Britney's Career In the Danger Zone?

Britney Spears wants to do everything she can to help hubby Kevin Federline get his hip-hop career off the ground, but music industry sources tell TMZ that in doing so she could be putting her own career in jeopardy. And even though she's reportedly contributing her voice to a duet called "Crazy" on K-Fed's album, the same sources say that doing that duet could seriously hurt Britney's prospects -- just like it did for Whitney Houston. "Not that [Britney] was churning out hits," says one recording-industry vet, "but it's very reminiscent of what happened to Whitney after the baby and 'Something in Common'."

Indeed, after Whitney and Bobby recorded that 1993 collaboration, Whitney -- who not a year earlier had put out one of the biggest singles of all time, "I Will Always Love You" -- never quite recovered. Besides her manifold personal problems, her musical production also stalled, and though she had two more #1 singles in the Nineties, she's fallen far from the glory of the Eighties and early Nineties. As for Britney, she doesn't have a musical mentor like Clive Davis to guide her through the rough creative patches, so it could be an ever rougher road ahead for Britney than for Whitney.

tmz.com