(To read Part One click here)
I didn't think there would be a Part Two to this Whitney story. No real need is there. Except that it was not quite finished with me.
Part One was titled Would Whitney Be Alive if There Was No Bobby? It was a rhetorical question. I need to take the rhetorical out. Make it a real question, and close the file with an answer.
In order to do so, I am asking you to come along on a daydream with me for the next couple of minutes.
Close your eyes and travel back 23 years to 1989. Whitney has recently wound down relationships with Randall Cunningham and Eddie Murphy. And throughout that fateful night at The Soul Train Music Awards she doesn't meet Bobby Brown - because he was never born.
Who else was around that would have fit the bill to be Whitney's man....
If we use what we know about Whitney's life to construct a profile of her "type", we come up with the following: he will be younger than her, black, famous, a little crazy and vulnerable to drugs - or strong enough to keep himself and her away from a full-blown nuthouse of addiction.
Hollywood stars in 1989:
Already married: Denzel, Samuel L., Billy Dee Williams, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Glover, Gregory Hines and Carl Weathers.
Single but too old: Arsenio Hall, LeVar Burton, Howard Rollins Jr. and Forrest Whitaker.
Richard Pryor deserves special mention. He lit himself on fire while freebasing cocaine and drinking 151-proof rum. If crazy as batshit were the only criteria, game over. Luckily for Whitney it isn't. Besides, Richard is way too old. He ended up having seven wives, so even if he had gotten Whitney down the aisle it wouldn´t have lasted the time it took Richard to snort an eightball of coke.
Right age, not quite famous enough: Will Smith's hair is still in a hightop fade on The Fresh Prince, Cuba Gooding Jr. doesn´t get the lead in Boys in the Hood for two more years and Blaire Underwood has fashion model looks but never enough career ooomph.
Jamie Foxx's triple barrelled skills across stand-up, acting and singing might have been attractive but in 1989 he was stepping onstage for his first open mic night. Too early.
Hollywood's best chance is Wesley Snipes. Wesley is not an exact fit. He is one year older than Whitney and has no discernible drug history. He spackles over these cracks with an aura that says: sturdy foundation with intermittent bouts of screws loose all over the floor. He had just wrapped Major League and by 1990 was riding New Jack City into worldwide fame. There is something right about 1989 Wesley Snipes.
With that said, I am taking Wesley off the board. It was music, not acting, that coursed through Whitney´s veins. With a mother that won a Grammy for singing soul, a cousin named Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin as a family "aunt", Whitney's husband was always going to be a recording artist. Sorry Blade...
Here are the music men from the late 80s:
Too old or married: George Benson, Freddie Jackson, James Ingram, Al Jarreau, Billy Ocean, Keith Sweat, Luther Vandross, Babyface, Jermaine Jackson and Bobby McFerrin.
Too old, and/or too camp even for the 80s (but just the right amount of crazy): Prince, Lionel, MC Hammer, Rick James, Billy Preston, and Michael.
Several hardcore rappers could have been strong contenders, but Whitney's R&B and gospel roots are a barrier to entry. On those grounds I am wiping Dr. Dre, Snoop, Ice Cube, Tupak, Ice T and Kurtis Blow off the board. And unknown Shawn Carter, aka Jay Z, was seven years away from his debut album.
Correct age with R&B background but not quite right: R Kelly (hadn´t recorded a note yet, and when he did there was that pesky ´I like 14 year olds´ thing); Johnny Gill, Michael Bivens, Ralph Tresvant, Ronnie Devoe and Ricky Bell (Bobby´s group mates in New Edition - too weird to even contemplate), and all of the Boys II Men were still just boys.
When the dust settles, I´m sliding my entire pile of casino chips onto...
LL Cool J
Hear me out. He is three weeks older than Bobby Brown and, like Bobby, five years younger than Whitney. Although he is a rapper, his musical influences span from Afrika Bambaataa to funk legend Rick James. The door is ajar for Whitney to justify the leap.
In the late 1980´s LL was already considered a rapping superstar and had even acted in Krush Groove. Fatefully, Bobby and New Edition were also in that movie. By 1990, Mama Said Knock You Out is on radios across the US. LL Cool J had hit the mainstream. Today LL´s crossover is in full blossom. Along with acting, he has his own fashion line, music producing company and boomdizzle.com, a record label/social networking website. Not enough? With his free three minutes per day he also authored four books. Lastly, LL Cool J has rock solid strength of character and a body that would make Adonis cover his eyes (just badly enough to have a peek).
So Would Whitney Be Alive if There Was No Bobby? Before answering that question, I want to tackle the one that is probably on your mind: Why play this silly game?
You say: this is a senseless exercise. I can see your argument. But will you agree that, in the grand scheme of things, escapism of just about any type is pointless. I am going to play this out and resolve these feelings of unfinished business.
I keep coming back to the tragedy of it all. How no one wins in the Whitney Houston story. How her friends, family, ex-husband and daughter will tend to this gaping wound for the rest of their lives.
She is gone. Her corpse is in Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey - in a box buried under six feet of dirt.
And I just figured it out... our daydream is my way of searching for a smile somewhere in this story.
So I am going to answer the question like this: YES, Whitney would have been alive if she chose differently. LL Cool J, for example, could have been a strong and secure enough force in Whitney's life to fight her demons back to hell. And allow that glorious voice to wash over us for a couple more decades.
This brings a smile to my face for an instant. And like that it is gone.
(To read Would Whitney Be Alive If Bobby Was Never Born? click here)