Blige, Mary J.

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Mary J. Blige

Singer, songwriter

At a time when the mainstream music industry seems to be crumbling, Mary J. Blige has proven to be one of the music industry's few bankable stars. Enduringly popular, the sultry Bronx-born R&B singer-songwriter continues to make a difference with her music and as a leader in her community.

Stereo Review's Ron Givens wrote, "Mary J. Blige has been called the inventor of New Jill Swing." In his Washington Post review of Blige's second album, Geoffrey Himes called her "the premier soul diva of the hip-hop generation." But more than anything else, the music media has crowned her the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul. Blige's youth in one of New York's poorer neighborhoods—the Slowbam Projects in Yonkers—where she was born on January 11, 1971, provided her with the "credentials" demanded by audiences who also grew up on the city streets. Her family, including Blige's older sister and two younger brothers, subsisted on her mother Cora's earnings as a nurse after her father left the family in the mid-1970s. "My mother made me strong," Blige told Adario Strange in Source. "Watching my mother struggle to raise us and feed us made me want to be a stronger woman."

Blige's environment also provided the sound and encouragement that shaped her musical identity. A professional jazz musician, her father left his mark on Blige's ability to harmonize during the brief time he was present. Block parties in the Bronx taught her the rhythms and sampling styles created by the early hip-hop deejays. At home, her mother played a steady stream of R&B, soul, and funk. Blige sang regularly with her mother and sisters in the choir at the House of Prayer Pentecostal Church, honing vocal skills and imbibing gospel. By the time Blige was a teenager, she had solo spots in the choir and she made the rounds of local talent shows. Before she dropped out of school in the eleventh grade in about 1987, she had also participated in school shows.

While she enjoyed singing, Blige didn't expect to make her living at it, and like most teenagers in her position, she helped bring in money with several part-time jobs. However, a cover she made of Anita Baker's "Rapture" found its way to Andre Harrell, an executive with Uptown Records. On Harrell's initiative, Blige was brought onto Uptown's growing roster of young R&B talents. Sean "Puffy" Combs (later P. Diddy) became the young singer's mentor when the company began preparing her album.

What's the 411? Spurred R&B Revival

In 1992 What's the 411? introduced Blige's voice to audiences with a growing interest in the New Jack Swing take on R&B. The album not only fit neatly into that R&B revival, but also began to define it. Driven primarily by the single "Real Love," the album reached double-platinum status after it sold more than two mil- lion copies in a short time. It crossed over from the R&B charts and entered the top ten on Billboard's pop chart. When Havelock Nelson praised the album in his Entertainment Weekly review in August of 1992, he began with the news everyone would soon know; that Blige was "the first diva to deliver frisky, fly-girl funk" and that she "conquers everything she tackles." He concluded that the album was "one of the most accomplished fusions of soul values and hip-hop to date." Nelson described, in particular, how Blige took the then male-defined domain of New Jack Swing and remade it in her own image, kicking off the rage for New Jill.

Blige would become known as the initiator of a new female incarnation of hip-hop. Rolling Stone reviewer Steve Hochman noted that Blige had "become the role model for the new breed of strong hip-hop women." Strange dubbed her the "first true feminine hero of R&B lovin' ghetto residents." The singer commented on the phenomenon herself, telling Hochman, "I think I'm creating a style for women—a more feminine version of the way a lot of hip-hop guys dress now."

The applause was dimmed, however, by bad publicity, including at the 1993 Soul Train Music Awards, where Blige accepted her award not in the expected glittering evening gown, but wearing jeans and a shirt, causing an outcry of disapproval from fans. There were other less public reports of bad behavior. Emil Wilbekin of Vibe mentioned "stories of tardiness, cancellations, and general lack of professionalism," as well as drinking during interviews and performances. Blige herself admitted that she had not been prepared for the spotlight of celebrity status. She also felt there were problems with her management, and she took steps to make changes before recording her second album. Combs had moved out of Uptown and in 1993 started his own company, Bad Boy Entertainment, and Blige took her management business there while still recording with Uptown.

Blige also pursued practical measures to prepare herself for the fresh onslaught of publicity that would accompany the second album: she enrolled with a public relations firm, Double XXposure, that trained artists to deal with the demands of a public reputation. She worked extensively with the company's president, Angelo Ellerbee, whom she later credited with helping her change her life more broadly. She told Wilbekin that Ellerbee "gave me a totally new kind of life." Ellerbee even sparked her interest in books for the first time, introducing her, for example, to a novel by Zora Neale Hurston titled Their Eyes Were Watching God.

For the Record …

Born Mary Jane Blige on January 11, 1971, in Yonkers, NY; daughter of Cora (a nurse) and a jazz musician. Married Kendu Isaacs (works in the music industry), December 7, 2003.

Sang with mother and sister in House of Prayer Pentecostal Church choir; signed by Uptown Records, released debut album, What's the 411?, 1992; headlined tours in 1998 and 2000; released No More Drama, 2001; appeared as singer on numerous television programs including Late Show with David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, Saturday Night Live, Entourage, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno; appeared as actress on television programs such as Strong Medicine and Ghost Whisperer; released albums Love & Life, 2003, The Breakthrough, 2005, Growing Pains, 2007; co-founded Mary J. Blige and Steve Stout Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now, Inc., 2008.

Awards: Soul Train Music Awards, 1993, 2000; Grammy Award, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (with Method Man), 1996; American Music Award, Favorite Soul/R&B Album, for Share My World, 1998; Soul Train Lady of Soul awards, 1997, 1998, 2000; Grammy Award, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (with Sting), for "Whenever I Say Your Name," 2004; BET Award, Best R&B Female Artist, 2006; American Music Award, Favorite Soul/R&B Album, for The Breakthrough, 2006; Billboard Music Award, R&B/Hip-Hop Album of the Year, for The Breakthrough, 2006; Billboard Music Award, Song of the Year, for "Be Without You," 2006; Billboard Music Award, R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Year, 2006; Grammy Awards, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance; Best R&B Song for "Be Without You" Best R&B album, for The Breakthrough, 2007; BET Award for Best Collaboration, for "Runaway Love" (with Ludacris), 2007; Grammy Awards, Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, for "Disrespectful" (with Chaka Khan); Best Gospel Performance for "Never Gonna Break My Faith" (with Aretha Franklin, tied with the Clark Sisters), 2008.

Addresses: Record company—Universal Music Group, 2220 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404; MCA Records, 2220 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90404. Web site—Mary J. Blige Official Web site: http://www.mjblige.com.

When Uptown released My Life in 1994, it marked many changes for Blige, including the personal refining that turned around her public image. The vocalist also contributed lyrics for most of the songs; she had been writing before the debut album, but had had little confidence in her skill as a lyricist. The sound of the music shifted also, due in part to the use of live horns and strings in place of the standard sampling, moving Blige deeper into the fusion of hip-hop and soul. Ultimately, all of the changes added up successfully for Blige and her producers. My Life debuted in December in the top position on Billboard's R&B album chart.

"Major Voice of Her Generation"

Geoffrey Himes, among others, paid particular tribute to Blige's new take on R&B in My Life: "Blige may be a gospel-trained siren like older soul divas," he remarked in the Washington Post, "but these arrangements sound like no record ever made by Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross or Patti LaBelle. All the gooey orchestrations … are gone, leaving a skeletal rhythm track and a spectacular voice freed from all superfluous sentiment and ornamentation." J.D. Considine, writing for Baltimore's Evening Sun, wrote that "Blige has more than surpassed expectations" and argued that as "good as the grooves are, it's her vocal work that ultimately drives these songs."

Blige's subsequent albums, Share My World (1997), The Tour (1998), and Mary (1999), brought new recognition for the singer. She earned a Grammy Award in 1996 for her rap performance with Method Man, followed by nominations in 1997 and 1998. She received Soul Train Lady of Soul awards in 1997 and 1998, and in 1998 received an American Music Award. Additionally, she toured as a headline act in 1998.

As the 1990s closed, Blige's self-generated strength reflected clearly in her subsequent projects, and she developed a new sense of social commitment, melding her career with worthy causes that concerned her deeply. The proceeds from her 2000 tour, The Mary Show, went to benefit One Hundred Black Men, Inc., of New York City, and in her capacity as spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics' Viva Glam III line, she was invited to appear at the United Nations General Assembly Hall for the Race Against Poverty Awards in 2000 and 2001.

Blige's career continued to see a resurgence during the early 2000s. Her first album of the decade, No More Drama (2001), featured tracks produced by Dr. Dre, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis, among others, and she showed growth in her life and vocals with a more feel-good, upbeat message. A more straightforward R&B album, No More Drama included cover songs that paid tribute to her parents. The single "Family Affair," produced by Dre, was a major hit, and the album itself went triple platinum, selling nearly two million copies within six months of its release. A reworked "special edition" version of the album, released under the same name in 2002, sold an additional 1.1 million copies.

She reunited with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs for love & life in 2003, another upbeat release, which featured guest appearances by Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and Method Man, although critics gave it only mixed reviews. The album only sold about 944,000 copies, making it her lowest selling studio release. Blige's professional life continued to evolve, however, and her personal life saw growth as well, with a deep embracing of faith and a December 2003 marriage to Kendu Isaacs, a music industry insider who became her manager.

The Breakthrough Won Multiple Awards

In February of 2004 she shared the Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, for "Whenever I Say Your Name" with Sting. She received more honors for her next album, 2005's The Breakthrough, which employed 13 different producers. Another uplifting, self-assured album, it lived up to its title, immediately connecting with listeners. It sold about 727,000 copies in its debut week, helped by the strong hit single "Be Without You," which rode the R&B charts for an incredible 16 months. It was her first number one single on Billboard's Adult R&B chart in ten years. Clarence Waldron of Jet claimed that "The Breakthrough is the real Mary, and her fans can hear it." For the album, Blige won multiple BET Awards, American Music Awards, and Billboard Music Awards, as well as eight Grammy Award nominations.

Explaining Blige's appeal, Kevin Chappell of Ebony claimed that "Blige infatuates … an increasing number of people. Men adore her. Women respect her. Little girls want to be her. Singers want to sing like her. Her music has achieved legitimate crossover success. One of the few Black women in music to prove that she has staying power, Blige has moved to diva status, a level of superstardom that few ever achieve."

Also a Humanitarian

Continually working and refining her craft, Blige released Growing Pains in early 2008. Another number one album, it prompted Robert Christgau of Rolling Stone to comment: "Growing Pains is an edgier record than The Breakthrough, but Blige has definitely lost or just outgrown the brassy urgency of her twenties. Then, her confessions had the feel of painful late-night outbursts: these days, they sound more like she's had a lot of therapy."

Therapy or no, Blige has worked obsessively to stay on top of her profession and to provide service to the less fortunate. When she isn't touring with the likes of Jay Z, Alicia Keyes, and others, the superstar/ businesswoman acts as spokesperson for Carol's Daughter beauty products (her mother's company) and is the co-founder and spokesperson for the Mary J. Blige and Steve Stoute Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now, Inc. On FFAWN's Web site, former project-kid-turned-superstar Blige said that she and Stoute created the organization "because I believe every young woman, if given encouragement and a helping hand (a hand filled with resources), can reach her greatest potential. It is my hope that FFAWN will be a vehicle to help other women reach greater heights despite their environment, despite low self-esteem, despite their immediate circumstances."

Selected discography

What's the 411?, Uptown/MCA, 1992.

My Life, Uptown/MCA, 1994.

Share My World, MCA, 1997.

The Tour (live), MCA, 1998.

Mary, MCA, 1999.

No More Drama, MCA, 2001.

Ballads, Polygram, 2001.

No More Drama (special edition), MCA, 2002.

Dance for Me, MCA, 2002.

love & life, Geffen, 2003.

The Breakthrough, Geffen, 2005.

Reflections (A Retrospective), Geffen, 2006.

Growing Pains, Geffen, 2007.

Soul is Forever: The Remix Album, RGS, 2008.

Sources

Periodicals

Atlanta Journal, November 29, 1994.

Billboard, January 16, 1993; August 9, 2003; January 7, 2006; February 4, 2006; December 16, 2006.

Boston Globe, December 15, 1994.

Ebony, August 2002; March 2004.

Entertainment Weekly, August 7, 1992; November 20, 1992; December 3, 1993; November 25, 1994.

Essence, March 1995; April 2001.

Evening Sun (Baltimore, MD), December 2, 1994.

Hollywood Reporter, February 7, 2002.

Interview, September 2001, p. 164.

Jet, July 3, 2000; October 16, 2000; December 25, 2000; October 1, 2001; September 1, 2003; January 23, 2006; July 17, 2006; December 11, 2006; December 25, 2006.

Music Week, December 16, 2006.

Newsweek, August 25, 2003.

People, December 5, 1994.

PR Newswire, October 12, 2000; February 12, 2001; March 13, 2001; April 10, 2001.

Rolling Stone, April 15, 1993.

Source, January 1995.

Stereo Review, April 1993.

Vibe, February 1995.

Washington Post, November 27, 1994.

WWD, December 12, 2005.