Old School Friday – Favorite Female Artist
It took me .01 seconds to decide who I was going with when I saw this week’s Old School Friday theme. For me in the category of female artists, there is Mary J. Blige and then there is everybody else (sorry Jill).
MJB came on the scene by way of Yonkers, New York just as I was entering college. Her music was the soundtrack for my days at Texas A&M. I must have played My Life all the way through 1,000 times.
I even rocked the live album over and over. Back then, people tried to convince me that Mary couldn’t sing. It was really never about the voice for me, it least not like that. I was feeling the soul and the pain that laced ever single, every stanza, every bar of Mary’s Joints. It was how she sang about a love which always seemed so urgent, perpetually in flux and far too painful, which many of us in our early 20’s could relate to.
In a couple of weeks I’ll have to come out with my MJB Top 10. The Queen of Hip Hop Soul Mary J. Blige, the best period.
