with a variety of writers and producers and its new musical direction for carey, the album was always likely to be a commercial success. carey and combs wrote the lead single, "honey." combs believed this to be a good song but was uncertain how successful it would be as a release owing to its heavy hip hop influence. the remix for "honey" featured rapping lead vocals from da brat, the lox and mase, and some verses were rapped by combs himself. the track was very different from carey's previous recordings, and was described by author chris nickson as "street hip-hop music, with a booming bass." the song's melody was driven by q-tip's drum programming and stevie j's keyboard notes. combs's production gave the song a "light and airy" effect, further distancing it from carey's contemporary sound. "honey" featured musical samples from treacherous three's "the body rock", and "hey dj" by the world's famous supreme team. the track used both hip hop and r&b with traces of pop music and was described as a "[song with a] catchy chorus, combining hip hop and pop into something that simply wasn't going to be denied by anyone, and offering a powerful start to a record."