Dating : Celebrating Twenty Years of Mary

1999 was the year and the world was prepping for the end. Boy band mania was at an all time high, Brandy and Britney ruled the world and my peers and I spent a many lunch periods debating whether “No Scrubs” or “Bills, Bills, Bills” was the better song. Midway through quarter three The Queen of Hip Hop Soul released what would be her adieu to the 90s. The album simply titled Mary is a pivotal piece of work in MJB’s discography. Mary’s music has always been autobiographic; in fact the rawness Mary gave us essentially made her the antithesis to her more polished crooning contemporaries. Mary would give us a softer, more subdued Mary and more than just the music, it is the first album where Blige is not hidden behind shades or the shade. Shot by Albert Watson, Mary insolently shows us Blige’s facial scar long before Instagram commodified scars (I also think of Queen Latifah and her visible scar) at a time where the appearance of the urban singer was very attuned with mainstream pop. The imagery of Mary felt, different, everything about Mary felt different.

The album opens up with the post-Miseducation Lauryn Hill penned and produced “All That I Can Say”. The stage is set for a show that will be a bit more tempered than previous efforts, as there is no voicemail “message”; we simply jump right into the music. “Loving you is wonderful” is the opening line and truthfully the song buds like an homage to Minnie Riperton or Stevie Wonder more than the edge one was familiar with in Mary’s work. Next is the Jadakiss assisted “Sexy” where Mary further solidifies her reputation as one of the leaders of the singer and rapper collaborations. Followed by “Deep Inside” featuring Elton John who played portions of his 1974 hit “Bennie and the Jets”, here Mary details the issue with having genuine people around her as her celebrity has increased. “I’m Just Mary” is repeated in a way that reminds both the audience and herself that beneath all that glitters is still the young woman from Yonkers, a precursor to “Jenny from the Block” if you will. Next Mary gifts us “Beautiful One” where she proclaims the love she has is ready for marriage and cues the doves in the background. “I’m in Love” follows and is a jazz-tinged cover of the song by The Gap Band. “Time” is a song concerned with life and its fleeting nature “sometimes I feel like leaving but I must be wise, because time in not our side.” There are two songs where Mary laments over a relationship where she and her lover cannot spend holidays together. First is “Memories” here the relationship was once good and now that the tides have turned she reminisces over the roses and Valentine’s Day passed. Next the Queen of Soul and the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul come together on a Babyface produced “Don’t Waste Your Time”. Truly a cautionary tale where Aretha tells Mary “you shouldn’t take his stuff no more”. The following song is another duet, this time with Ki-Ci, “Not Lookin” is a classic venus vs. mars track.

If there is any song that is most synonymous with Mary it is “Your Child”, following her Waiting to Exhale smash “Not Gon’ Cry”, Blige solidifies her place as rhythm and blues’ spokesperson for women scorned. The second song dedicated to wasted holidays is aptly titled “No Happy Holidays”. This time she mentions “Christmas you with me, New Years Ever you were not around, Valentine came and went; makes me wonder where your time is spent, Fireworks on the 4th of July, Thanksgiving was another lie. Your Family has never met me and you never met mine”. The Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced “The Love I Never Had” features patterns from contemporary Gospel, with Blige having a moment of clarity, realizing again a love she has that will never fulfill her. We’re on a journey between Blige’s frustration with a love that simply will not fulfill her to her somber cries “it made me realize, Honey, I don’t want to live a lie, but you don’t know how hard I try. What do I have to lose? Oh I think a little bit more than you”. “The Love I Never Had” concludes without solution as often times relationships with this level of resentment and ambiguity does. “Give Me You” is a song that requests very little, but truly asks for everything; “give me all your soul, that’s enough” the love requested here is the love of God where the material is not of importance, rather the very essence of a person is. Years later, I think of Toni Morrison’s Paradise where Richard Misner challenges his congregation; “Love is Divine and difficult always”. “Let No Man Put Asunder” is a remake of the block party favorite by First Choice, and it is the most fun we have on Mary. Homage to the summer time music someone like Mary would have grown up listening to.

BONUS:

“As” a duet with George Michael, The Stevie Wonder influence appears throughout the album and an actual cover of one of his greatest classics solidifies Mary as an album of intention.

“Sincerity” features DMX and Nas, here the Queen are comfortably placed between two rappers each demands transparency, trust and truth.

“Confrontation” ends Mary (Deluxe) and I could think of no better title to conclude an album where Blige is as unfiltered, as she ever was yet more conditioned and serene than we had previously known her.

Mary pushed Blige to the forefront of the adult contemporary genre. However this Mary still is the Mary that gifted us “Be Happy” and the Mary that would give us “No Drama” so the motive has always been personal growth. I venture to say that Mary J. Blige is an artist that not many, if any can argue did not grow and become better with time. Twenty years later and there is a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, an Oscar nomination and the movement of Mary as the premiere urban queen to a household name. Vive la Reine.