Carey's previous records, Butterfly became a large success in Asia. In Japan, the record debuted at number one on the album charts. The album was certified the Million Award by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), denoting shipments of one million copies. In Hong Kong, Butterfly finished as one of the twenty best-selling foreign albums of 1997, receiving a platinum certification by IFPI. Globally, Butterfly has sold over 10 million copies. Legacy and cultural impact In the years since its release, Butterfly has been hailed as being an R&B classic. In a retrospective review for The Washington Post, Bethonie Butler focused on the album's impact, stating that it "changed the face of pop music" by paving "the way for other pop stars...to sing alongside their rap contemporaries". Writing for Jezebel, Rich Juzwiak focused on the influence of Carey's vocal stylings in the track "Breakdown", remarking that "in this day and age, when there’s so much genre blending that it’s sometimes impossible to label an artist as merely “singer” or “rapper,” it'd be foolish to understate the prescience of" the song. A profile of the album in Essence by Jessica Littles further stated that the album "catalyzed the pop music trend of collaborating with hip-hop artists", concluding that it "not only showcased her [Carey's] already-established prowess as a vocalist, who could belt out ballads or flirt over the hottest summer jams, but also as one of the most versatile songwriters in contemporary music". The lead single from the album, "Honey", was notable for pushing Carey further towards hip hop and R&B than before. The music video gained further attention, as Carey, for the first time in her career, was provocatively dressed, giving viewers a "taste of the freer Mariah." The Puerto Rico-filmed video's concept was created by Carey with Paul Hunter filling in as the director. Featuring a James Bond theme, Carey was a "very sexy agent M", in the words of Nickson, who escapes a large mansion in which she has been held captive. Carey said of the video: "I don't really think the video is overtly sexual, but for me—I mean people used to think I was the nineties version of Mary Poppins!" At the time of the video's release, Carey and Mottola were in the midst of their divorce. Tabloids and critics were linking the video's theme to Carey's marriage, writing how Mottola would lock her in