Released May 13, 1997 (US) Genre R&B, hip hop soul | Recorded 1997 Length 4:42 | |
Format CD single, Cassette single Writer(s) Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Keith Andes, Giuliano Franco, James Todd Smith, Osten Harvey, Jr. | ||
"Whatever" is the second single from musical group En Vogue's third studio album, EV3. It has been certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of over 500,000 units. It reached #16 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Contents
Background
"Whatever" was produced by Babyface (he participated on other tracks as well) as this album marked the first time En Vogue departed from their usual Foster & McElroy sound. The video version was also the first to feature only three of the original En Vogue members (without the recently departed Dawn Robinson).
Efforts to re-record the album without Robinson were all but successful as she is heard in background and lead throughout EV3. Her original lead verse on "Whatever" is fourth ("anything you do, I crave it baby...") and can be clearly heard on the remixes to this track. Cindy Herron replaced Dawn's outgoing lead in the video and studio album version.
While EV3 was being recorded, Dawn Robinson chose to leave the group. Her voice is heard throughout the harmony and lead vocals on 95% of the album including this song.
Music video
The horror movie-inspired music video, directed by Matthew Rolston, features the girls and the doctors disguised as zombies in a modern beauty salon/cosmetic surgery lab. They are surrounded by doctors and nurses dressed in orange outfits performing various surgical procedures.
Cindy is shown pulling a face statue in a lightning filled hallway, while she begins the song covering up her face with a mask then removing to sing the first verse, replacing it back after the final chorus.
Maxine is seen singing in front of a three-way mirror in a blue dress. Terry sings in pale zombie-like makeup while wearing a beauty micrometer as a doctor attends to her.
Several beauty enhancement procedures are shown in the video - face lifts, breast augmentation, even skin whitening. The girls dance robotically throughout the video and are seen sporting several horror-inspired looks and hairstyles each, loosely inspired by Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" music video.