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Mary J. Blige owes her life to her seminal sophomore album.
The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, 53, looked back on her 1994 LP, My Life, during a recent conversation with Billboard, revealing how grateful she is for the project’s impact on her past struggles.
“That album is so important, because it was so pivotal for when it came time for me to choose,” Blige shared with the outlet. “I was in a dark place where I didn’t wanna live, and I was begging people to love me and stay with me. Now, I’m not begging anyone to love and stay with me. I love myself. I found my real love. My true love is myself and I.”
She went on to detail the LP’s significance to her eventual self-love journey, saying, “That’s why when it was time for me to choose the My Life album, I chose my life.”
“I chose my life and my fans when it was time to make that turn because I didn’t want to off myself and take half my fanbase with me,” Blige concluded. “That didn’t seem right. I always had a conscious and a spiritual grounding. That’s what made me choose.”
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The “Family Affair” artist released her acclaimed second studio album on Nov. 29, 1994, and went on to receive a best R&B album nomination for it in 1996. The three-time platinum-certified LP is revered as one of her biggest classics and was also the sole focus of her 2021 Prime Video documentary, Mary J. Blige’s My Life — in which she recalled her early rise to fame and the inspiration behind her defining work.
In a statement to PEOPLE at the time, Blige noted, “My Life is the album that really bonded me with my fans who have since been along for what turned out to be a crazy ride. Going back and reliving that time and that music felt like an out-of-body experience, but one I’m so humbled by.”
Another 30th anniversary Blige is coming up on is for her Grammy-winning smash “I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By,” the iconic collaboration she recorded with longtime friend and Power Book II: Ghost costar Method Man. Remembering how they teamed up for the ’90s track, the“Real Love” performer told Billboard she was a “full Method Man and Wu-Tang Clan fan” back then, so it was only right the pair got in the studio together during the height of their careers.
“So Meth did the song in the studio; I believe it was his birthday, and they were there watching me record that song,” Blige recalled. “Meth was so happy. He’s such a beautiful, sweet man. I love him so much. When we did the video, the same thing happened. I had a blast. He’s a beautiful man.”
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Blige is gearing up for the last stretch of her Starz series’ fourth and final season, which resumes on Sept. 6. The bittersweet ending comes just ahead of another major milestone for the R&B icon: her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This year, the singer is recognized alongside legendary performers like Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, A Tribe Called Quest, Kool & the Gang and more.
“It means so much because I worked so hard,” Blige told Billboard of the achievement. “My fans have given me so much, and when I say, ‘We did it,’ I mean my fans and I. We did this because, without them, there’s no me. Through all my blood, sweat, and tears, suffering, getting up and falling down, they were there. It means a lot to accomplish something like that.”
