"We don't look at her as a dance-pop artist," Columbia Records president Don Ienner noted to Rolling Stone about his latest signing Mariah Carey in 1990. "We look at her as a franchise." It's fair to say that some pretty lofty expectations were placed on the diva ahead of her first studio album's release.

L.A. Reid will produce the singer’s next album as part of the new partnership with the company launched by Larry Jackson.