Comprehensive information and links about Mary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige (born January 11, 1971 in the Bronx, New YorkMary J. Blige is a three time Grammy award winning popular American R

Background

Born to a jazz musician father and a school teacher mother, Mary was exposed to music from an early age. At the age of four, Mary's father, Thomas, left the family, leaving her mother Cora to raise Mary and her older sister Latonya alone. (On February 1, 2006, Mary revealed on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she was sexually assaulted as a small child by a family friend.) A couple years later, Mary's family relocated to Yonkers, where they resided in one of the cities most dangerous housing projects. Music eventually became Mary's refuge, singing lead in her churches choir, and at seven she won a talent contest singing Aretha Franklin's "Respect."

While continuing to remain true to her love of music, as Mary entered her teen years, she began experimenting with recreational drugs and eventually dropped out of high school.

Music Career

In 1988, at age seventeen, Mary recorded an impromptu cover of Anita Baker's "Caught Up in the Rapture" at a recording booth in a local shopping mall. Mary's stepfather later played the cassette for a music industry contact, Jeff Redd, a recording artist and AR scout for Uptown Records. Redd sent it to the president and CEO of the label, Andre Harrell. At the time, the fledgling Uptown was home to several noted hip-hop and RB acts of the day, including Heavy D and Guy. Harrell met with Mary, and in 1989, she was signed to the label — becoming the companies youngest artist and first female artist.

After signing with Uptown, Mary's early years at the company were dormant as the label continued to focus most of its attention on its more established acts. In no hurry to make an instant star out of Mary, her first assignment came in 1991 when she sang the hook on "I'll Do 4 U" by rapper and label mate Father MC. Mary also appeared in the concert-themed video, in the less than glamorous role of a back-up singer.

Uptown finally greenlit production for Mary's debut album in early 1992. Harrell assigned his young protégée, up and coming label exec., Sean "Puffy" Combs to help oversee the project. Also enlisted were some of the top RB and hip-hop producers of the time, among them were Tony Dofat, Mark Morales (of The Fat Boys fame) and Mark C. Rooney, and Dave "Jam" Hall. Also included in the producers mix were Combs himself, and DeVanté Swing (member of, and driving force behind, fellow Uptown act Jodeci). The latter association would introduce Mary to Jodeci group member K-Ci Hailey, with whom she embarked on a long and tumultuous relationship.

On July 18, 1992, Uptown released . That summer, the albums debut single, "You Remind Me" was released to radio and eventually peaked at #29 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart, and climbed to #1 on the RB singles chart. It was followed up that fall with "Real Love," which fared even better — becoming Blige's second #1 on the RB singles charts and first top 10 pop single, peaking at #7 on the Hot 100. Both singles were also certified gold.

More singles emerged as 1993 opened up, including: "Reminisce," a cover of Chaka Khan's "Sweet Thing," and "Love No Limit." By the end of 1993, had sold three million copies, and Mary had been crowned "The Queen Of Hiphop Soul." The albums success spun off . Darker, moodier, and slightly less uptempo than its predecessor; the set was again overseen by Sean Combs (now calling himself "Puff Daddy"), who in spite of having left his post at Uptown Records to form his own label, Bad Boy, had an even bigger hand in the pot as he this time co-produced all but one of the albums tracks. At this time, Combs also took over Mary's manager.

Unlike , which featured no self-penned lyrics from Blige herself, this time her role was extended to include songwriter, as she co-wrote a healthy bulk of the material and based it on the happenings of her personal life — hence the title. Although overwhelmingly praised by both critics and fans, Blige also received some flack for the album being so sample-heavily.

The albums first single, "Be Happy," peaked at #29 on the Hot 100, and shot up to #6 on the RB singles chart. In early 1995, it was followed up with a cover of Rose Royce's "I'm Goin' Down." Other No One Else", as well as the heavily played (but never officially released as a single) album track, "Mary Jane." The album proved to be yet another multi-platinum home-run for Blige, selling another three million. In spite of its success and her growing fame, Blige was in no mood to celebrate, as she later admitted she was simultaneously dealing with long time bouts with drug addiction, alcoholism and depression; in addition to an abusive relationship with Hailey, which all played into why Blige had earned a reputation in the industry for being a bitch.

Also in 1995, she extended herself to several outside projects: recording a cover of Aretha Franklin's classic "Natural Woman" for the soundtrack to the hit FOX series, New York Undercover, and "Everyday It Rains" for the soundtrack to the Hiphop bio pic, The Show. Her biggest professional achievements came that summer when she scored a hit duet with rapper Method Man on his song, "You're All I Need Tammi Terrell's 1968 single, "You're All I Need to Get By"). Later in the year, she also recorded the Babyface penned and produced "Not Gon' Cry," for the soundtrack to motion picture, Waiting to Exhale. The platinum selling single rose to #2 on the Hot 100 singles chart (#1 RB) in early 1996, and became her biggest hit up to then. That year, Mary won her first Grammy in the Best Rap Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group category for the collaboration with Method Man.

. After internal conflicts of interest with Puff Daddy, reportedly due to his managing his own label and budding career as an entertainer, the two dissolved their working relationship, which resulted in this being the first album in her career without her Comb's involvement. To compensate for his absence, a bevy of high profile producers were recruited, including: Jimmy Jam Terry Lewis, Chucky Thompson, R. Kelly, Babyface, and most notably an up and coming Rodney Jerkins…who helmed the bulk of the album.

, a noticeably more vibrant and optimistic toned set, debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums Chart and spawned four hit singles: "Love Is All We Need" (featuring Nas), "I Can Love You" (featuring Lil Kim), "Everything" and "Seven Days." Commercially it continued the vein of the two that came before it, going triple platinum, and selling five million worldwide. In early 1998, Mary won an American Music Award for "Favorite Album - Soul

On August 17, 1999, Blige's self titled fourth studio album was released. A departure from her more familiar hip-hop influenced sound, this set featured a more earthy, whimsical and adult contemporary-tinged collection of songs, reminiscent to 1970s and early 1980s Soul. Also featured on the album were high profile dueting partners and guests such as: Aretha Franklin (who dueted with Mary on "Don't Waste Your Time"), Elton John (who played keys on "Deep Inside," which featured a sample of his 70s-era hit "Benny The Jets"), Eric Clapton (who played guitar on "Give Me You"), and Lauryn Hill (who wrote, produced, and sang back up on "All That I Can Say.") Blige also recorded a duet with George Michael called "As," which is featured on the UK release, but was left off of the domestic tracklist — reportedly because MCA feared that association with the openly gay and often controversial pop star wouldn't be in her best interest.

Though the album was critically praised and sold respectfully well (going double platinum and moving almost two million), it wasn't as commercially successful as her prior albums, as all of the singles ("All That I Can Say," "Deep Inside," "Your Child," "Beautiful" and "Give Me You") underperformed on the radio and charts. At this time, however, Blige and MCA seized the moment and tapped into niche club market by issuing club-friendly dance remixes of the singles. In lieu of this, Mary scored a #1 hit on the Billboard's Dance Chart with "Your Child," which topped the chart for one week in October 2000.

Also in 2000, Mary released the overseas-only compilation, , which featured the best of Mary's ballad material. Blige also scored a hit duet with Wyclef Jean on the song "911," featuring on his album The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book

On August 28, 2001, MCA released Blige's fifth studio album, No More Drama. The albums first single, the Dr. Dre produced "Family Affair", became Blige's first #1 on the Hot 100 Singles Chart, where it sat for six consecutive weeks — becoming one of the years biggest songs, and the biggest hit of Blige's career. It was followed by the top 20 Jimmy Jam

In spite of the huge boost that the album received thanks to its first two singles, its sales were underwhelming — forcing MCA to repackage and re-release the album on January 29, 2002. The re-release featured a brand new album cover, deleted three of the songs from the original tracklisting, while adding two brand new songs (one of which was the third single and top 20 pop hit "Rainy Dayz," featuring Ja Rule), plus two remixes — one of the title track, serviced by former mentor Puff Daddy (now known as "P. Diddy.") The album went on to be certified double platinum, selling four million worldwide, and Mary won her second Grammy for the song "He Think I Don't Know."

was released by Geffen Records (which had absorbed her previous label, MCA). After breaking the ice with Diddy on the "No More Drama" remix; Mary, again, heavily collaborated with him for this set. Thanks to the history between them (which is generally regarded as their best work, respectively) and Mary having just come off of her successful fifth album, expectations were high for their 'reunion.'

Despite the album debuting at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart; Love Life's lead off single, the Diddy produced "Love @ 1st Sight" (which featured a rap cameo by Method Man), just barely cracked the top 10 on the RHiphop singles chart — while altogether missing the top 20 on the Hot 100. The two following singles, "Ooh" and "Not Today" fared even worse. Although the album was certified platinum, it became Blige's lowest selling and biggest commercial disappointment to date. Critics and fans alike largely panned the disc for its lack of consistency and noticeable attempts to recapture the early BligeCombs glory.

Meanwhile, Mary and Diddy reportedly struggled and clashed during the making of this album. That, added to its luke warm public reception to

In spite of buzz circulating in the summer of 2005 that Blige's next release would be a greatest hits retrospective, she and her label formally announced that an album of brand new material was, instead, on the way. On December 20, Geffen released Mary's seventh studio album, entitled The Breakthrough.

Indeed a return to her prime, the lead off single "Be Without You" quickly raced up both the RB albums and Billboard Top 200 albums charts, selling an astounding 727,163 copies in its first week. The biggest first-week sales for an RB solo female artist ever, and landing in the top five biggest debuts of the year. Production on the album included Blige herself, Rodney Jerkins, Will.I.Am, Bryan Michael Cox, 9th Wonder, Jimmy Jam Terry Lewis, Raphael Saadiq, Cool and Dre, Dre and Vidal, and includes a duet with Bono on the cover of the 1991 U2 hit, "One". Since its release, the album has sold over 1.4 million copies. In Germany, "Be Without You" peaked at #3, and it became her most successful song since "Family Affair" reached #1 in 2001.

Impact

Since Mary J. Blige released her debut in 1992, Blige has led a new path and ground for female artists to follow. Her mixture of hip-hop beats, street sensibility, soulful vocals and glamorous sophistication helped create what became known as "ghetto fabulous". It also resulted in Combs naming her "The Queen of Hip-hop soul" after her first album came out and though she wasn't the first female to mix hip-hop and soul (singers like Mi'chelle and Alyson Williams preceded her in that regard), few can dispute she holds that title. Blige also was instrumental in building up the careers of the following: Sean Combs, who was virtually unknown before hooking up with Blige; his protege, rapper The Notorious B.I.G., who was featured on the hit remake to Blige's "Real Love" and was in fact Biggie's first record before releasing his own "Party Bullshit" from the "Who's Da Man?" soundtrack; rapper Busta Rhymes, who rapped on Blige's debut; and RB singers including Aaliyah, Beyonce, Amerie, Alicia Keys, Lil' Mo, Nicole Wray, Ashanti, Tweet, P!nk, Lauryn Hill and Keyshia Cole to name a few. Blige's music has also been an inspiration for people living in the ghetto and includes both male and female listeners who have found salvation in Blige's music. Blige, in turn, calls her fans her inspiration for the music she makes.

Blige had a tumultuous six-year affair with Jodeci frontman K-Ci Hailey, which ended in 1997. In 2000, she started dating record industry executive Martin Kendu Isaacs (known as simply Kendu). Isaacs was, in Blige's words, the one to get Blige to kick alcohol after issuing an ultimatum to Blige that he was leaving her if she came home drunk. Isaacs and Blige married on December 7, 2003. As a result, Blige is now the stepmother of Kendu's three young children from a previous marriage. Blige has also talked about having children of her own one day.