This week marks the 26th year since Mary J. Blige released her sophomore album, My Life. While Blige’s 92′ debut, What’s The 411?, established her as R&B’s new It Girl with classic hits like 'Real Love' and 'Reminisce'.
My Life is one of the most influential R&B albums ever recorded. It might be hard for some of us–particularly those born in the eighties and nineties–to imagine, what with every R&B track currently on the charts and the radio laced with hard beats, samples and a guest verse from the hot rapper of the moment, but at one time, R&B and hip hop didn’t mix.
In the early nineties, with the success of acts like Bobby Brown, Bel Biv Devoe and Guy, even mainstream artists like Michael and Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston were incorporating elements of hip hop and new jack swing into their music.
Mary infused her music with a gritty vulnerability derived from a childhood spent in the rough and tumble “Slow Bomb” housing projects in Yonkers.
Considered to be her breakthrough album, My Life became Mary J. Blige's second album to reach the top ten on the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at number seven, and debuting at number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for eight weeks.
This triple platinum selling album was named one of Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums(279) and Time Magazine named it in their Top 100.
Listen to My Life down below.