Goîn^ Down And Up I Blige Hip hop headliner talks about her "attitude problem" and the story of her life By Muriel L. Whetstone HE is the undisputed Queen of Hip-Hop Soul. We could leave it at tbat and move on. But that glih charaetenzation is mueh too coufuiiug to iully deserihe Mary J. Blige—the singer, lyricist, daughter, .sister, fneud, and woman hehiud the lahels. And yet labels have been easier to eome lïy for Blige tlian deeper interpretations of her life and ait. It was easy to lahel her "a rising star" after her dehnt CD, What's the 411?, .sold over2 million copies. As the lu'st singer to succe.ssiully eomhine hip-hop antl R&B, she was soon heralded as "the new Chaka Kahn" atid "the tiew Aretha Franklin." When her second CD, My Life^ zoomed to the top with its eharthu.sting single, "I'm Coin' Domi," she suddenly heeame a household name, a nnisie industiy prodtiet. Rare full-face portrait re\eal.s Man J. Bligt-'s suiisitivitA—u Miiiieialili' pail <>! lieisrll she shk'kK fioui piihlic scnitim. At lop. It^ft. slip perfoniis at ;i coiicfrt. "I always wanted Ut Forced to stand alone on the public sing." slif says, "but I iit'vci- tliiniiflit in a iiiillion years thai 1 wmiUI W- i iglil vsheic I am. ligiit stage—unprepared and unacctistonied . I1 swear 1 didii'l." JMW. to its hlimliug spotlights—it is hardly sui"prising that she sometimes faltered S 116 EBONY • October 1995 Recording a new sin- gle llx'lo«) for the Til Exhale nidtinn puture , tlie .singer tiiki-s a break (left) to talk to Andre Hiirrcll, CKO of Uptown Records, and singer and musician Kenny (Btibvface) Edmonds, who and produced file CD. About her own CD. My Life, B!ige> says, "It might not IM" what everybody wants to hear, but it was v\hat I wanted to hear and I fell like I needed to liear it." under the glare of pulilic scnitiny. She often w o r e d a r k gliLsses., for example., and pnlled her hat down low on her (ace, fueling iiimoi's that she was "distant and alien, reluctant and uncertain." Journalists began accusing her of being sullen and witlidra\vn dunng interviews and responding with one-word answers, if she chose to respond at all. Soon the word on tlie street was that Mar\' J. Blige had an attitude piohlem. "From what I hear, people tend to think that Vm a real nast)' person with a bad attitude, but I'm not," she says quietly. "A lot of intemewers come to me and they ask me stupid qtiestions, so I give diem EBONY • October 1995 stupid answers. Or I tell them Vm tired of them luul to get out of my laee. I'm straight up." Asked to give an example of a stupid question., .she re.sponds: "If you're reading in magazines every week that I'm engaged to K-Ci [the lead singer of the group Jodeci], don't come to me and ask me the same thing. It's not really sttipid, but you see him in my house, you .see us together.... I don't really like to be asked who I'm sleeping with— 'Are y<)u sleeping «I'tli K-Ci and do you have kids?'—that kind of stuff is aggravating to me. If you were in my shoes, would you want someone to ask you a bunch of person;ü stuff about you and your man?" To tinderstand where Mar\' J. Blige is coming from, you have to climb with her—in her own shoes—from the projects of New York to the musical uiountaintop. Bom on Jan. 11, 1971 in the Bronx and raised in Yonkers, N.Y., Blige never lived in a world resembling that of the HiL\tables'. For most of her life, her mother, Cora Blige, reai*ed her and her older sister, LiiTonya J. Blige, alone. Later, two more children, Bruce, 13, and Jonquell, 8, were bom. Blige's father whom she does not name, reportedly left the famil)' when Continued on Next Page 117 Sharing a family kiss, Blif^o iMijiiys a tinn-with her older .sister UiTuiiya and her niotlu r Corn. She is nuire her family [ "because yon doii t j know who's who J and who w¡ni(s what," says Blige. Below, she takes t a niiiiuU- to relax * ' from hi I tie.s and danced at hou.se parties. "I'm smarter now. I was a stupid little jjiil then, tliinking I was grown and I wasn't." Blige tells a winter and lier sister, I_¿iTonya. "My mother was hard on me." "You weren't stupid,'" LaTonya interjeets. "I mean, I was a teenager. My mother was hard on me aiid I couldn't understand wiiy until now," she says. "I "From what I hear, people tend to think I'm a real nasty person with a bad attitude, but I'm not." MARY). BLIGE she was foni' years old. "My father played the bass guitar and lie played in a band," she says. "He taught me how to sing my notes and gospel gave me tlie depth." For 11 years, Cora Blige reared her children in Schlohohm Houses, a Yonkers publie housing development. Gn)wing up in "Slow Bomb," so nieknamed by its residents. Blige says: "It seemed like I was always an older per118 son. I was always woiTjing about stun and I didn't have anytliing to worry about. I was yoimg, like 16. What did I have to wony about?" In alinost every other aspect, she says her childhood was noniial. .She liked to comb and [x-mi ajid twist luitl fix her hair and that of her friends. When she was 11, a ear hit her and broke her leg. She attended the House of Prayer Penteeostal Chiireh and enjoyed singing in the jimior choir. Blige and her sister went to block par- —Mary J. Blige didn't understand thei^e was a reason for it." At home, she stood in front of the minx)r, bnish in hand, and pretended to be Meli'sa Morgiin. "I used to say, 'Shut up, Mary! Just shut np!'" I -iTonya remembei-s. "She'd wake up in the morning while evei-ybody else was asleep)—all moniing long—singing." "I like to sing," Blige sa)s. "I like to EBONY • October 1995 Continued on Page 120 A FREE GIFT TO DARK & LOVELY WOMEN! 2 FREE * M / Greeting Cards Inside Each Box Look for spetially marked boxes of Dark & Lovely Regular and Plus Relaxers, for celebration of the beauty and style of the AfricanAmerican Women. To find Mahogany Cards call: 1 -800-650-4503 sec what can come out ot me." Like legions of other youngsters, Maiy hung out at the local niiill with her buddies. At age 17, one of those inall trips ehiuigcd her life forever. Blige and her friends were hanging out at the miill in White Plains, N.Y., when she decided to niitke a kiu^aokestyle recording of herself singing Anita Bilker's single, "Caught Up In The Hapture." Her motlier gave tlie tape to lier stepfather, James Dillard, after which it found its way to Uptown Records' CEO Andre Hairell. In 1990 Harrell brought her into his stable of recoiding aitists that included Jodeci and Al B. Sure! "I always wanted to sing," says Blige, "but I never thought in a million years that I would be rigbt where I am, right now. I sweai' I didn't." ground vocals on five, and the influence of her "Jodeci family," as she likes to refer to them, is apparent as well. "This CD is all Maiy," she says. "Maiy ;ind her family." The decision to sample Rick James, Bany White, Curtis Mayfield, Roy Ayers, and Al Green was Biige's, too. "When I was younger, my father bad like every record in tbe world, and just to go back and hear those songs again, it did something to me. Eveiy time 1 listened to them it made me feel like I was in the house watching them," she says of the comfort she finds in "old school" music. "Watching my father and mother do things—talking to each other \vith tbe lights dimmed, stufTlike tliat. That music does something to me every time I hear it. Old music just does something to me. I don't know what it is. I think it's just the memoiy, wanting to go back." Blige disputes tbe widely reported claim that My Ufe is autobiogi-aphical. "No," she says, "My Life is not an autobiogi-aphy. It's just music. Eveiy single day is what my idbum is alKnit. Eveiy time you \ralk out of your house, that's what my allîimi is about. Eveiy time you see couples, tliat's wiiat my album is about—making love, finding yourself, —Mary J. Blige being happy with yourself It's also like a healing type of thing, too, Ixx^ause it Beyond singing what she was told to definitely helped me. It definitely sing, Blige wasn't heavily involved in helped me to heal myself, beeause the production of her first CD. "I while I was writing My Ufe., it was a wanted to be involved on the first real down time for me, but just wiiting album but I eouldn't," slie says. "Well, that song kind of helped me out." it's not that I c-ouldn't; it's just that I Write what you want to hear, wish I had known about the outcome involve people around you who care, of it all, the vniting. Writing is better live your life the way you want to live than being a singer. A lot of times I feel it—these are all lessons Blige is learnthat if I just continued to wiite, I would ing. "I see myself in a nice mini-manbe so happy aiid content. And ¡t would sion one day, something that's mine, keep down all that di'aina ;uid rumoi's that I own," she says, "with a couple of and stuff because people wouldn't kids, a nice family, maybe like in three really see me. And I think not being or five years fn)m now—probably pi"oseen a lot, tbat's kind of good. I think dueing and just working behind the I'd like being in tbe backgixtund." scenes then. "Everything in this business is a Blige likes the baekgixmnd so much, in fact, that she says in fom' or five lesson," Blige adds. "And the lesson years, she would like to take a break I've learned is that I've just got to do from tbe spotlight and write and pvo- what I have to do. I have to get what's mine and what belongs to me and not duce for other mtists. Hei" influence on My Life, and that worry about anything else....I'm of her family and friends, is apparent. young. I'm Black. I worked for my Blige either wi'ote or co-wi^ote 14 of success, you know? I deserve this and D the CD's 17 songs. LaTonya sang back- I'm not giving up." "No, My Life is not an autobiography. It's just music. Every single day is what my album is about," Books All Africa» Americans Must Rnidl Complele line of books «nd viJcos Find booki on rclatwiutups, paretuing, litoralure hÍBtory. educattu). self-esteem and children's books Call 1.8W0.5S2-I991 for a free citaliig or wrile' African American Imiiges . 95th St., EBIO, Chicago. IL 60643 LVRiC CHO/R GOWNS "Professionally tailored gowns of lasting beauty catalog and fabric samples Since 1955... LYRIC CHOIR GOWN CO P.O. Box 16954-KG Jacksonville, {904)-725-7977 PUBLISH YOUR BOOK! 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