Mary J. Blige

Singer

• Born: January 11, 1971
• Birthplace: Bronx, New York

Singer and humanitarian

Blige pioneered the hip-hop soul genre by infusing rhythm and blues and soul into hip-hop music. She also undertook, through the Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now, humanitarian efforts to support women who have suffered abuse and poverty.

Areas of achievement: Film: acting; Music: hip-hop; Music: rhythm and blues; Music: soul; Social issues; Women’s rights

Early Life

Mary Jane Blige was born in the Bronx, New York, to Thomas and Cora Blige on January 11, 1971. Blige spent some time in Savannah, Georgia, before moving back to New York, to Yonkers’ Schlobohm Housing Projects, popularly known as "Slow Bomb." While Blige was a little girl, her father, a jazz bass player, left her mother, a nurse, to raise Blige and her sister alone; two younger brothers were added to the family years later. Life in the projects was hard, and she continually witnessed violence, especially against women. Blige herself was sexually abused at the age of five by family acquaintances her mother had left her with while at work. The House of Prayer Pentecostal Church was Blige’s haven, where she, along with her mother and older sister LaTonya, sang in the choir. At Lincoln High School, Blige performed in talent shows. This musical experience, along with popular 1970s music such as that of Aretha Franklin, played a part in developing her soul-stirring, gospel-tinged singing style.

As a teenager, Blige was swept up in the negative environment surrounding her neighborhood. Drug and alcohol abuse, promiscuity, and violence led her to drop out of high school in the eleventh grade (she later received an equivalency diploma). Blige worked as a hairdresser and babysitter, among other jobs, to make ends meet. When she was seventeen years old, she was recorded singing Anita Baker’s "Caught Up in the Rapture" at the mall, and the tape was sent to Andre Harrell of Uptown Records. Blige’s music career had begun. At Uptown, she started out singing background for rapper Father MC and other rap music artists before recording her first album.

Life’s Work

Blige’s solo career began in 1992 with mentor Sean "Puffy" Combs (later known by various stage names including Puff Daddy and Diddy). What’s the 411? (1992) introduced her to the world as a streetwise singer who popularized hip-hop culture and fashion with combat boots, baseball caps, blonde hair weaves, and designer sunglasses. What’s the 411? went double-platinum and reached number one on Billboard’s rhythm and blues (R&B) albums chart. She broke new ground by fusing soul music and hip-hop in a way that was edgy but still had mainstream appeal.

Media reports, however, cast a shadow over Blige's achievements, alleging that she arrived late for engagements because of wild partying, drug and alcohol abuse, and a bad attitude. She also drew attention for her tumultuous relationship with singer Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey of the group Jodeci. Despite negative publicity, Blige completed her second album, My Life (1994), which Combs produced and on which she wrote much more of the material. The much more personal record followed the critical and commercial success of her debut and came to be regarded as a classic of hip-hop soul. Blige then began reinventing her image by attending etiquette classes given by Double Exxposure, a public relations firm. She won her first Grammy Award in 1996 for her collaboration with rapper Method Man, "I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By."

Blige’s next album, Share My World (1997), was completed with new managers and new producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. In 1998 Blige started her own music label, Mary Jane Entertainment. With the album’s release came a new outlook on life, evident in her softer fashion style, her breakup with Hailey, more positive media attention, and renewed Christian faith.

Mary (1999) featured Blige’s collaborations with famous singers and musicians such as Elton John and the undisputed Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Her next album, No More Drama (2001), included the song "Family Affair," her first single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Blige married record producer Kendu Isaacs on December 7, 2003. Her 2003 album Love & Life received mixed reviews, but in 2007 Blige won three Grammy Awards for The Breakthrough (2005), which became her best-selling and most award-winning release to that point. The albums Growing Pains (2007) and Stronger with Each Tear (2009) followed. Blige headlined the Essence Music Festival from 2001 to 2010 and became its spokeswoman in 2010.

Blige also took up acting, starring in such films as Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009). She also coproduced the single "I Can See in Color," with Lee Daniels, from the soundtrack for the film Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (2009). In 2011 she provided the song "The Living Proof" for The Help (2011), another popular film. That same year saw the release of her album My Life: Part II... The Journey Continues, another critical and commercial success. In 2012 she released a special edition of What's the 411? for the album's twenty-fifth anniversary. 2013 saw her release the successful holiday album A Mary Christmas and play the role of civil rights advocate Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz, in the television film Betty & Coretta, though that year she also became embroiled in controversy when she was charged $3.4 million in outstanding taxes. Blige's album The London Sessions came out in 2014, featuring collaborations with various songwriters.

The year 2017 proved to be a particularly significant year for Blige in both the music and acting worlds. In addition to releasing her generally well-received thirteenth studio album, Strength of a Woman, she made her biggest impact as an actor up to that point with her memorable supporting role in the critically acclaimed dramatic feature Mudbound, about two families living on the same land and struggling with the realities of racism in the era of Jim Crow. For her performance as Florence Jackson, she was nominated in 2018 for her first Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role; she also received an Oscar nod for the film's song "Mighty River," which she performed and cowrote. That same year, she and Isaacs divorced. As well as appearing in the third season of the series Scream on VH1 and the first season of Netflix's The Umbrella Academy in 2019, she and rapper Nas went on a North American tour. In 2022, Blige, along with Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, and 50 Cent, performed at the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Significance

One of the leading performers of the 1990s and first decades of the twenty-first century, Blige matched great commercial success, with sales of over 50 million albums, with critical acclaim, winning multiple Grammy Awards. She also extended her efforts beyond music to include humanitarianism, taking into account her own rise from poverty and abuse to achievement. In 2007, she cofounded the Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now to help women who have suffered abuse and poverty. Blige opened the Mary J. Blige Center for Women in 2009 in Yonkers, New York. She contributed to relief efforts after Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake by singing "Bridge over Troubled Water" with opera tenor Andrea Bocelli during the Grammy Awards ceremony that year. She also began serving as MAC Cosmetics’ spokeswoman for its AIDS fund in 2000.

Bibliography

"Biography." Mary J. Blige. Interscope Records, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Blige, Mary J. “Proud Mary J.” Interview by Veronica Webb. Interview 25 (July, 1995): 80–86. Print.

Lemieux, Jamilah. "Mary J. Blige on Recovery, Healing, and Taking Care of Herself." Self, 7 Oct. 2019, www.self.com/story/mary-j-blige. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

Murray, Cori. “The Gospel According to Mary.” Essence Oct. 2009: 99–101. Print.

Proefrock, Stacia. "Mary J. Blige: Biography." AllMusic. AllMusic, 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Watts, Cliff. “Oprah Talks to Mary J. Blige.” O: The Oprah Magazine 7 (May 2006): 240–246. Print.