Mary J. Blige was a 23 year old alcoholic, drug using r&b singer when she dropped her now classic "My Life" album. On the surface, she was "ghetto fabulous" but beneath it all the Queen of hip-hop soul was broken, and swept up in one bad romance after another.
Tracks like "Be Happy" and "I'm Going Down" flew up the charts and helped the album sell more than 3 million albums.
Now 16 years later, Mary J Blige plans to revisit her enduring second disc with the release of "My Life 2: The Journey Continues", out in October.
Among the beat makers she has tapped to work on the sequel is Swizz Beatz, and she teased what fans can expect to hear. "There's ballads, there's mid tempos, up tempos. There's love songs, there's pain songs. There's triumph songs, there's workout songs. There's all kinda stuff!" she laughed. "This one is definitely what people are looking for from me, and I'm digging and I'm reaching in deep to give them what they need."
"I just wanna express again, not just my own, but just people's lives around me and just celebrate it, but celebrate it in a way , not that we don't have, 'OK, sister, let me get you through this' , 'OK, here's what I'm dealing with,' " she explained. "And that's basically what that record is about. But I want to get it right, so my fans can be happy."
