Mary J Blige | Stronger withEach Tear

Mary J. Blige – Stronger withEach Tear

Who says the art of music does not generate personal therapy and stir positively for two decade of fans?  Since her debut – What’s The 411?– produced by one of urban music’s biggest impresarios, Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, Mary J. Blige has never held back on matters of love, relationships and a dramatized childhood.  Within a short period of time after its release, the music media was already calling Blige a true voice for a hip-hop generation.  Since that 1992 debut on Andre Harrell’s custom label Uptown Records, the New York born singer/songwriter was breaking the mold in hip-hop culture for the ladies.  She also was one of the few females including Lisa Lisa and vocal trio TLC who consistently scored hits during the new jack swing era.  Whether it was making a fashion statement for other artists to follow or developing a platform for females to stay strong yet keep their femininity, Blige would be dubbed the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul.  Certainly the cost of fame taught Blige several hardcore lessons on how to handle her professional obligations and how to respect her adoring fans,especially in the early phases of her career. 

Once she figured out how to refine her image and build confidence in her talents, Blige grew deeper in her musical maturity.  Each subsequent recording from My Life to Share My World and The Tour – a raw 1998 concert recording from one of her first headlining tours- just proved Blige was here to stake her hip-hop/soul music territory for years to come.  Her magnetic voice was also heard on various other recorded events.  Some career highlights include “Not Gon’ Cry” from the Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds-produced movie soundtrack Waiting to Exhale; a hip-hop frosted remake of Marvin & Tami’s classic duet “You’re All I Need To Get By” with rapper Method Man; and a cameo appearance on“Lean on Me” (not the Bill Withers’ version) from contemporary gospel producer Kirk Franklin’s The Nu Nation Project.  Some of Blige’s greatest hits were also spotlighted on the house and disco music remixes entitled Dance With Me, and the club music community embraced her as evidenced on countless dance compilations. 

Through the years, Blige continued to tone down the raunchier elements of her music. Lyrically and stylistically however, she always remains adamant about how she survived her challenging circumstances.  The titles of her millennium projects: Love & Life, No More Drama, The Breakthrough and Growing Pains was all about Blige throwing down diaries of her life for her fans to embrace.  Stronger With Each Tear is certainly no exception to that rule.  

On Stronger, she surrounds herself with many respected production and vocal friends from the world of today’s urban industry, several who partnered on previous Blige recordings.  This disc is pretty much divided into two parts; first by first warming up the audience with some hardcore dance thumpers and then mellowing out a bit with some mid-tempo and slow pop/R&B jams.  I thoroughly enjoyed several pieces because of Blige’s reliable vocal performance and her lyrical spunk.  First seen and heard during a TV commercial for a famous internet &telephone company, the Darkchild-produced “The One” is anchored by futuristic beats and exudes a lot of confidence:   “Let me break it down if you don’t get it, Quality I’m custom fitted.”  “Said& Done,” produced and co-written by one of the most in-demand talents today Ryan Leslie, boasts about the willingness to deal with mistakes: “And I know that I was wrong, But today I need to move on.”  “Good Love” cleverly incorporates old school funk and a guest rap from T.I. (Blige was featured on T.I.’s “Remember Me”).  To remind us of her status as The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, Blige delivers“We Got Hood Love” – a satisfying pairing with Trey Songz: “How you feel love, When I’m with you, Now that’s real love, When you ain’t here, then I miss you.”  This song is co-produced by Brian Michael Cox, the man behind one of Blige’s biggest hits: “Be Without You.”  But the real kicker on Stronger is the teaming of Raphael Saadiq as co-writer and producer of “I Can See In Color” from the movie Precious,which shows off Blige’s spiritual and bluesy side: “It took a long time to get to this place, And now that I’m here, no one can ever erase the joy that I feel way down deep inside.”

Summing up Stronger Than Every Tear, Blige already knows how to wow her audiences with her gritty soulful vocal delivery.  In certain places, this disc from Blige’s custom label Matriarch via Geffen Records drags a bit mid-way on the more pop slanted arrangements.  Yet in this day and age where the R&B market boasts few singer/songwriters of pure excellence, Blige can always be counted onto keep hip-hop and soul music relevant nearly twenty years later since she first asked us… ‘What’s The 411’?

Peggy Oliver

The Urban Music Scene