Mary J. Blige

Released: July 28, 1998

Songwriter: Claydes Smith Mary J. Blige Kern Brantley Robert “Kool” Bell George “Funky” Brown Robert Spike Mickens Dennis “D.T.” Thomas Ricky West Khalis Bayyan

Producer: Mary J. Blige Kern Brantley Kool & the Gang

[Announcer]
Woo! Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah
I got one question for y'all up in the house tonight
Is L.A. up in this muthafucka?
Yeah yeah, I'm glad y'all feel good tonight, I'm really glad
But what she came out here and did for y'all was took y'all through the 411
How many of y'all out there remember that shit tonight? Y'all remember that?
Yeah, she gon' come back out here and smooth it out for the whole house
The ladies, the fellas, everybody up in this house tonight
Y'all could wave your hands, sing along, do whatever y'all wanna do
This is y'all house
On that note, the My Life Band gonna take y'all on a ride in the 6-4
Take 'em in the ride, take 'em on a ride, baby, take 'em on a ride

[Mary J. Blige & the My Life Band]
Shoo-doo, shoo-doo, shoo-wee

Summer madness
Summer madness
Yeah, summer madness
Summer madness
What you think about summer madness?
Summer madness
Can we do it? Can we do it? Can we do the summer madness?
Summer madness
Yeah yeah, baby, yeah yeah
Tonight, y'all, this segment of the show is for everybody that went through the struggle with me during this My Life album

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.

more tracks from the album

The Tour

From the album

The Tour (1998)

Mary J. Blige popular songs

Summer Madness (Live 1998)Mary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige

The Tour