. That was BET, right? You were being honored. Yeah, it was BET Honors. And you were being honored, of course. Yes. It was an honor to have you there. Thank you. She sang my song, Fantasy, and it was amazing. And you've just done so many, well, really great things for me. So thank you, darling. Thank you, Mariah. I was telling you, my mom, she had me at 19. And I remember all of her 20s, Destiny's Child was a soundtrack to her life. And I've seen her cry, I've seen her laugh. I've seen so many transitional moments happen with that music. And I think that's the beauty of it. So, Raven, I'm just getting to know your music, but I really do like Love Me Not. It's really good. Thank you. It has something about it that, I don't know, it just takes you back to childhood. Thank you. I think the most interesting thing that people say is that it feels like it could be from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. So that to me is what you ladies have done with your music, and I'm so inspired by. I remember the first time I heard your record. 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, 2001, 2003, 2004, that time people like to put you in a box. No, you're pop. No, you're R&B. No, you're rock. No, you're this. And you're like, no, darling, I'm all of it. And that's what it really feels like. And I love that about your work. I always loved writing songs, even as a little girl. Being a little kid and just drawing, writing, little things like that. That's how I grew up, to become a songwriter. Do you remember what your first song you wrote was? Oh my gosh, there's so many from a little bit older. I'm trying to pick up when I'm little. But other ones. I had this song, I'll Get Back At You. I'll Get Back At You. Oh my gosh, do you know how old you were? I was like 12. Working in this guy's house. I was doing commercials for them, little ads and stuff that they would sell. And then I started writing over there. Doing that, yeah. I'll Get Back At You. I know, that's a reveal for the first time. No one's ever heard that. That's hilarious. Somebody made you mad. I know. I just made up a story. I'll Get Back At You. I love it. How old were you when you first started writing songs? I wrote my first song when I was 15. 15? Yeah. Wow. I remember I was working with a producer from Chicago at the time. And there was a studio named Classic Studios literally right around my high school when 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. Oh, wow. So I used my $300 to book that studio session. And I recorded that song, and the studio owner, he said, you don't ever have to pay for studio time ever again. And I was like, good, because I don't got no more money. I enjoyed songwriting when it's like with a whole bunch of people. I don't actually think I've ever sat down to write a song by myself. Yeah. To be honest. Yeah. I should actually really try that, this recording process that I'm in right now. It releases so much. Or even if you have someone just playing on the keys and you're telling them which way to go. Yeah. I will do that. Yeah. Or we can get together and write whatever you want. Okay. I would love that. I love that. Yeah. I like picking up like the storytelling that starts with it. Like how a song is like it's nothing on the paper, and then it's just building itself. You know what I mean? And then you go in and you're like, no, no, no, I don't want to write it down. Let me just put it down. Yeah. Like all the excitement and urgency around it and the spontaneity of it. It's just a rush. It's a rush. Absolutely. We begin this morning with Mariah Carey. It is one sweet day for the singer as she has been named as an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. I love songwriting, but to talk about like the hits and how many songs. Oh, 19. You have 19 number ones. But I only wrote 18 of them. So. You've written 18 number one records. Yeah. That in itself is crazy. It's incredible. Yeah. Thank you. I probably have it on a shirt. And on the back of a jacket. Yes. And maybe on the front of a hat. Exactly. Jumper sticker. Yes. 18. What does that mean? Oh, darling, I've written that many. No, but the thing is, people don't want to give you your proper. Right. Yeah. They don't. They just, you know, oh, she's this and she, you know, we don't know if she's a songwriter or all this stuff. Right. And I'm like, hello, I'm in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Yes. You know, that was a huge deal for me. Yeah. That was. I can't even explain it. You deserve it. Thank you. You deserve it. When I first heard about women writing and producing and then watching like, you know, certain like MTV and like VH1 specials and like you would be like working everything out, even what you did with Once We Date with Boyz II Men, like you could tell you were in it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Everything was so consistent, the sound and the way you put things together and even how you found like just these moments to just like slide down notes like it was just honey. No pun intended, but it was just so empowering to know that you could write and produce. Right. And people everywhere would love it. Right. You know? Well, it's also at that time I didn't realize that people were allowing me to do that. I just was like, I was just doing it. You know, bring up these two tracks in the background or do this or that. And it was never a big deal to me, but I guess it was. Yes. Taking control of your vision, period, is producing. And I think that's left out of the conversation a lot with women. I think that they think we get in the studio with men and they tell us what to do and we do it. And that does happen sometimes. Sorry. I felt like I just heard every single last one of her stories and now, well, that does happen sometimes. I heard all of it. But then even if that's not the story, some people don't believe it. So I started producing my vocals when I was working on my demo, like before I had a record deal, before anything. And I was singing on a PZM microphone. Anyway, I was doing background vocals and loving it, like just deciding what parts were going to go where. And I was in this woodshed. It was like a woodshed that this guy had. He's doing it in a woodshed? Well, it was in New York. It was in New York at the time, but it was like a woodshed that his father had, this place. Okay. And so I was in the woodshed working on vocals with this guy that was like my writing partner at the time. And from there, I just, I kept doing it. I just kept, you know, once I got a deal, I still did that. I was doing all my own backgrounds. I think if anything, my main thing is like the background vocal production. That's what I love to do the most, but not necessarily in a woodshed. Although we got some magic in the woodshed. We got some good stuff. We got some magic in the woodshed for sure. I think backgrounds are the first thing that I hear in music. It's my everything. So people like you or Janet Jackson or Patrisse Russian, like those people was like, I heard those and I was like, how do you make a world with your voice, you know, in different tones and different feelings and colors. So that I think is the most memorable thing to me about music and then, you know, how you use your voice too. And then when you can really flex and go for a whistle tone. Right. And then when you can flex, no, then when you can flex harder and I'm going to just harmonize this whistle tone and this whistle tone and maybe one more. Right. For fun. Just for fun. For sure. Relax. Sometimes I like to do vocal production by myself and sometimes I like someone in there with me. And what I love the most is like bringing out the sass and personality. Like when you say certain words like a certain way or like are noticing like what things need to be caressed or finessed more than others. And when you think you're done with a song and then you go in there. I don't know if you guys do this, but I'll go in there and I'm like, oh, we should scratch it. Can I do it again? Right. And then it's like maybe two more times. Right. Because then you've kind of like wiggled your way in the song. Yeah. I've done that a lot. Okay. Over and over and over and over. Yes. It just somehow finds a way to just like evolve and get better and better. I remember Dilemma's video. Yes. Oh my. And the red. I was like, I want red hair. Oh wow. I don't know who's brilliant idea it was to text on Microsoft Excel, but it chases me everywhere that I go. And everybody's always asking me, why were you? I said, I don't know. I was given the device. It had this on it. And here we are in the video. They're like, oh, we need a shot of it. I was like, okay, I guess this is right. And here we are 25 years later. Why are you texting a man? I don't know. People ask you that a lot. I'm literally asked that every week. We're at a billion streams. So I'm just so stoked about that. It's so strange. Like when they like pull certain things just out of the blue and this thing goes viral. Right. Whatever it is. Me right now in Love Me Not getting traction on TikTok first. That was interesting for me to see. And then it also changed my idea of how we throw around TikTok song or TikTok list or that. I think that with that platform, people just find the things that they love. And I found that great songs have been able to find the rest of the world through something like TikTok. But I think there's something really cool about people not needing, you know, the money or the backing or the label or the whole production to get their music out into the world. It's a conscious thing for me to have to think about, you know, even with the new music. Not feeling like I have to outdo what just happened or follow it or try to chase it. I think that's something I'm having to be mindful. Outdo, yes. But the chasing thing. You are so honest. In my head, I'm going, oh, like, but I mean, truth be told, it is a new part of the cachet for labels. Yeah. I think it was Adele that said, you know, everybody's making a song for the TikTok. And I'm thinking I'm supposed to make a song for the TikTok. And I ended up making a song like who's making the songs for me? And I was so happy I heard that because I remember I was actually like warped minded like when I thought about that for a second, I was like, oh, gosh. And I'm supposed to be making songs for TikTok. And I'm like, well, how many times am I supposed to say this one word? You know what I mean? Does this go with this move? Like, I don't want to think about songwriting like that. It doesn't even make any sense. And how that whole trend started is somebody just making a great song. Exactly. You know what I mean? But like the rest of it is like wild. How it's just so spontaneous. So you still got to make music for yourself. Yeah. I think it's a combination of everything that goes into making a song successful. Yeah. And, you know, some of that is obviously streaming. A lot of people still look to radio as a place for a song to live. Yeah. It's interesting. You said you didn't want to have to chase things. And that's why I said, but you do. Yeah. Because now you're competitive. You know what I mean? No, I feel you're from Chicago. I know you're competitive. Somewhere in there. Everybody's got a little piece of it, isn't it? Ain't nothing wrong with that. You're going to try to literally out beat yourself every single time. I'm trying not to. My mama said don't do that. Just have the fun when you're doing it. Yeah, just have fun while you're doing it. Yeah. Talk your ----. Tell your great stories. Yeah. Where you are, they will come. They will follow. How do you approach longevity, Miss Mariah? I think that having longevity is almost impossible for most people. Because if you look at it, it's really tough. Because you've got to try so hard just to figure out where you're going and figure out what type of style you want to reinvent yourself with. It's a lot of reinvention in my little world that happens. And it's not because I don't like myself or don't want to be like my former self. But I haven't really fully reinvented myself. I haven't done your color hair or pink color hair. I really haven't done that because I don't see that. I don't see myself there. So I just try to do my best, write my best version of what a song is. It's just feeling emotions. I was looking back at some of my stuff from back in the days and the show that I did called Unplugged. It's like, I don't like that hair. The way I did my hair. What is that? Are you serious? Yeah. I wore this hair because of that. Today. But that's dream lover you're talking about. Girl, I'm talking about vision of love, emotions. When I saw you do just nod your head, that's why my hair is doing that. Because if something was definite on a song and Mariah said, and you put your head down and threw your hair back and then you smile, yeah. That is sweet. That did happen. Okay, I can like it. I can like it. And all black was fly. It looked so dope for that time. Especially for that time. You always knew what was going to be fly years later. It didn't matter what you wore. It was timeless. I appreciate you. I'm curious about doing it in front of everyone's eyes. People watching that development. How did that feel for you? I don't even think I thought about it. Okay. To be honest. You weren't hyper aware? No, no. It's just like trying stuff out and see what works. With life and experience, you have to evolve. I think when you evolve and you write from an honest place and where you're from, or even where you've been, or having something but losing it, whether it's a relationship or esteem in that time for self. You know what I mean? All these things matter in the music because you're not the same person you were five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago. I think I would agree with that. I don't know. I think similar to what you said, Kelly, of just showing up as your most honest self in that moment in the best you can. That's what creates the waves of longevity and timeless music. And, I don't know, a spirit that lives. But also looking at the trajectories of so many amazing women in music and looking at the things they did to create a legacy and a body of work and a spirit in the world that people love and remember. When I said, but you do, it really meant it. You're going to have to get after these things. Come on, girl. I felt that. I did. She said, come on, girl. Could somebody be a lamb and hand me this water?