Written by:
Malinda Lo
After six studio albums and a well-deserved reputation as the queen of hip-hop and soul, it doesn’t seem like Mary J. Blige needs to release a breakthrough album — but that’s what she’s delivered in The Breakthrough, a 16-track album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in December and, this week, returned to take the top spot again. Blige sounds better than ever on The Breakthrough, even taking a turn at rapping, and delivers songs that speak to women everywhere. Always honest, always real, Blige is no different this time and sings openly about her struggles, but there’s an uplifting touch to this album now that she’s left the drama behind. We recently talked with her about what went into making this album, her personal demons and what she thinks about her lesbian fans.
The Breakthrough is your seventh studio album; what made you name it The Breakthrough?
Well, it’s a personal breakthrough. It’s a mental, spiritual, physical breakthrough. When I said no more drama, that was something I had to say because now I have to begin to work on finding out where the drama’s coming from. When I realized the drama was me, and I was my own worst enemy, I had to find out how and what areas I was lacking in and what I needed. I found out that mentally and spiritually and physically and intellectually … I had no confidence. All these areas I had to build from — get reassurance — and … no matter how bad it hurts, just find myself in these areas. I made a lot of progress in these areas, and seeing progress that I made, I’m able to actually call this album The Breakthrough because if I can see Mary J. Blige in a positive light compared to the way I used to look at her, to me, that is definitely a breakthrough. I named the album The Breakthrough way before we even started recording it.
How do you think that you’ve changed in those areas? Do you have any specific examples?
Yeah, I think mentally I understand now that … I have to be careful with my thoughts, careful how I think about other people. I have to be careful how I think about myself, so that’s progress in knowing that I need to be careful in those areas and plant positive things in there instead of negative things. Physically, I’ve reshaped my body. I train not for vanity reasons anymore but because I love it and it’s a way of life. And vocally I’m strong and confident in those areas. I’ve never been this confident in these areas in my life. As far as confidence about me and looking at myself after I shed all the makeup and clothes and all that stuff, I like what I’m looking at and I’m cool with it. So I don’t have to worry about or be insecure about what’s under the makeup and the clothes and the hair and stuff like that. So in all those areas I have made progress. Spiritually, God is first in my life, and the buck stops there. He’s never been first in my life, so right now I’ll tell the world He is and that’s where I’ve made the progress.
What made you come to put God first in your life?
When I said no more drama, there [were] a lot of things happening to me. The year before I put the No More Drama album out, one of my girlfriends, Nija Battle, she just died, and I don’t know how. And then Aaliyah passed. Nija died on August 25th and the next year Aaliyah died … around that time, and then I think that next month, Sept. 11, New York City was blown up, the World Trade Center. So many things were happening, and I was going through my own alcohol demons and my own drug demons and stuff like that, and I just got scared. I was like, “Lord I need your help. I don’t know where you are, but if you’re there, talk to me.”
And He talked to me, and He told me He would help me, and the way He would help me [was] He would send a person, a human being in the form of a man, who’s my husband now, who was my boyfriend then, and he pulled me out of my environment. When he pulled me out of my environment, I turned around and I was able to see it clearly, and when you’re able to see your environment clearly, you’re able to change things. You could see it now, like, my God, that’s who I was hanging out with? No wonder I can’t get anywhere. So it was … the manifestation of God through a human being — and just in my life, period — making me a better person. When things got really really rough and all my friends — my so-called friends — ran away from me, He was right there. And right now, I’m not gonna deny Him ’cause He didn’t deny me in my darkest moment. And that’s why He’s first.
What do you think your favorite song is on The Breakthrough?
I have a couple of favorite songs. I’m gonna just give you three. I know “Good Woman Down” is my favorite song because I definitely represent the good woman you can’t hold down; you know what I’m saying? [Laughs.]
Absolutely.
“Take Me as I Am” is another one of my favorite songs because it is what it is right now. I can’t change your opinion of me, but I accept me for who I am and if you don’t like it, sorry, too bad. “Baggage” is another one of my favorite songs because … life is not perfect, but I choose to do something different. I still carry those insecurities; you know, in my relationship, “OK, are you just gonna up and leave me one day?” You understand what I’m saying? So I live a realistic life. That’s why those songs are my favorite songs.
Your music has always been very emotionally open. Have you ever hesitated to put all of your life in your lyrics and songs?
The thing is, I haven’t put all of my life [in these songs]. If I put all of my life in these lyrics, I wouldn’t be able to walk down the street, because it’s too much. You know the surface, and you know that gosh, I can relate to that, but you don’t know the cracks and crevices and the depths and darkness through all this stuff. I can’t give away all of that. I can only give away what I know that people can relate to.
So you have some secrets still?
Yeah, I do.
Has anyone ever told you that you have a huge fan base among lesbians?
I know that. As far as gay men, gay women, I know that, and I’m cool with that because I have gay friends, and I love them very dearly.
Last year Kanye West was very outspoken about how hip-hop discriminates against gays. He was saying that it was a homophobic kind of culture. What do you think of his statements? Do you agree with him?
I really don’t know. See, I guess that’s in the male part of the world. ’Cause I don’t think like that. At the end of the day God loves us all, whether we be gay, straight, black, white, whatever. So if God loves us all, who am I to think anything different? At the end of the day, I love us all. I guess … I can’t make a comment on his statement. All I can say is this is the way I think, and I have, clearly, no judgments on anyone. I’m a mess [laughs]. I’ve got stuff going on in my life that, like, who am I to think that I’m better than anybody, you know?
Do you think that the music industry is a bit closed off to openly gay and lesbian artists performing hip-hop and R&B?
I don’t think so. I think that from what I can see, I think it’s pretty open.
Your music is very supportive of strong women. Would you describe yourself as a feminist?
You’ll have to tell me what that means.
Well, people disagree on what feminism is. For me, I feel like a feminist is just someone who believes in equality for men and women.
Yeah, then that would be me.
That’s great. Sometimes people don’t want to identify as a feminist for fear of offending men.
At the end of the day, yes, I’m all for the woman winning the battle. Because I watch so many women suffer in my life, and I’m one of those women who have suffered. But what I’ve learned is that men suffer too. Everybody suffers. So I can’t say the hell with the men and it’s all about the women. I’m all for the women because so many of them have been left behind with children and all kinds of terrible stuff. But my heart has changed toward men. It’s like, well, the reason why he probably left the children is because their fathers probably left them when they were little, and it’s like a constant cycle of disappointment.
Do you feel like your opinion has changed because of your marriage?
I think my opinion has changed because of my finding out what a man is — what a real man is — and understanding that there’s two sides to every story. They hurt too; they go through things too. And then making up with my father and finding out that his father left him when he was a child. So it’s like you gotta hear why things are happening. Now we’re responsible to fix it, regardless of who left us. Now we’re responsible once we know.
You’ve collaborated with a lot of great musicians and artists. What made you decide to collaborate with U2, which is not an R&B or hip-hop group?
Well, let me tell you this story. [Laughs.] About four and a half years ago … Music Heritage did a tribute to Bono, and I had to sing “One.” So … I got the song and as I was learning the song I had to play it over and over again. It just kept getting stronger and stronger and stronger to me every time I heard it, and when I performed the song I put everything into it because that’s the effect the song had on me. I think the song is incredible, and Bono was there that night and everybody was just raving about how incredibly I performed the song.
So fast-forward to about two years after that … I’m sitting at Jimmy’s house — Jimmy Iovine, the CEO of Interscope Records — I’m sitting at his house and the record comes on and I just jump up [and] I’m like, “Jimmy, I’ve gotta perform this — I’ve gotta have this record, I gotta record this record.” And he’s like, “OK, Mary, I think it’s a great idea that you perform this record.” So, let’s fast-forward to when … we’re almost finished with the Breakthrough album. Jimmy calls me and he says, “Mary, remember you said you wanted to record this ‘One’ record?” I was like, yeah. So I was gonna record the record with or without Bono because I love the record. Then Hurricane Katrina hits and destroys Louisiana and Mississippi and everything, and we had to do a benefit — you know, the benefit for Katrina, and we sang the song together. Ron Fair actually took Bono’s part from that and we brought it to the studio, and we sang and did our thing all around Bono, and he matched us up and now it’s on the album, and that’s how we got that.
That’s a great track on the album.
Thank you.
Do you have a favorite new artist these days?
You know my new favorite artist is Chris Brown. I really like Chris Brown. I love him. I think he can dance really good, he can sing really good. Yeah, it’s just him right now. I love Usher, you know I’m an Usher fan. Usher’s like a little Michael Jackson. Yeah, that’s the heavy heavy talent for me.
There are songs about heartbreak on The Breakthrough, but it just seems like a really happy album to me. What makes you the most happy right now?
What makes me happy is the fact that I know and understand that life is not gonna always be happy. There will always be something going on, and … I know that bad times are coming, and I know how to respond instead of react to them. I’m learning these things — I’m not telling you that I’m perfect at it — but the fact that I even want to learn makes the album uplifting, because there was time when I didn’t want to learn how to respond. I just always wanted to react and be ignorant. That’s why the album is uplifting like it sounds. It’s probably really penetrating people because it’s not a fairy tale-istic, “oh I’m so happy.” No, life can be good if you want it to be. We do have a choice, and that’s something I learned. We really got a choice, you know?
So would that be your advice to people who are dealing with some hard times? Tell them that they have a choice?
Yeah, you really have a choice. There’s always gonna be something hard. Something — life — there’s gonna always be something bad happening. But you can choose to be happy. In all the bad times we’re having, how we act when things go wrong is … what I believe determines our strength. You get what I’m saying? And it’s easier said than done, so you can’t really tell people that. I’m speaking this to hear it myself, because I still act up in hard times, you know. But it makes it a little easier when you know, “Oh boy, here we go, something’s coming.”
What’s the one thing you want your fans to take away from listening to The Breakthrough?
I guess the fact that we can do this. We are the good women that they can’t hold down and no matter how hard it gets, we can do it, we can break through — we can do the flip side. No matter who’s done what to us, we can do it. You know what I’m saying? We can do this. And it’s gonna be hard, but we can do it.
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