Singer Mary J. Blige’s My Life album is the focus of the Vanessa Roth documentary for Amazon Prime on the 25th anniversary of its release
Rhythm and blues had a pretty face in the 90s. It was prim and proper with elegance powered by Anita Baker and Whitney Houston. Hip Hop was a separate entity, and no one thought the two could blend effortlessly. Then, Andre Harrell and his protégé Sean Combs introduced the world to a 19-year-old girl from Yonkers’s Schlobohm projects and everything changed.
That girl was Mary J. Blige.
It has been 25 years since the release of her iconic second album, My Life. Amazon Prime is bringing that story to life through a documentary executive produced by Blige herself.
“I didn’t love myself,” she said within the first 3 minutes of the project. Blige has famously referred to the My Life album as her most important and darkest album.
Andre Harrell came to see Mary after getting a tape she recorded from the mall of her singing “Caught Up in the Rapture,” by Anita Baker. He signed her on the spot.
Her debut, “What’s the 411,” is considered the first time an R&B singer effortlessly incorporated Hip Hop into a full-length project. The streets were painful, gutter, and Hip Hop — and Mary captured all of that in her voice.
“When it came to females, I just didn’t see me,” said Taraji P. Henson of the music industry, prior to Blige’s debut.
Mary was 7 when she first heard Roy Ayers “Everybody Loves the Sunshine.” She said the song changed her life. The My Life track which was named for the album, samples the Ayers record.
At the time of production for the My Life album, Mary was going through a tumultuous relationship with K-Ci from the iconic group Jodeci. Sean Combs had broken up with his longtime girlfriend, stylist and image architect Misa Hylton. Combs says, “the My Life album is Mary at her most truthful.”
“That depression from that relationship, rewound life and brought back stuff I never dealt with as a young girl,” Mary says of the relationship.
Mary wails over 17 tracks with titles such as “I’m Goin’ Down,” “Be With You,” “Be Happy,” and “You Gotta Believe,” My Life — the vocal masterpiece, is a cry for help.
The project was executive produced by Chucky Thompson with songwriting and production from a young Faith Evans, K-Ci, and Teddy Riley.
What’s special about this documentary are the candid interviews with Andre Harrell who sadly passed last year.
“The amazing thing about you as a person is that you are able to put your troubles on a canvas and get over them. You truly are a queen,” Harrell says in footage from a recent birthday for Blige.
The Amazon Prime My Life documentary is executive produced by Quincy Jones and directed by Vanessa Roth. The doc is available for streaming now. Blige dedicates the documentary to Harrell.