Mary J. Blige's giving all types of hype for tonight's big Apple Music Live Performance

As if the Attack The Culture’s Top 50 Must-Hear Apple Music playlist on the homepage wasn’t enough to get you to join the streaming giant, then allow the legendary Mary J. Blige to hype you up. The veteran crooner is gearing up for a massive live performance tonight none other than on the digital entertainment powerhouse.

Ahead of the big performance, check out her conversation with Apple Music’s Nadeska. Highlights from the conversation are below and keep scrolling to see Blige’s chop up session.

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Crafting The Set List For Her Apple Music Live Performance...

I feel great. This is a special night. I'm just so humbled by the whole invitation to even be here tonight. I’ve been touring and doing shows for years now so I know what the fans want to hear from each album. So, you know...classics… you can’t lose with that and of course they love “Good Morning, Gorgeous” and they love the album. But if you do not incorporate those classics… it will not be good. So, you start from the beginning. The performance is definitely gonna be like a history lesson because most of my songs are sample driven. This is gonna be fun, what I’m gonna do. It’s gonna be fun, it’s gonna be crazy. You gotta incorporate the classics, give them some new, give them some out, give them a rest, pick it back up and go home.

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music How Performing Today Differs From The Start of Her Career 30 Years Ago...

100% different from 30 years ago because I was nervous and scared and crazy 30 years ago. Now I just get a little bit of nerves and that's it. It's easier now, it's way easier than being young and not knowing what to expect. Now you're just like, "Okay, whatever happens happens, but I'm just going to give my best. I'm going to give 100% to the audience, no matter what.”

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Performing at the Super Bowl...

I don't even have the words to explain how full and how huge of an accomplishment that was. I just felt so strong. And I felt like first of all, grateful to have been asked, but I definitely felt like I earned that moment. I earned that moment. So when it was my turn, I just showed the world who I was. If you never seen me or you never met me or you never went to any of my shows, you know exactly who I am after the Super Bowl. I just couldn't wait to hit the Mary bopping. I just couldn't wait to just be myself and do what I do in front of that audience. That was the world, that was a big deal. I was so grateful.

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music Why She’s Proud of Herself and Her Career...

I'm super proud of myself and I've never thought I'd ever be able to say that in my lifetime, I am super proud of myself because I did a lot of work to get here. And I'm proud of my heart, I'm proud of my soul, my spirit, my work ethic, the people that I choose to be around me, the energy that I give to people, I'm proud. I'm super proud of how far I came because I come a long way.

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Being a North Star For A New Generation of Female R&B Singers…

It's a blessing. When I got the icon award, it all just started to register like, "Wow, I really did something, I really did something," but it's not like I did something because I was great all the time, I did something because I was going through all types of hell all the time. And I didn't have a choice. I had to walk through that hell. I had to watch all my business on the news. I had to listen to people laughing at me. I had to hear all this negative stuff. I had to go through all that hell in front of everybody for them to have what they have and they have great music and great songs and a lot of women are being more transparent because I tripped and fell a million times and got up. It's not like everything was great, a lot of things wasn't but now things are better than what they were and I'm acknowledging and embracing the good now. Although there's still bad stuff happening, I have to embrace the good to get out to keep from falling back into that. So I birthed a whole lot of beautiful, amazing female R&B singers because of the trials and tribulations that I've gone through and the lyrics in my songs.

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music How Her Song “You Remind Me” Changed Her Life…

I mean, it changed my life because it went on to the Strictly Business soundtrack for Uptown Records. And there's a lot of songs on that album. My song jumped off the album into the hands of all of the mixed show DJs and radio DJs. And I was living in the projects and they was playing this song every day, all day. And I was like, "Oh my God, this is bad. This is not good where I live at if you got a smash on the radio." So I was just trying to ignore the fact that I had a song out. And even before then, I had the song with Father MC I'll Do For You, and a video. So I was trying to ignore everything, I had to, I had to, because the environment didn't allow us to be too proud of or brag. It was scary because I was hood famous. I was a star. But I just was trying to act like I wasn't and make everybody else forget, because it was hell. It was not a good thing to have something.

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Battling Depression and Insecurity Between The Release of Her First Two Albums…

Oh, it was a lot because the depression and the fear that I was dealing with was all coming to a big head because I was in front of the world now and I was scared and I was insecure and I didn't think anything of myself. So I was doing everything under the sun to numb the pain, from drugs to alcohol, to just not taking care of myself and really just doing a lot of it. And so it was scary and I didn't love myself. And I was pushing through and it was like I was a ostrich, I had my head down in the dirt trying to walk and couldn't see, because I just didn't want to see myself. I didn't want to look at myself, I didn't want to hear myself. I don't know, just everything. Just when you get in front of people, you get in front of the world and you're on stage in front of the world and you are already insecure and you're young, man it's hell, it is hell and I couldn't handle it. So I was just turning to everything I could to not see myself.

Mary J. Blige Reflects on Early Diddy Memories…

... I was a knucklehead, so we bumped heads a lot. But it was for the good because at the end of the day, we loved each other and we made some beautiful music together.” "... Puff was really wanting it more than I did, and pushing me and pushing me. And I didn't know why he was pushing me so hard. And now today, I see why he was pushing me so hard.

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Hearing From Fans About The Impact of ‘You Remind Me’ on Their Lives…

… when I meet all these fans, what My Life meant to be didn't mean that for them, a lot of them said, "This album helped me to get married. This album got me through college." I'm like, "I was going through hell," so it has different meanings for everybody. And what's crazy about that and amazing is that just me being transparent just touched a lot of people in a lot of ways. And I thought I was being sad, which I was, and people are like, "That's my song. I got married to that." I'm like, "Married? I was dying.”

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About The Title Track From Her Most Recent Album ‘Good Morning, Gorgeous’…

Well, I was going through another difficult time in my life and I was in the middle of getting out of that difficult time, but I was in it still deep. And I was never enough, I couldn't please this person, there was nothing I could do. And I realized that when someone hates you more than you hate you got to, you got some real serious work to do. And I didn't know what to do. And one day I was watching TV Jakes, and he said, "What you say about you is way more important and way more effective than what anybody else could say or think about you." And it just struck everything in my body. And I just started during my prayer, waking up and saying, "Good morning, beautiful, good morning, gorgeous. Good morning, Mary, I love you. Good morning, talented." I just started saying those things, even if I didn't believe it, but I used the word gorgeous because I didn't believe that. And I was like, "I need to say something that I never thought was possible." You think say gorgeous, you think of Apolonia, you think of all the beautiful wavy hair girls. But I had to say that. And when I started saying that it took a while, but it started manifesting from the inside. That's why I said, "I'm not talking my hair and makeup," and I do it in the morning when I look in the mirror morning, when I go to the bathroom for the first time and you look in the mirror and you like, "Good morning, gorgeous," little crust in your eyes. And it registers in your heart and your insides. And it's began to grow from the inside out. And that's why this is nice, but this is nicer, because this carries all of this, I had all this stuff when I was going through hell, but it didn't mean anything. Now it all means something and I appreciate it all because it's from the inside.

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Collaborating with H.E.R…

The first time I saw her perform was at the Black Girl's Rock Show and I was getting honored and I was sitting in the front row where she came out with this guitar and all this hair. And I would say, "Who was this beautiful little girl with this bass?" And she was saying, and I was in love from day one. Her music was just incredible. So standing ovation and much, much, much love to her. And I always wanted to work with her. And this was the opportunity. She heard through the grapevine, we called her, it happened and the session was amazing because she's just beautiful and a musician she's got a bass, she's like, "So what are we talking about?" She's beautiful.

Mary J. Blige Tells Apple Music About Collaborating With Summer Walker…

And to meet Summer Walker, who's another beautiful person and super talented and to have my arms open and love on them because I was young and I didn't get that kind of love from a lot of the people that came before me. So I just wanted, "What we doing? How we doing it? You all can help me too, I need some help too. What's new?" You got to keep your ear to the youth so they can help you too.