But it’s really all about getting her man to kick the other women to the curb. On quick listen, this track (which samples Curtis Mayfield’s “Give Me Your Love”) might seem like a sexy, slinky boast. With Blige summoning some gospel conviction, it feels as if she’s reaching out to a higher power.Įmploying a piano sample from Isaac Hayes’ “Ike’s Mood,” this track perfectly captures Mary’s mood as she bittersweetly reminisces about “all those pretty memories.” Feeling the love in her voice, you can tell exactly why she’s longing for “the way we used to be.” It’s a plea from the gut that goes straight to the heart. But all of the melancholy is mesmerizing.Įvans also co-wrote this ballad, along with K-Ci Hailey, who sings backgrounds too. Built around that haunting “Baby don’t go” vocal hook, repeated like some kind of mantra, this track hypnotizes you into a world of hurt. This is one of three My Life tunes co-written by Faith Evans, who also sings background vocals. But in the sadness, there’s a real beauty.
This jazzy bop kicks off what is essentially the second half of the album, after the “My Life Interlude.” “I can’t deal with the fact that you don’t want me around/Why you wanna see me down?” she sings, referencing the emotional breakdown she’s just had on “I’m Goin’ Down.” But even if Mary’s not getting shown any love, she’s still staying and standing by her man.ĭespite the hip-hop strut in that beat - and the swag in that title - you can feel all of the vulnerability in Blige, who sounds almost defeated by the “unnecessary pain” that she’s had to endure. This ballad - in the minority as one of the songs not to feature any samples or interpolations - captures the painful ache in her fear of losing her man, who at the time was K-Ci Hailey of Jodeci. But still, working as part of the soulful fabric of the whole LP, it’s not a skip track either.īlige is pictured in a blue hue on the cover of My Life, and tracks such as this one are colored with the blues. Fresh and Slick Rick, it can’t compete with the defining moments on the rest of the album. Opening with that “There is no competition” vocal sample from “La Di Da Di,” the 1985 hip-hop classic by Doug E. Dalvin of Jodeci, this is the only original song on My Life that Blige didn’t have a hand in writing. My Life, nevertheless, emanates from some deep, dark place where both sadness and happiness cohabitate and turn into one single, beautiful sorrow.Produced by Mr. Blige's strain is sleekly modern and urban, and the grit in it comes from being streetwise and thoroughly realistic about the travails of life. Blige took a huge leap in artistry by penning almost everything herself (the major exception being Norman Whitfield's "I'm Going Down") in collaboration with co-producers Combs and multi-instrumentalist Chucky Thompson, and everything seems to leap directly from her gut. My Life is, from beginning to end, a brilliant, wistful individual plea of desire. The hip-hop part of the combination takes a few steps into the background, allowing Blige's tortured soul to carry the album completely, and it does so with heartwrenching authority. But it is some of the finest modern soul of the '90s, backing away to a certain extent from the hip-hop/soul consolidation that Blige introduced on her debut album. This certainly isn't your parents' (or grandparents') soul. The melodic sources this time around, though, are so expertly incorporated into the music that they never seem to be intrusions, instead playing like inspired dialogues with soulsters from the past, connecting past legacies with a new one. The production is not exactly original, and there is evidence here of him borrowing wholesale from other songs.
Perhaps the single finest moment in Sean "Puffy" Combs' musical career has been the production on this, Mary J.
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