Episode Summary
On this episode, we're discussing one of our favorite albums, My Life by Mary J. Blige. If you're anything like us, you've been bumping this consistently for the past 30 years. Yes, 30 years! Originally released on November 29, 1994, this album is a reflection of Mary's struggles with heartbreak and depression. Her vulnerable lyrics paired with lush production from Chucky Thompson created a groundbreaking piece of work that redefined R&B, and still resonates today. This is the album that solidified her title as the "Queen of Hip Hop Soul." If this little jaunt down memory lane wasn't enough for you, check out another episode of ours, "No Hateration, Holleration, In This Dancery," (Episode 9) where we get into Mary's entire career. From her early days at Uptown Records to her Academy Award nominations, we dig into it all.
Transcript
Christina: Welcome back to They Reminisce Over You. I'm Christina.
Miguel: And I'm Miguel. On November 29th, 1994, Mary J. Blige released her sophomore album, My Life. In my opinion, one of the best albums in R&B history.
Christina: I agree.
Miguel: It's not the biggest selling album, it hasn’t won the most awards, but it's one of those albums that people just love. And we're two of those people.
Christina: We are, two of many of those people.
Miguel: Exactly. Whenever you see these top 100 lists though, like Apple Music, Rolling Stone, Vibe Magazine, Time Magazine, My Life is always ranked on these lists.
Christina: It is.
Miguel: So it's one of those albums that the people love and it doesn't necessarily have to get the credit that people think big selling or popular albums should have. As long as the streets feel it, that's all that matters.
Christina: That's all we're concerned with.
Miguel: Exactly. So that's what we're talking about this week. The 30th anniversary.
Christina: It hasn't been 30 years!
Miguel: 30 years—
Christina: I don’t believe you.
Miguel: Of My Life is what we're talking about.
Christina: I don't know what kind of math that is.
Miguel: Time keeps on ticking. So you want to just get into it?
Christina: Let's do it.
Miguel: All right. So we're going to start just by talking about 1992, 1993, ’94, that era of music. It was kind of a transition period. We've talked about New Jack Swing when we did our Teddy Riley episode. So we're coming to the tail end of that. And What's the 411? was kind of the bridge to get us from New Jack Swing to this hip hop soul that started to push afterwards.
Christina: We were still dancing.
Miguel: We were.
Christina: But things got a little more hip hop and less party.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Or slightly less whimsical.
Miguel: Right. And like I said, it started with What's the 411? It was what let the people know that this hip hop soul was going to be a thing. And the term “Queen of Hip Hop Soul,” that was really a marketing ploy. It's not like the streets crowned her the “Queen of Hip Hop Soul.” That was… I need to come up with a new name for him.
Christina: Oh, that one.
Miguel: Yeah. Because we got Robert as “the nigga who shall not be named.” I got to come up with some for Mr. Combs, so we'll refer to him as who he is during this episode. But moving forward, I'm getting something else. But yeah, it was just a marketing ploy between him and Andre Harrell, describing the What's the 411? album. My Life actually solidified that title, and it wasn't like some marketing speak anymore.
Christina: Oh this is real.
Miguel: It was like, no, she is the “Queen of Hip Hop Soul,” and it proved why they gave her that title two years before.
Christina: It was a sign of things to come, I guess.
Miguel: Basically, they spoke it into existence.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: After What's the 411? is when we started to see the music starting to shift a little bit. So there was a lot of albums that we love that kind of had the same hip hop soul vibe, like Zhane’s album came out around this time. Baduizm, the Groove Theory album, Aaliyah's first album, Blackstreet. So there was a lot of things that were trending towards what was done on What's the 411?
Christina: The music and also the, I guess, the fashion and the swag kind of influenced that as well, even if it wasn't in the music per se, it was hip hop and R&B kind of merged.
Miguel: Yeah. And Mary's like, you know what, it's time to double down on this. We're going harder with the hip hop. We're going harder with the soul. And that gave us My Life.
Christina: I feel the soul was a lot harder than the hip hop on My Life.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Though if you were missing the hip hop, she gave you a few remixes later, though.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: But I think the soul part in the music was a lot stronger. But that hip hop edge is just kind of always going to be there, I think, just because of just who she is and what she liked currently versus the old soul that she grew up listening to.
So her journey since What's the 411? to My Life, we don't know exactly what it is, but most likely it's her relationship with K-Ci and dealing with depression. And we also have to remember she was like between 21 and 23 between these two albums.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: So we always talk about how intense your emotions are when you're in your teens and early 20s. So if she's in this intense, volatile relationship, it's probably going to feel even stronger when you're like 21 and you're like, oh, this is my whole life!
Miguel: And not only that, she's dealing with drugs and alcohol and just—
Christina: The music industry
Miguel: The pressures of being new in the music industry. So it was a lot.
Christina: Sophomore album. There's a lot going on than just being a regular 20 something in love.
Miguel: Most 20 year olds are either in school or trying to get their first job. And here she is traveling the world with all of this stuff on her back.
Christina: So that obviously came out in the album, which is pretty much the whole theme of the album. And she's pretty much confirmed what all the songs are about.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: There is a version of My Life with the commentary, which kind of solidifies it. But any interview you've ever seen her talk about, she'll, she's very, that's what we love about Mary is she's very real.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: She's talked very openly about what this album was about and you know what she was going through at the time and you know I'm glad that they didn't have social media back then.
Miguel: Yeah it's true.
Christina: Because I feel like…because we don't really know what was going on in their lives the way we do now, you find out through an album.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: You see your little Word Up! magazine articles here and there and Vibe interviews or whatnot but for the most part we don't know what their day-to-day lives were.
Miguel: Yeah most of it was coming out just through the rumor mill.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: And like you said in magazine interviews, occasional TV interviews but for the most part, and I was thinking about this earlier, I grew up in LA. You grew up outside of Vancouver but somehow we're hearing the same things about Mary J. Blige and different celebrities even though there's no social media to make this happen and just to think about that is crazy because there's a lot of things that weren't getting printed or being told on TV and on the radio but we still hear the same stories.
Christina: We had other media: radio, TV, magazines. But yeah I think it's just not the constant barrage but you're still you're still hearing stuff.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So like the What's the 411? album dealt with you know songs about relationships and stuff but those felt a little more generic. Like that could apply to anybody didn't necessarily feel personal except I don't want to do anything.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: And that song was basically like the precursor to My Life. Especially if you had seen the live performances like the Uptown Unplugged[1] performance and the Arsenio performance you're like oh these two are are like together together.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So I think that was the song on What's the 411? that would like, lead to My Life. I mean she was like, 23 probably 22, when she started working on My Life and 23 when it came out which is very young. But this album sounds you could hear the growth between the first two albums and it sounds very mature but at the same time like young people were listening to it older people were listening to it. Because I think the way she is able to emote kind of relates to—like and anyone can relate to it. I think what also made the album feel a little more mature is the use of these like older R&B songs as samples because you're already drawing from like older music. So I think that made it feel a little mature than the more hip hop sounds of What's the 411?
Miguel: I think that's a good spot for us to take a break before we get into the bulk of the album so we're gonna do that now.
Christina: Ok.
Miguel: And that's that.
[break]
Miguel: Hi kids, do you like fun? And bookmarking a bunch of articles you'll probably never read? We're starting a monthly newsletter called Liner Notes. We'll be sharing what we're watching, what we're listening to, throwback YouTube videos, updates on our upcoming projects, random shit you may have missed on the internet, you know, stuff like that. The link is in the show notes or you can go to troypodcast.com/newsletter. Do it.
Christina: Now.
Miguel: It’s good for you.
Christina: It’ll make your teeth whiter.
Miguel: And back to the show.
Miguel: Okay, we are back and what are we getting into now?
Christina: We are gonna talk about the album's theme and messages. The main theme is obvious. She's basically pining for a relationship that's about to end. But even in the midst of all that, there's some messages of self-love, mental health and resilience.
Miguel: Yeah, she's singing about the relationship a lot throughout the album. And she doesn't specifically mention the stuff that you just said, like the self-love, the mental health, but it still came across. Because like we mentioned earlier, there were things talked about her within the media. So she was having some tense interviews with people.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: I read one, and I'm gonna have to link to it, where she wanted to fight Veronica Webb.
Christina: Oh!
Miguel: Veronica Webb interviewed her for Vibe.[2] And she's like, you want to take this outside? There was a lot of that going on. She was just really combative with people. Like, if you look at those old interviews from ’92 to ’95, she's just really aggressive and defensive with people.
Christina: Yes, but there was a lot of times where it called for it.
Miguel: It did, but—
Christina: Because there was this one interview with one of these like pop TV shows in the UK. They pulled up this old—this interview they did with Jodeci, like maybe days or weeks before she came, showing K-Ci saying, “Oh, no, we're not getting married. K-Ci’s not marrying anybody.” And then asked her how she felt about it.[3]
Miguel: Yeah, that was a setup. So they shouldn't have done that.
Christina: She actually, I thought she was quite, handled that quite well.
Miguel: Yeah, that was one of the better ones.
Christina: Yeah. And then prior to to showing the Jodeci slash K-Ci clip, this interviewer asked her how she felt about being called a super bitch. And I was like, excuse me? Not just like, oh, difficult to work with. Some people say maybe a super bitch. I'm like, wow. OK.
Miguel: Yeah, that, that interview was justified. But there's a few of them that I watched where she's like giving one word answers and just not being generally pleasant to be around.
Christina: Not taking her sunglasses off.
Miguel: Yeah. So she's like got this hard shell up.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: And it was a lot for people to deal with. So you're reading these articles about how she's difficult. She's a diva. She's showing up to things late. When she does show up, she's drunk. So there was a lot of things being said about her that she was speaking on in the music without speaking directly to it.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: Like you can feel that yeah, I'm going through a lot right now.
Christina: I think that even though a lot of the songs kind of deal with her basically begging him not to leave. I think that rather than it sounding like pathetic almost—it didn't sound like that. I'm saying it’s not. Because it feels like, I guess because you know, she's going to get through it, even though it's so sad and stuff. And I think that's where the feelings of resilience comes in rather than just being like, oh, why is she just begging for this man or whatever?
Christina: It’s just like, you feel like she had this thing that was so important to her and she knows it's ending. And that's just really sad.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But then at the same time, you're just like, but she's still, you know, she's going to make it through. We are going to make it through. I don't know. It's hard to explain why, like there's a strength in those songs.
Miguel: Yeah, that's what it is. And you can hear.
Christina: I'm getting teary right now for some reason!
Miguel: And you can hear like the stress and the pain of her saying that she wants to be better. Yeah, because what's the one line from “I’m The Only Woman” where she says something like, yeah, I was out of pocket or something like that, but you're going to hold that against me forever.
Christina: “You're going to hold this against me for life.”
Miguel: Right. So there's a lot of that in the album where she is opening up and saying that, yeah, I did a lot of this shit, but you did a lot of stuff too. And I'm not holding it against you. I still want to be with you.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: But why am I getting treated this way?
Christina: Yeah. It was a lot of why do you treat me this way?
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: I love you so much. Like I think she's just trying to work out like, why isn't she worthy of love? I guess.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Just like, yeah, a lot of personal issues that are manifesting through the relationship.
Miguel: And what's funny is I'm not sure exactly how many songs are on the album. I don't remember. I'm going to look it up.
Christina: OK.
Miguel: So there's 17 songs on the album. And starting from the intro all the way to My Life, you can kind of feel it building.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: And then once we get to “My Life,” which I've mentioned to you before in one of our other episodes about Mary, is a gospel type record. Even though it's not a gospel record, it is at the same time. But once we get to “My Life” and she lays everything out, it kind of drifts off after that. It's less painful with the songs. Like she's still saying, I can't live without you. I want to be with you and all this stuff. But it's not as painful as those early songs in the album.
Christina: Well, I have some notes that I wrote about the sequencing because I think the way each song followed each other was perfect because you start off with “Mary Jane,” “You Bring Me Joy.” So these are the like the fun songs. These are the good times. Even though as she mentioned in her commentary, she's still talking about fussing and fighting.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But she's like today we're not going to fuss and fight. And then so we start off with, you know, the good times. And then after “You Bring Me Joy,” we get “I’m The Only Woman.” And you're like, oh, there's a turn in the relationship.
Miguel: “Don't be a fool like your daddy.”
Christina: Yes, which is confirmed in your commentary as well. We had talked about that in our misheard lyrics episode. So we get “I’m the Only Woman,” where it just sounds really sad, where she was trying to convince him that like, I’m the one for you. And then as you were saying, we get to “My Life,” where this is really the only song that is more about herself than the relationship. So she's just like, I need you to see what I've been through, who I am, why I'm like this and such.
And then as you were saying, the shift happens, even though all the songs that follow afterwards is basically like, don't leave me. There's more of a sadness to it. But then we get a whole bunch of those, “Don't Go,” “Be With You.” And then the next two songs after “Don't Go” is “I Love You” and “No One Else.” So this to me sounds like this sort of last ditch ever. It's like, I know it’s, it's done because in “I Love You,” she says, “when I found out that you were leaving me,” blah, blah, blah.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But these two songs to me sound like almost a little more angry. Like first, it's like, I'm sad. Please stay with me. Then it's just like, you know what? I'm going to be the best you ever had.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Like it seems a little more like I'm still kind of like trying to beg you to stay. But I'm starting to get pissed off now because I don't know why I have to do this.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: So you get that and then you end with like, fuck it. I'm just going to be happy. And if that means with or without you, that's just going to have to be what it is.
Miguel: I'm going to go stand on this mountain in this video and sing about being happy.
Christina: Oh, no, no, the mountain video you're talking about is everything.
Miguel: I thought “Be Happy” was with the mountain as well.
Christina: Maybe, actually. Definitely everything is on the mountain. But now, isn't “Be Happy,” she's got a bunch of silver outfits on? Yes, but I'm going to pull it up.
Miguel: She's standing on a mountain too.
Christina: OK.
Miguel: Yeah. So at the very beginning, she's standing on a mountaintop.
Christina: Oh. I see. I see. I forgot about that. I just remember the silver mic, the silver jacket. Yeah. She's just like, I just want to be free.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Yeah. So the song starts off with her saying, “how can I love somebody else if I can't love myself to know when it's time to let go?”
Miguel: Right.
Christina: So she's spent this whole album trying to convince him to stay, trying to convince him she's the one and she's the best. And then it ends with just like, you know what? Maybe I need to work on myself.
Miguel: Right. I've done enough here. Time to go.
Christina: And you know what? Maybe it's you.
Miguel: Yeah. This whole album I've been saying, I'm the problem. No, no, I'm not.
Christina: I tried my best.
Miguel: I have some faults and I do claim my portion of it, but it's you.
Christina: It's on you. Now it's on you. So I guess maybe that's why, like, again, there's this theme of resilience, even if she's spending most of it begging him to stay. But you just kind of like root for her to get through.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And that's how it ends. And I'm imagining that's why it was sequenced that way. Because I highly doubt--
Miguel: I would think so.
Christina: I highly doubt that these songs were written in this order, because that's not usually how things go.
Miguel: And what's funny is, this was the first single. So back in those days, we weren't getting the full album at the same time as everything coming out together like today.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: So you get the first single and it's like, be happy. OK, this is going along with the themes of What's the 411? But then the album comes out and you start listening to the album. It's like, oh, this shit is dark.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: This is not what I was expecting.
Christina: Yeah. And you know what else is just like, I just don't know how artists do this, because she's definitely not the only person who has worked on an album with the person that they're singing about.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Like SWV said, I guess, “the cause and cure is you.”
Miguel: Right. And he's right there with her.
Christina: He's right there.
Miguel: His brother’s co-writing songs, his bandmates are producing songs.
Christina: One of the songs, which one is it? I think “You Gotta Believe.” He comes in with his one line. What does he say?
Miguel: “Mary, Mary, I hear you loud and clear.”
Christina: Yeah. He hears you, but he ain't listening. Right.
Miguel: I heard everything you said, but fuck it, I'm still going over here doing K-Ci stuff.
Christina: It's just crazy to think about you're processing all these feelings and that person is there writing these songs with you and singing background. And then his brothers and close bandmates are also there writing songs and stuff for you or with you.
Miguel: I was listening to the interview that I sent you, the Craig Seymour interview[4] for Spin Magazine. And it was five years after My Life had come out. And they were doing like the top 90 albums of the ‘90s. And that's why she was being interviewed.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: And she's just talking about how everybody around her was going through the same shit that she was at the same time.
Christina: So they were all just in the studio sad.
Miguel: And he even asked her for a quote about Missy's Supa Dupa Fly album and was like, can you give me something about Missy that I can put in the little blurb about her album? And she starts like, yeah, I love the album. I love this. I love that. Missy was there in the studio too. And she was going through this same shit, like unprompted, just giving this information.
Christina: That's funny.
Miguel: So it was like everybody in her orbit was dealing with the same stuff at the same time.
Christina: Everybody was like 21, 22, 23. That's the years to be doing this bullshit.
Miguel: So I thought that was funny.
Christina: Yeah. And that's pretty much what she always says when she talks about this album is even though at the time she was writing for herself, that's why it resonated so much because she was like, wow, like everybody's going through this.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Not just my friends, but like all the people who love the album and like I was saying earlier, even if you're not specifically going through this, the way she sings, you can't help but feel it.
Miguel: Yeah. Like I wasn't going through any of this and I love this album.
Christina: I saw this performance, I think it was, I can't remember what year it was, but this is like way after My Life was released. I think maybe like 2011 or maybe like early 2000. I don't know. Anyways, like I said, way after My Life was released and she was singing “You Gotta Believe”[5] and she had like turned it into sort of a general message of believing in yourself.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: Because she started introducing the song, it was like basically telling the crowd, we gotta believe in us.And so I think even though this album was like one of the most difficult times in her life, I think she's also found a way to use it to empower other people.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Because she knows how much it means to her fans as well.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So I thought that was interesting that you gotta believe is, again, turning into a message of like, resilience instead of like, begging a man to stay.
Miguel: Yeah. I've seen a couple of interviews where she talks about how this was like the worst point of her life. But all the fans love this album because they're like, we were going through the same shit.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: And she's like, well, I can't stand this era of My Life, but it helps so many people that I can't help but to like it. I hate the time period, but what it did for people is what she likes.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: And if you watch her interviews, like the young Mary, all the way through to like today's Mary, whenever she's speaking about this album, you can hear the growth in her like from ’94 to ’96.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: And then from ’96 to ’99. Like each time you hear her talk about this, it's a different Mary.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: But the consistency is there and she's like, the fans love this and I love that for them.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: Even though I was going through some shit.
Christina: I think as you were saying before, in terms of like sales or whatever, outside critiques versus what the quote-unquote streets are saying, this album is definitely an example of that. Even though this, I think this album actually like did pretty well on charts and sales and stuff. But I had came across a few album reviews and they were not good. Like reviews that came out at the time, I think the ones that reflect on it over years are more favorable. But the ones that came out at the time, like some of these critiques were giving it like three out of five. And just saying that it wasn’t—it had mediocre songwriting. It's like people over here crying over this. What are you talking about?
Miguel: One of the ones that you showed me that was really bad, this album is on their top 100 Albums of All Time list. So that tells you how the tide has shifted in terms of the criticisms from that particular, like I'm not even going to say the name of it, but from that brand to now, I think it was 2015 they did the list, to have her on the list as one of the top 100 albums of all time. And that's any genre, not just R&B hip-hop, that's all genres that this album is constantly on people's lists.
Christina: Yeah I think that definitely you know your opinions can change over time but you know I think those reviews were based on people who didn't understand the culture.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Or had expectations of her based on I guess what they felt about her coming out with What's the 411? and stuff and as you were saying people were saying she was a diva and difficult and stuff. I feel like those albums didn't really—I mean those reviews were not paying attention to the actual album.
Miguel: Speaking of her being a diva there's a an interview[6] with MTV News in 1995 and she says, and I quote “I’m gonna be a bitch till the day I die.” I'm sure she don't feel that way anymore but they were asking her about being a diva being called a bitch. She's like “I’m gonna be a bitch till the day I die” and then went into all the reasons why she's gonna be a bitch. And like I said listening to her talk now it's not Mary from ’95.
Christina: Not at all.
Miguel: She's a lot more pleasant and down to earth. She doesn't have that wall built up like fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you. Who's next.
Christina: And you can even see in a lot of her interviews she's actually kind of shy.
Miguel: Yeah that didn't help either that it seems like she's a very shy person in terms of like all the attention being on her, outside of being on stage and doing her kicks and what not. But one on one she seemed like a very quiet person unless it's somebody like she's really close to. Because I watched the thing she did with Angie Martinez and that was a lot more relaxed than a lot of other things that she's done. But yeah she seems to be kind of shy as well and that doesn't help with your diva attitude when you don't really want to talk to people anyway.
Christina: Right. But again, I don't know a lot of the interviews were asking her some crazy questions though.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: That didn't help.
Miguel: So I know the answer to this but what are your top three songs from this album?
Christina: Well when you asked me to list three songs, to choose three songs, you didn't ask me to choose my top three songs. You just said pick three songs.
Miguel: That's true. So what were the songs that you chose?
Christina: The ones that I just picked was “Mary's Joint,” the “Keith Murray Interlude” and “You Bring Me Joy.”
Miguel: Okay. Why?
Christina: And I don't know exactly why I chose these songs. Okay, “Mary's Joint” is my favorite song off the album.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: So that's probably why I picked that one. And the “Keith Murray Interlude,” I picked that one because I'm still mad that this isn't an actual song. Even though Biggie ended up using the beat for “I Shot Ya,” I want this to be a real song.
Miguel: Well, I've given you the actual song[7], but the quality is just so shitty, it's not worth listening to.
Christina: I don't even remember it now. You gave it to me and I was like, no, not good enough.
Miguel: I sent it to you, but it's not studio quality. It's been on mixtapes and whatnot.
Christina: Yeah, so there's that. And the third song was “You Bring Me Joy,” and I guess because she's still got to give us a bop, so that one stood out.
Christina: In the midst of the melancholy, we still need to dance a little bit.
Miguel: Well, my three are “You Bring Me Joy,” so we have that overlap. “My Life,” because like I said, it's the midpoint of the album that just makes you feel everything she's going through.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: And then “Be Happy,” because she's on the other side of it now. And it's time to move on to the next album, to the next moment of life.
Christina: We made it!
Miguel: Yeah, this part is done. We've gotten over it.
Christina: Closing the chapter.
Miguel: Yeah, those are my three favorites. But, specifically, “You Bring Me Joy,” because, and I mentioned this the last time we talked about this album, the Barry White sample and the long ass intro of just the drums hitting over and over again in my dirty Toyota Corolla, with the 15s in the back, it would just bump while I'm going down the street. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I love that. I could feel it in my chest that it was hitting so hard with my system that cost more than the car.
Christina: Priorities.
Miguel: Hey, I needed that sound. And with that, how do you think the ’70s soul samples added to the identity of this album versus What's the 411?
Christina: Well, I think I said it already, but I think it made it sound more mature just because these are old songs. So, it gave it a more mature feel, and it also kind of made it sound more lush, if that makes any sense. Like, I feel like we're getting expensive sadness. Like, I'm going to cry into a fur coat.
Miguel: That's a good way of putting it.
Christina: Instead of an Avirex jacket or something.
Miguel: I never thought of it that way, but okay. I see what you're doing.
Christina: Mary got a little money now.
Miguel: I see what you're doing. All right. Yeah, the first album, to me, it sounds like we're going to give her this hip hop look because she's the “Queen of Hip Hop Soul.” So we're going to use these—
Christina: This is the packaging.
Miguel: Yeah, we're going to use these break beats that everybody knows for “Real Love” and whatnot and the hard drums. But My Life sounds like a ‘90s album that was recorded in 1976. They leaned all the way into this soul portion of it. We want to make this album sound like Curtis Mayfield was in the studio when we recorded and Marvin Gaye was here when we recorded it.
Christina: I saw—I didn't finish it. I started an interview with Chucky Thompson or maybe it was something I read. I don't remember. But I think he said initially he was only supposed to work on one song and I can't remember which one he turned in. But it was one of those sad more soul songs and they were like, oh, I think this is going to be the theme. So maybe we got Chucky to thank for that.
Miguel: We definitely do.
Christina: Well, I mean, she keeps mentioning over and over again how Chucky was so important to the album because he helped her just strip back all the layers and just lay it all out there.
Miguel: Because Mr. Combs gets a lot of credit for this album.
Christina: Oh, it's Chucky. It sounds like it's Chucky.
Miguel: It's Chucky. Diddy's name is on the credits and whatnot, but anybody that speaks about the album says that it's him.
Christina: Especially Mary.
Miguel: Yeah. Every chance she got, she would bring his name up.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: And he was only supposed to do the one song, like he said, but the people who worked on the first album were asking for too much money, apparently, and it all fell on his shoulders and he delivered.
Christina: He did.
Miguel: Like this was, I'm going to say, his best work and Mary's best work.
Christina: Yeah. As much as I love What's the 411? like, this album it's a one of one.
Miguel: Yeah. And there's a lot of songs that he did that I love too, but it wasn't this.
Christina: And I like the albums that came after, like she had some stuff afterwards that I liked a lot as well, but this one is extra special.
Miguel: Yeah. I've mentioned before that her first three albums are similar to the Chicago Bulls' second three-peat. I've explained this once. And if you want to hear my theories on this, you can go check out our other episode on Mary J. Blige. But her first three albums are the same as the Chicago Bulls’ second three-peat.
Christina: I don't do sports, so I will just say okay.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: I'll take your word for it.
Miguel: It makes sense once I explain it, but that's in the last episode.
All right. So this is going to be the most difficult part for you. You have to choose one song from the album and the rest of the album disappears.
Christina: That's just mean.
Miguel: I know.
Christina: Why would you do that to me?
Miguel: It's just an exercise. So what one song are you going to pick?
Christina: This was very hard, but also not hard at the same time. I mean, it's very hard thinking that all the songs would disappear except for one. That was the hard part. But the not hard part is, I think it's always just going to be “Mary's Joint.”
Miguel: Ok.
Christina: That's the one for me. I'm pretty sure I said that in the last episode, the episode previously that we talked about her.
Miguel: I don't remember.
Christina: Probably.
Miguel: It sounds legit.
Christina: But I feel like—even when I think about listening to this 30 years ago, I feel like I had always... Like, I'll let the whole album play. But I feel like that's the one I always go back to. And even just listening to it, re-listening to the album for this, you know, that one I kind of kept playing over and over again. And I think what I love about it is all the different layers from the background vocals to the ad libs to the main vocals. You've got like layers of that. And then the music itself, you have like the bass and the drums that are constant throughout the whole song. But the other instruments kind of come in and out to punctuate the lyrics. And at some points in the song, they'll like strip it all back and then put it back in. And so I actually used, now that I've discovered that we have Pro Logic and that they...
Miguel: Logic Pro.
Christina: Logic Pro. And that they, I think the stem's features knew. I was playing around with it and I took her vocals off because I wanted to just hear the instruments, even though obviously her vocals is important. And just something about the way, like you have to listen to the instrumental too.
Miguel: I'll get around to it.
Christina: Because I don't know how to explain music stuff because I'm not a musician. But just the way that worked and then you have her singing and then the ad-libs. I saw like a tweet or a Bluesky post, a skeet whatever we're calling it these days.
Miguel: “Skeet skeet motherfucker!”
Christina: Somebody was saying how like the kids don't ad-lib anymore.
Miguel: True.
Christina: And that is what punctuates it, is the ad-libs, because you're like those are just those are ad-libs. These are not pre-written lyrics.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: And so on top of the lyrics itself, just being sad with a “why can't we work it out, my baby, can't we try? You said our love would stand the test of time.” She's saying that over and over again. But then the ad-libs are like, “I want to stay.” “I need you.” “I’ll try and wait.” So it's just like a gut punch. And then you have just like the music, like I said, the way it goes in and out just punctuates all of that. And then you follow it up with “Don't Go.” And then I had my headphones up really loud. So then the bass and “Don't Go” hit really hard. And I was like, just leave it up to Mary to make a sad song that still thumps.
Miguel: Of course. That's what they did.
Christina: And so I would actually recommend either, you know, listening to it into your headphone—in your headphones, so you could just hear every piece of it. Or even just like listening to the instrumental, just to hear how that it just created this kind of perfect storm for this melancholy. Like out of all the songs that were sad, like this one just gets me. Also, I mean, it's called “Mary's Joint.” So it almost even feels like this one is Mary's joint, right?
Miguel: This is the autobiography right here in four minutes.
Christina: Yeah. So the thought of all the other songs disappearing is terrible, but it's this one that I want to keep.
Miguel: I don't have anything that detailed or any reasons for it being that detailed, but I'm going with “My Life.”
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: Because not only is that the definitive song from this album, it's the definitive song of her career. Because it's not like she's singing pitch perfect, like she's hitting some flat notes on this song, but it don't even matter.
Christina: That's the point though.
Miguel: Yeah, exactly.
Christina: Not necessarily the point, but that's what makes it real.
Miguel: Yeah. It's not like she's saying, I'm going to sing this Mariah Carey-style and make it the most beautiful thing and flutter my fingers. It's like, no, I'm going to go in the booth and whatever comes out, comes out. And that's what it was. So I'm going with “My Life.” The rest of the album, unfortunately, would have to go poof. So I'm going to hold on to this one.
Christina: Ok. Well, I mean, we did kind of pick something that was similar in theme. You picked “My Life.” I picked “Mary's Joint.”
Miguel: Yeah. Yeah.
Christina: She's like, these are my songs.
Miguel: Exactly. All right. I think that's a good time for us to wrap up this episode. The 30th anniversary of Mary J. Blige's My Life album. What would you like the people to know about this album on our way out of here?
Christina: Me personally, even though I started listening to this when I was a teenager and now I'm like getting premenopausal hot flashes, this album still has a grip on me. Like listening to it yesterday, why am I still like feeling it so hard after 30 years? So that's all I have to say about the album. And I'm guessing if you're listening to this episode, you probably have similar feelings too.
Miguel: Yeah. And I'm just going to go with what I said in the intro. It's not the most awarded album of all time. It doesn't have the biggest sales of all time, but it is still one of the best albums of all time.
Christina: It is.
Miguel: And its placement on different lists proves that. So if you're a Mary fan, go ahead and run this back, for old time's sake.
Christina: I'm thinking if you're a Mary fan, you've already run it back.
Miguel: Yeah, but you know, she’s, she's different today.
Christina: Do it today. Right after you finish this episode.
Miguel: Like you might be dancing around to Fine in your living room, doing spins and whatnot. Go back to the essence. Get to the early stuff. All right. That's all I got to say for this episode. Thank you for listening. Come back and join us again. About two weeks. We'll have another episode queued up for you. If you want to sign up for our newsletter, Liner Notes, it comes out once a month. Sometime between the first and the fourth of the month. So go ahead and sign up for that. It's free at troypodcast.com/newsletter. I don't think I'm going to do a playlist for this episode since we've already made a Mary J. Blige playlist. So we can just repeat that one. So go ahead and listen to our playlist that we've done previously.
Christina: And the playlist is, I don't know, just the album? Do you remember what you put on the previous one?
Miguel: I don’t. You'll see. It'll be on the website. Just go to the website and whatever the link page is for this episode. It'll be there. If you want to buy some merch, you can check out our store. Nuthin’ but a Tee Thang. Get yourself a hat, hoodie, t-shirt. Like I keep saying, the holidays are coming up. Buy yourself and your people something nice. We got new merch up there. So go ahead and check that out at teethang.com. T-E-E-T-H-A-N-G dot com. That's all I got for this week. Christina got nothing else to say.
Christina: Nope.
Miguel: We'll be back in your ear holes in two weeks. Bye.
Christina: Bye.