Throughout her career Mary has continually earned our love from her honesty and our high regard from her ability to craft melodious words from her own life’s exposure to heartbreak, pain and now happiness. Never has the Bronx born, Yonkers NY raised icon made a track that one of us out here in the world of fans and listeners haven’t been able to relate to. And having worked with the best of the best from the Hip-Hop world, the rock world, the pop world, there is still an endless list of people Mary wants to work with, particularly one producer, “There are so many people that I want to work with, both young and old but as far as producers if I had my choice it would be Kanye West and I always say that because I truly think he has figured it out and he has probably always known what it was since he was a child as you can hear it.”

Regardless of how successful, she has become, who she has on her resume and just how celebrated Mary J Blige has become she is still that girl from around the way that can make you feel that she is singing that song note by note for just you and what you may be going through. As we have heard her 411, understood her Life, shared her world and finally celebrated when she realized that No More Drama would compensate her Love and Life, people forget, or sadly don’t realize as she embarks on her Breakthrough project just what other achievements this unique personality has under her belt. She heals us with her words but she also touches many with her actions.

So besides the platinum and gold discs, Ms. Mary J Blige, throughout her career, has won awards that your typical music fan may not be aware of. Amongst Grammies, MTV Video Music Awards, Soul Train awards there are awards that possibly mean just a little more than the rest; one being the Patrick Lippert Award which is Rock the Votes highest honor for involvement in community activism. But these awards are never mentioned in the same breath as the music awards and when asked if this bothered her, Mary explained to HiphopDX, “I would say it doesn’t really bother me because at the end of the day it is not about me blowing my horn that I have done this, it is about me getting it done and God rewarding me and giving me the reward, because anyone else may be like ‘I did this I did that,’ and I am not doing it for that, I am doing it because I really care about people.”

Mary has never faltered in paying her success forward by involving herself in abundant charitable organizations. Having raised substantial funds for aids charities, such as the City of Hope National Medical Center and playing an active role in organizations such as the Crest Healthy Smiles campaign which promotes oral hygiene and provides kids in deprived areas with the essentials to encourage healthy teeth, reaching out and helping those that need it, without a melody or video involved is equally important to Mary. She can make a difference to many, through her words, through her actions and all the while, maintain that authenticity she has encompassed from the first time she stepped center stage. Continued on page 3 »