Mary J. Blige's 9 mind-blowing Apple Music Q&A moments from Dr. Dre to Super Bowl talk
R&B icon Mary J. Blige has been doing this for a very long time and her legacy will be properly celebrated at this weekend’s Super Bowl in Los Angeles. Ahead of the big halftime performance, she chopped it up with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe to dish on everything from her relationship with the legendary Dr. Dre and Anderson .Paak to dealing with divorce and positive vibes with the new tunes.
To make life a little easier, we’ve rounded up 9 mind-blowing moments from her Q&A. Kick back and check them out.
1. Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Coming From A Place of Positivity With Her New Album ‘Good Morning Gorgeous’...
That's exactly where I'm at, a really important place. A place of self-acceptance, self-love, continuing to keep growing in that direction. And that's where I'm at. I wouldn't never even decided to do this record if I had stayed stuck where I was at. It was too much time, too much self-hatred, too much stuff that needed to change. It wasn't intentionally done this album, I had to get through this first to say, "Okay. I'm ready now. I'm ready to speak from a place of positivity. And not always come out with a record that says, "Oh woe, it's me." But come out with a record that says, "You know what? I'm tired of being in a box and having to deal with what everybody else thinks of me. What do I think of me? How do I feel about me? I feel amazing. I'm greeting myself with positive affirmation, good morning gorgeous." And so this is the first time I've ever come out the gate with records like this. I love me. Yes, I love me for it. I love me for being able to say these things about myself, to feel these things, to feel what it feels like to love on myself and enjoy my life finally. Enjoy the fruits of my labor and not dumb myself down because somebody else can't handle it.
2. Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About ‘Good Morning Gorgeous’ and Why It’s An Affirmation…
Good morning gorgeous the affirmation came from being in a very, very dark, low place where I was never enough, I wasn't good enough, I wasn't this, I wasn't pretty enough. Nothing would please this person and I had to speak something positive over my life in order to build my spirit back up so I can pull myself out of that negative space I was in. It's just a positive word I had to speak over my life that has gotten me to this title of this album.
I don't know if you heard the interlude on the album, but I didn't even want to give up the title. And when I went in the studio to work with H.E.R. and Lucky Daye and D'Miles we were all sitting around. Everyone was like, "Okay. What do you want the song to be about?" And everybody's having these discussions about what they want, what they think it should be. And I'm just holding back on the title. I'm holding back because I don't want to give up this story about how I was going through hell and I had to use this to help me.
And then I finally gave it up. And then everybody was like, "Oh my God. Good morning gorgeous. Wow. We love that." And so the whole session turned into a therapy session. Everyone started talking about what they had to say to themselves or what they need to build themselves up out of a negative situation. So yes, I had to go through a lot of hell to get to Good Morning Gorgeous. Because it's not coming from a place of vanity it's coming from a place of inner beauty and a strength. And it's a powerful word.
3. Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Being Invited By Dr. Dre To Perform In This Weekend’s Super Bowl Halftime Show…
Mary J. Blige: The rehearsals, oh my God. Everyone wants to be a fan and everyone wants to come down off the stage and run and watch each other's performance. It's amazing. People are going to be losing their minds. It's amazing.
Zane Lowe: Where were you when you got the phone call? Who called you? Dre called you? How'd you find out that this was even going to happen?
Mary J. Blige: Jimmy called me. Jimmy called me-
Zane Lowe: Mary.
Mary J. Blige: ... Yep. "I'm chilling, Jimmy." "Mary, got a surprise for you." And Dre jumps on the phone. "Yo Mary, what you think about doing the Super Bowl?" I was like, "What? Say less. I'm there.”
4. Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Fighting Through Stagnation and Evolving...
… it was also something that I had to go through. It was the process. It was understanding what stagnation is and understanding the feeling of stagnation and understanding that I'd rather go through the pain of changing and moving and evolving than the pain of staying stuck in stagnation. So I had to go through that process to say, "You know what? I'm tired of what everybody else thinks about me and what everybody else wants for me. I really truly want to be happy like I said on the My Life album. And I really want to feel what that feels like instead of just saying it." So I had to go through the process. So it was helpful and it was harmful, but I'm glad I had the strength and God gave me the strength to go through it all.
5. Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music How Her Divorce Was a Turning Point…
I was in the middle of a divorce straight up. And that low was lifting up off of me. I mean I was mad as a hell, but the sun was definitely trying, was definitely shining, was coming out from behind those clouds. And I realized I had a second chance to get myself together, to get my life together. And to find love for myself instead of searching for someone to fix me or help me with this, you know? So yeah, that was 2016 when I was like, "Okay. It's me and you Mary, we going to be all right.
6. Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Collaborating with Anderson .Paak…
I mean, he's one of my favorite artists and he's so soulful. And I knew when I heard the Malibu album I was like, "I have to work with this." He has an old soul, his spirit is old. Everything about Anderson is like stuff our parents grew up on, and a younger person and I just needed to... I had to work with him.
7. Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music How Acting in Mudbound Gave Her Confidence…
It was great for me. I think one of my best experiences was the Mudbound movie. I actually discovered that where that beauty and that self-love came from because I was all stripped completely down from wigs and hair and makeup and eyelashes and nails and clothes down to this woman who had to wear plats and just be this farm woman. And see myself in a picture and say, "Oh my God. I look terrible." But then get to the set and men are hitting on me like, "Yo, what's up?"
I'm like, "What do you mean? Who you talking to?" And people are like, "Wow. You're so you beautiful." And that's when I realized that beauty had nothing to do with the things that I'm wearing. Beauty had everything to do with what was in my heart. Because what I saw in that picture was not good and what this character played was not good. But that character helped me, gave me so much confidence in myself. And so I started walking around on set just with a afro, my own hair. Pick with a pick. After a while I started gaining some confidence because of Florence and her non vain role.
8. Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Choosing To Collaborate With Dave East…
Dave is always saying truthful thing. When you listen to his songs he's always coming from a place of his experience and that's how we came up in the game. And that's what made me gravitate toward him is how he makes you think and how he makes you feel. There's certain things in his songs that be like, well, almost make you want to cry. Just like what Nas was doing. So it's just the same thing that made me say, "Wow. Let's get him on this record. Because Rent Money is a really heavy topic and I'm sure he'll be able to kill it and deliver something crazy for this."
9. Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Her Super Bowl Commercial…
The Super Bowl ad I'm doing is with Hologic. And it's to create awareness about women getting mammograms. And for me what the commercial is about is if Mary J. Blige can keep this in her schedule in her busy day of all the things that she has to do then, I don't want to say then anybody else should because then I'm being judgemental. But it's about me being able to keep my appointments, to keep my health up. It's a priority for me. A lot of people haven't arrived there yet, but I'm here. And I'm letting everybody know I'm here. My health is my wealth and without my health I can't do this, I can't do my job, I can't... And women, we always put everybody in front of us. And I'm in a place where I'm not doing that anymore. I'm not putting anybody in front of me anymore. I'm putting my health first then I take care of my job and my life.
