Mary J Blige How Many Albums
Barb Frison
Her first album was released in 1992. Since then, she has released a steady flow of beautiful albums that have helped her become one of the leading famous music artists. All these brilliant Mary J. Blige albums have been presented below chronologically. We have also included all original release dates with each Mary J, Blige album and all original album covers. Every album listed below showcases the entire album track listing.
Brian Kachejian was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx. He is the founder and Editor in Chief of ClassicRockHistory.com. He has spent thirty years in the music business often working with many of the people who have appeared on this site. Brian Kachejian also holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Stony Brook University along with New York State Public School Education Certifications in Music and Social Studies. Brian Kachejian is also an active member of the New York Press.
Blige's fusion of gospel-inflected singing and hard-knocking beats helped redefine R&B when she debuted 25 years ago. Ultimately, she became branded the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul," and she has collected Grammys in R&B, gospel, rap and pop.
And Blige doesn't just soundtrack lives, she has brought comfort and voice to a generation of women. Just listen to the shouts of testifying whenever Blige sings "No More Drama," "My Life," "Not Gon Cry" or any of the many records she has seemingly ripped herself open to create.
During a conversation on the eve of her album's release, her first since 2014's "The London Sessions," a work in which she collaborated with British soul and dance acts, Blige's weariness was heavy. Never one to mince words, she doesn't hold back when discussing personal or professional drama. "That's life," she says, letting out a deep sigh.
A: Really not wanting to do anything anymore. "The London Sessions" gave me the confidence. It inspired me again, because it let me know I was still appreciated. When I went overseas (to record the album), I was super weak and not feeling good. I was feeling like giving up because it was so much coming down on me. The bad press. Other (stuff) that was going on. It was just so much, on top of me suffering inside of my own marriage that nobody even knew about.
A: The beautiful thing about it was (that) when I went into the album, I was fighting for my marriage. I was speaking from that perspective. There's songs on the album that were different. I loved my husband, and I wanted to keep him. Lyrics didn't change until what happened happened. When everything got exposed, it was like, "What am I to do now?" I can't put this album out. I had to go back in the studio with all of that and rewrite songs.
A: It's hard, but it's good. It's all therapeutic. As bad as it feels in my stomach and in my heart, I'm no longer suffering inside that situation. Now I can speak about it. I can deliver it. I can get it off of me. Then, when I sing it in concert, I don't mind reliving it. I'm connecting with my fans.
She also found herself at the center of seemingly never-ending bad press. A 2012 Burger King advertisement in which she sang about fried chicken was seen as pandering to a racist black stereotype, and Blige was met with widespread scorn (it was swiftly pulled). And the licks kept coming. Her charity, FFAWN, was accused of financial impropriety, her own finances became gossip fodder, and her Beats 1 radio show, "Real Talk," was met with ridicule when the singer discussed racism and police brutality with Hillary Clinton during an episode in which she sang directly to the presidential candidate.
Frustrations with her career and personal life sent her overseas for 2014's "The London Sessions" to reevaluate things. She was reenergized by collaborating with acts such as Disclosure, Naughty Boy, Emeli Sande and Sam Smith. Although critically viewed as one of her stronger releases, it was largely overlooked. That it came months after her poorly promoted "Think Like a Man Too," it left many, Blige included, wondering if she had lost it.
A: What I think was happening is my fans were confused with my emotion. I couldn't tell them that I was suffering. And if I did, they wouldn't believe me, because they saw me still in the marriage. I think people were confused as to what was going on.
A: You know, it all boils down to me taking responsibility for my own career and not trusting people with it. Or making decisions for me. I didn't know the Burger King commercial was going to turn into "she's singing about chicken."
A: Yeah. People were coming like bees in a swarm. I'd never seen so much hatred come from a career mistake. Then right after that it was the FFAWN fraud and all the (stuff) that went down with that. It had nothing to do with me, but my name is on everything. Taxes, this and that. It was one thing after the next. It was all so negative. None of it was no understanding for me being a human being. At that moment, I was like, "This is a wake-up call."
A: It didn't bother me as much as all the rest, because I had already been through hell. This was like "Whatever." Moving right along, because I know what I did in the interview. It may not be what you like, and somebody took a piece of the thing where I was singing and put it out there. It was a small part of something great that I had accomplished, that I was proud of.
When Blige split with her husband and manager of 13 years, there was palpable excitement for new music. She's very aware that many were anticipating this moment. The albums in which she's most wounded have been salve for her fans.
"Strength of a Woman" is no doubt a divorce record. There was no other choice, as her relationship's unraveling played out very publicly. The day she sat for this interview, a slew of gossip blogs alleged the source of the split was her husband's affair with her own protege.
Blige doesn't shy away from the hard stuff on the new album. "Are you worth this fight? Are we worth this fight?" she questions on "Thick of It." On the album standout, "Indestructible," her instruction to "think about how valuable you are" is sung with such intensity that it's clear she's talking more to herself than any of her fans.
Q: There's a lot of talk about how this album is "Classic Mary." For many, the news that you had drama made them excited for the new album. Has the idea of people being over "Happy Mary" ever upset you?
I'm in pain and hurting and all that stuff, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. This (stuff) hurts ... and it hurts too bad to be hurting and know better. I know better. I know there's love somewhere for me. I'm not going to give up on love.
A: I stayed. I confronted. I'm not the type not to confront. I tried to make it work, but you just get deception and lies and lies and lies. You believe something is going to change or someone is going to change, and they can win an Academy Award with how they just lie straight up to your face and you believe it for so long.
A: Not for my marriage. I wanted to be what he wanted me to be, which is a good wife. Which is the woman he was always talking about he wanted, that knew how to have a conversation and how to cook or how to do this or do that. I was trying in the marriage to learn ... because I really wanted to be with him.
c80f0f1006