Mary J. Blige biography

Synopsis

Profile

Singer, songwriter. Born January 11, 1971 in the Bronx, New York. Her mother, Cora Blige, was a nurse, and her father, Thomas Blige, was a jazz musician who played the bass guitar. Blige endured a hellish childhood marred by violence, alcohol and drugs. Her mother was an alcoholic and her father was a Vietnam War veteran who suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. "My mother went through awful abuse from my father," Blige remembered. "He left us when I was 4, but he'd come back from time to time and abuse her some more."

Hoping to escape from her father, Blige and her mother moved to the Schlobohm Houses, a public housing project in Yonkers. The projects offered only more horror: "I'd hear women screaming and running down the halls from guys beating up on them. People chased us with weapons. I never saw a woman there who wasn't abused. It was a dangerous place. No one wanted anyone else to get ahead. When I was 5, sexual stuff was done to me. My mother was a single parent, a working woman. She left us with people she thought could be trusted. They hurt me."

Blige found escape from the terrible world of her childhood in church and in music. "I loved being there because I wouldn't be hurt," she said about going to church. "I felt wanted and special&When I was 12, I sang the hymn 'Lord, Help Me To Hold Out Until My Change Has Come.' I was praying as I sang it. I felt the Spirit." However, by the time she turned 16, she had dropped out of school, stopped going to church, and become addicted to drugs and sex. "I ended up becoming my environment," Blige said. "It was bigger than me. I had no self-respect. I hated myself. I thought I was ugly. Alcohol, sex, drugs — I'd do whatever it took to feel a little better."

It was Blige's voice that rescued her from the tragic life into which she was quickly falling. "Everyone talked about the karaoke machine at the mall," she remembered. "So I went in and recorded Anita Baker's 'Caught Up in the Rapture' on a cassette tape. I didn't think it was anything big." After four years of sending out her demo tape to no avail, Blige managed to get the tape to Uptown Records CEO Andre Harrell, who was blown away by her beautiful, powerful and soulful voice. He signed Blige to a record contract in 1992 and assigned a young up-and-coming music producer named Sean "Puffy" Combs to work with her. Blige released her debut album, What's the 411?, later that year, and it instantly became a huge success. The album sold over 3 million copies behind the hit singles "You Remind Me" and