Mariah Carey, Da Brat, Missy Elliott - Heartbreaker (Remix)

What this video is

Released in October 1999 as the remix counterpart to Mariah Carey's fourteenth Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, 'Heartbreaker' (feat. Jay-Z). The Desert Storm Remix represented Carey's deliberate push deeper into hip-hop territory, enlisting two of the era's most prominent female MCs — Da Brat (So So Def) and Missy Elliott — as well as DJ Clue, whose mixtape empire dominated NYC street rap. The remix's sample…

Why it matters

A landmark document of the late-90s pop-R&B-hip-hop crossover, demonstrating how a mainstream pop diva could inhabit hip-hop video aesthetics without compromise. The all-female MC lineup (Carey, Da Brat, Missy Elliott) was unusual for the era and anticipated later collaborative structures. Diane…

The director

Born May 7, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York. A high school dropout who began her career as a street artist and choreographer in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Directed her first music video — Onyx's 'Throw Ya Gunz' — in 1992 after producing the PBS hip-hop…