Whitney Houston 2, 2003), and gospel singer Emily "Cissy" (Drinkard) Houston. Her elder brother Michael is a singer, and her elder half-brother is former basketball player Gary Garland. Her parents were both African American. Through her mother, Houston was a first cousin of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Her godmother was Darlene Love and her honorary aunt was Aretha Franklin, whom she met at age 8 or 9 when her mother took her to a recording studio. Houston was raised a Baptist, but was also exposed to the Pentecostal church. After the 1967 Newark riots, the family moved to a
Whitney Houston (album) [...] was a fresh serving of precocious talent compared to 1985's mildly flavored R&B buffet." Allison Stewart from "The Washington Post" stated that the album "provided a blueprint for the pop/dance/R&B-melding careers of Mariah Carey and others, and introduced the world to "The Voice", an octave-spanning, gravity-defying melismatic marvel." In "The New Rolling Stone Album Guide" (2004), music journalist J. D. Considine gave the album three out of five stars and stated, "Although utterly calculating, "Whitney Houston" does have its moments, particularly when Houston leans toward R&B, as on 'You Give Good Love.'" The album received good response from major