#Mary j blige be without you mtv.com professional#

At home, her mother played a steady stream of R&B, soul, and funk, including Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, and Gladys Knight. Block parties in the Bronx taught her the rhythms and sampling styles created by the early hip-hop deejays.

#Mary j blige be without you mtv.com professional#

A professional jazz musician, her father left his mark on Blige вЂ™s ability to harmonize during the brief time he was present. вЂњWatching my mother struggle to raise us and feed us made me want to be a stronger woman, вЂќ she continued.Д«lige вЂ™s environment also provided the sound and encouragement that first shaped her musical identity. вЂњMy mother made me strong, вЂќ Blige told the Source. вЂќ The family, including Blige вЂ™s older sister and two younger brothers, subsisted on her mother Cora вЂ™s earnings as a nurse after her father left the family in the mid-1970s. If you try to get out, one of the other crabs tries to pull you down. Growing up in the projects is like living in a barrel of crabs. You always had to prove yourself to keep from getting robbed or jumped. Every day I would be getting into fights over whatever. Blige described the setting for Essence вЂ™s Deborah Gregory, recalling that there вЂњwas always some shit going on. Blige вЂ™s coming of age on the mean streets of the Bronx provided her with the вЂњcredentials вЂќ demanded by audiences who also grew up on city streets. вЂќ She was born on Januin Yonkers, and grew up in the Schlobohm Housing Projects -or вЂњSlow Bomb вЂќ projects as its residents called it. Part of the fuel for Blige вЂ™s rocket to hip-hop stardom was her вЂњstreet cred. вЂќ But more than anything else, the music media has crowned her the Queen of Hip Hop Soul. вЂќ In his Washington Post review of Blige вЂ™s second album, Geoffrey Himes called her вЂњthe premier soul diva of the hip-hop generation. In an interview for the Source, Adario Strange described his subject as a вЂњdelicate ghetto-princess songstress, вЂќ вЂњthe flower of the ghetto, вЂќ and вЂњthe real momma of hip-hop R&B. When the vocalist came to the public вЂ™s attention the previous year, she became a magnet for the kind of superlatives music critics love to create. Blige has been called the inventor of New Jill Swing, вЂќ Ron Givens wrote in Stereo Review in 1993.