Over ten years after its release, My Life still strikes the listener as a landmark in the history of urban music. It had been three years since Mary J. Blige, in conjunction with then producer Sean “Puffy” Combs, had forged a blueprint for the conflation of the street essence of hip hop with the allure of R’n’B and Soul with her breakout album, What’s the 411?. This follow-up, though, remains her most emotionally charged, and arguably her most influential, offering to date.
The soundtrack to the soulstress’ troubled existence, the album is packed full of great moments which prove beyond reasonable doubt that she simply is the reigning Queen of cousin genres Hip Hop and Soul. While Mary Jane and Be With You stroll jauntily down an urban/funk hybrid road, the remaining tracks depict a heartbroken and lovelorn Mary struggling to weather the storm that is ravaging her soul. She croons away her blues with heart-wrenching poignancy on the slowburning title track, and is at her most vulnerable on the tear-stained I Never Want To Live Without You.
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Her chops boast a rawness and a worldliness that belie her 24 years, and which make her unique among her peers. She sounds as though she has lived 1,000 lives, each one with the same taxing intensity. This is most apparent on Norman Whitfield’s I’m Going Down, which, drenched in vintage soul, oozes class and leaves you in no doubt as to why Mary J. Blige has been hailed the heir apparent to Aretha Franklin.
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