Ever since the '90s, Mary J. Blige has made a living out of pouring her heart and soul
into her music.
But while the Grammy award-winning singer has proven she's a multi-faceted talent, she's
also overcome a deeply dark past.
This is the tragic story of Mary J. Blige.
Growing up in Yonkers, New York with her mom Cora, sister, five cousins, and two aunts,
Blige was always surrounded by music, according to the Telegraph.
Hits by Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle, were always on rotation.
But Blige's upbringing was anything but rosy.
She told The Guardian of her family,
"The environment that I was in - they'll be mad at me, but it's the truth - they were
angry, hateful, jealous, ignorant, prideful people."
Her relationship with her mother was also severely strained, particularly because mom
Cora had wanted to be a singer.
She said,
"It might be that she's living vicariously through me, but I believe she's gotten real
bitter about it.
It's probably why we've never really got along."
But by 2017, it appeared they had patched things up during VH1's Dear Mama event.
"Do you remember the best piece of advice your mom gave you growing up?”
“Yeah.
She always said don't let people worry you."
According to The Washington Post, Blige reportedly said, as a child, that she quote "didn't care
about getting an education," and she ultimately dropped out of school in the 11th grade.
But reading at only an eighth-grade level meant she ran into many issues throughout
her career.
She admitted,
"It hurts a lot when you cannot really comprehend what a person is saying in a meeting or you
don't even understand what you're reading in your contract."
In 2011, she finally made her education a priority by earning her GED, claiming, quote,
"Education […] is the key to life."
"The only thing I can say is please educate yourself, in every way you can, including
about yourself.
And just believe in yourself.”
In an interview with Makers, Blige described how her life took a turn after the release
of her debut album, What's the 411.
At the time, she was still living in the projects in Yonkers, and she quickly realized that
not everyone was thrilled with her new elevated status.
She said,
“People are buying your records, they want to see you.
People in the neighborhood wanted to kill you for it."
Admitting it was beyond challenging coming from poverty and going on to find such massive
success with her music, she tried to handle it as best she could.
"She's going to survive the only way she knows how.
I was resorting to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain."
She went on to record her sophomore album, My Life, which she described as her quote,
"call for help."
The winning formula for her album proved to be the quote "depression and all this oppression"
she was dealing with in her real life.
From there, she became a musical force to be reckoned with.
After facing so many devastating life events, Blige soon turned to drugs.
In a 2013 interview with Los Angeles Confidential, the singer opened up about her past addiction
to cocaine by saying,
"So many dark moments — which all added up and that's what sprung on the drug addiction,
trying to numb it all with the drugs."
But illicit drugs weren't her only vice.
The singer kicked her coke habit and swapped it for alcohol to quote, "cover up guilt.
Shame.
Abandonment."
Her wake up call occurred in 2012 following the death of a fellow singer.
"Whitney Houston was pronounced dead at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.”
Blige said of the legendary powerhouse,
"Whitney Houston's death really affected me.
Her death is another reason I stopped [drinking]."
To fight her addiction, Blige skipped rehab and instead turned to a higher power.
She claimed,
"I believe that anything man himself can do for me, God can do for me in a greater way.
I decided to pray and to seek God on my own.
I just stayed in The Word.
And it worked."
"I'm a child of God.
If he's amazing then I'm amazing.
I'm taking that.
That's it.”
In 2012, Blige admitted she has a different relationship with alcohol, but hasn't given
it up completely, telling Wendy Williams,
"I don't need alcohol to get me out of depression or get me out of a bad moment, but I have
occasional drinks with my friends."
In 2009, Blige co-founded a center in Yonkers called the Foundation for the Advancement
of Women Now.
The center was created as a safe haven where women and young girls could receive life skills,
self-help, and gain the tools they needed to become more empowered.
Blige said she was compelled to help women in particular, especially after what she had
experienced while growing up, telling CNN,
"As a child I [saw] women really, really suffer terrible, terrible situations, and I vowed
as a child to want to do something - anything - that can help them have better self-esteem
so that they don't have to be subjected to men that wanted to kill them."
"It was kinda like being programmed into our psyches that this is the way we're supposed
to live as women.”
But she continued to say the foundation's ribbon cutting ceremony gave her mixed feelings.
She added,
"It was happy and sad because you know the very place where I've seen so many women suffer
is the sad part, and the very place that I suffered is the sad part.
But the happy part is I'm back to help.
I'm back doing what I dreamed to do.
My dream is coming true."
"Believe in who you are.
You are going to move people.
Don't be afraid of the power that you have.”
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