The Great Mary J Blige

I do a lot of reading on Sunday mornings. This particular morning, I was fumbling around The New Yorker and came across an incredible article on Mary J Blige. It's written by Sista Souljah and it's sort of a personal oral history of Mary J Blige's rise to fame and why it happened, what made her special. It's old, published in 1999. I guess, at this point, that's considered Mary's mid-career. It was during the time where she was coming out of her destructive phase and just about to launch her Oprah phase.

That's what I call Mary, at this point. She's music's Oprah. It's all self-help, betterment, you-go-girl rhetoric with her these days. And, to be quite honest, she doesn't make very good music any longer. Well, let me rephrase -- she undoubtedly makes "good" music, it is well crafted, professional music. But it's not vibrant and it definitely aint hip. But I dont think that's what she's after. She's an Oprah, making music for women -- of all ethnicities and socioeconomic levels -- ages 25-50. And I'm sure she makes music to "teach" or guide younger women. My Mom, who is 53, can dig on Mary...and I assume that my little cousin Kedara might do well to throw on some new Mary, too.

But this article, written with great poignancy and perspective by Sista Souljah, describes the greatness of young Mary -- the What's the 411, My Life Mary. The Mary that helped revolutionize a segment of black music. Archetype Mary. Paradigm Mary.

I believe that Mary J Blige is one of the 10 most important music figures of the past 20 years, right up there with Cobain, Dre, Radiohead, Nas, Cube and anyone else. This article reinforces that.