Mary J. Blige: Preacher, feminist, artist
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Rebirth
She makes no secret of her promiscuous and alcoholic past. Things changed for her in 2001 — a watershed year. Fellow R&B singer Aaliyah was killed in a plane crash. Just a few weeks later, the tragedy of Sept. 11 rocked her.
“Everything was just going crazy,” she told Oprah two years ago. “I was like, ‘You know what? This is a signal for me to wake up.’ ”
In 2002, she released the Grammy-nominated album “No More Drama.” The songs, including the title track, no longer dwell on being hurt, but on overcoming the pain. They are songs about rebirth. She continued in that vein with her Grammy-winning tribute to her husband, producer Kendu Isaacs, "Be Without You."
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Annette Brown / Getty Images file When it comes to performing, Mary J. Blige gives her all. She gave a free, live concert on the TODAY Show plaza on Friday, May 9th. |
Now it seems with her latest album, “Growing Pains,” Mary J. Blige is on a mission to help women avoid the pitfalls and insecurities that plagued her.
“There’s so many-a girls I hear you been running/From the beautiful queen that you could be becoming," she sings in “Work That.” “You can look at my palm and see the storm coming/ Read the book of my life and see I've overcome it.”
Although she is approaching an Oprah-esque level, Hurt says she’s the kind of figure to whom other black woman can relate. Blige doesn’t take this responsibility lightly.
“I think she sees herself as a woman who has power and her music has power and she realizes her voice has power,” Hurt said. “And based on her work, I think she has made a conscious decision to make music and song, to make people dance and party, but also to bring out the best in people.”
Blige has found the best way to do that is to wear her heart on her sleeve. She’s honest with her fans, hoping that somehow they will learn from her mistakes and also learn they too can survive and, yes, even overcome. But even M.J.B. keeps some things to herself.
“Trust me, you don’t know everything about Mary J. Blige,” she said at her show on May 2. “You know a lot, but you don’t know everything.”
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