In this issue, we explore the ten thousand hours that preceded the professional breakthroughs of some truly iconic figures—the work before the work, if you will— and the role that community played in facilitating those breakthroughs. We start with Mariah Carey and Tupac Shakur—some might say the definitive recording artists of the 1990s—and a pair of circa-’88 demo tapes that have come to light as part of our Wax Poetics Collections.

Raised on the North Shore of suburban Long Island, Mariah looked to New York City found her people on the New York City studio scene, where she gained invaluable experience shadowing folks like Gavin Christopher and Cindy Mizelle, talented artists in their own right who nevertheless found their most consistent work behind the scenes. 

The 1988 demo Mariah recorded with musicians Ben Margulies and Chris Toland would be a game changer. But it was only when Brenda K. Starr, for whom Mariah was then singing backup, handed a copy to executive Tommy Mottola that things started moving. If you’ve followed Mariah’s career at all, you know how the rest of that story goes. It’s the story behind the tape—and Mariah’s early days on the studio scene hunting for that break—that really speaks to where she took things once she gained her freedom and stepped out from Mottola’s shadow.