Mary J. Blige

Released: December 18, 2007

Songwriter: Mary J. Blige Ne-Yo Mikkel Storleer Eriksen Tor Erik Hermansen

Producer: StarGate Ne-Yo

[Verse 1]
Beautiful, horrible, magical, terrible
Reason to laugh and smile
Reason to cry yourself to sleep at night, start a fight
Make up, break up, wrong or right
Heaven for all it's worth, can equally be hell right here on earth

[Pre-Chorus]
And no one really knows anything about it
But everybody needs it
We can't live without it
And that's the way it goes
Dark as day, bright as night
Just some of the things you might
Hear if you ask what love feels like

[Chorus]
And it feels like joy, and it feels like pain
And it feels like sunshine, feels like rain
An excuse for dying, reason to live
And if you don't know, that's what love is
Love is, oh

[Verse 2]
Gentle kiss, sweet caress, kiss the base of your neck
Argue until my head hurts I can't remember what you said
Out, screaming loud, don't know what we're screaming 'bout
So confusing yes it's true
But if it wasn't then what would we do?

[Pre-Chorus]
And no one really knows anything about it
But everybody needs it
We can't live without it
And that's the way it goes
Oh, dark as day, bright as night
Just some of the things you might
Hear if you ask what love feels like

[Chorus]
And it feels like joy, and it feels like pain
And it feels like sunshine, feels like rain
An excuse for dying, reason to live
And if you don't know, that's what love is
Love is, oh

[Bridge]
(That's love)
Anything that can bring you up, or bring you down
(That's love)
Could be the sun up in your sky, or the darkest cloud
(That's love)
And we need it
(That's love)
And we need it
(That's love)
Oh, ask anybody how it feels

[Chorus]
And it feels like joy, and it feels like pain
And it feels like sunshine, feels like rain
An excuse for dying, reason to live
And if you don't know, that's what love is
Love is
And it feels like joy (Joy), and it feels like pain (Pain)
And it feels like sunshine (Sunshine), feels like rain (Ooh)
An excuse for dying (Oh), reason to live (Oh)
And if you don't know, that's what love is
Love is

[Outro]
Oh, that's it

Mary Jane Blige (b. Jan 11 1971) grew up in the projects of Yonkers, New York. A random decision to record a cover of “Caught Up in the Rapture” by Anita Baker in a pop-up recording booth at a mall led MJB to getting signed by Uptown Entertainment. After providing background vocals on Father MC’s hit single “I’ll Do 4 U” in 1990, a young intern at Uptown named Sean “Puffy” Combs ended up executive producing Mary’s 1992 debut album What’s The 411?. Fusing hip-hop beats with Mary’s soulful voice earned her the nickname “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul”.

She followed up her debut with a string of critically acclaimed albums, including 1994’s My Life and 1997’s Share My World, as well as hit singles such as “Not Gon' Cry,” “Family Affair,” “Be Without You,” and “Just Fine.”

She also collaborated with rappers on a number of tracks, including Jay-Z’s “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” Ghostface Killah’s “All That I Got is You,” Wyclef’s “911,” Common’s “Come Close,” and Method Man’s “I’ll Be There for You/All I Need to Get By,” which was a platinum hit and won the two of them a Grammy Award in 1996 for Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group.

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