Mary J Blige’s My Life (2021)

Directed by: Vanessa Roth | 82 minutes | documentary, music | Starring: Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Taraji P. Henson

You had enough R&B stars in the late eighties, early nineties. Blessed with a velvety voice, they often sang about love. Sometimes danceable, other times as a sultry ballad. Mary J. Blige was an up-and-coming singer in the early 1990s who had just such a sweet-voiced voice. She was barely 21 when she released her debut album ‘What’s the 411?’ in 1992. released. The record was an instant success; never before has a female R&B singer combined her vocals with the heavy beats that characterize hip-hop. But with the album she would make afterwards, ‘My Life’ from 1994, Blige really made an impression. The singer went through a turbulent time and described that with heart on her tongue in her songs. Making music as therapy to map the traumas from your young life, to reflect and to draw lessons from the past; it is the Blige that we now also know on this side of the ocean and it is that candor that makes us all think we know her. Because she may have been a superstar for 25 years, but because she shares her personal troubles with her fans, she retains the image of the ‘girl of the street’.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of ‘My Life’ in 2019, Blige held several anniversary concerts in the US, but also a documentary was made about the legendary album, which would later earn a place in the prestigious Top 500 Albums of All Time of Rolling Stone Magazine. In particular, the fact that Blige was the first unpolished female R&B artist to make her way into the grueling world of the entertainment industry, and not to lose any of her authenticity in the years since, contributes to her status as an icon of American music. Even if her music isn’t your ‘style’ at all, you believe her story. Someone like Amy Winehouse had that quality too; the talent to make her personal tragedy tangible through music, to convey it and to share it with the outside world.

The documentary, directed by Vanessa Roth, looks back with Blige and others involved on those early years and on the creation of the iconic album ‘My Life’. Using old photos and short animations, Roth paints a picture of Blige’s turbulent youth in ‘the projects’ in Yonkers, where she was confronted on a daily basis with violence against women, addiction and abuse. Experiences that shaped her for life. When she was seventeen, after a recording session in a shopping center, she was discovered by Uptown Records founder André Harrell, who passed away in 2020 and to whom the film is also dedicated. Initially, the record executives threatened to make her a dime-a-dozen singer, but Harrell paired her with the also very young A&R Sean ‘Diddy/P. Diddy/ Puff Daddy’ Combs, who helped her on the right track. Her debut album instantly made her a huge star, making it difficult for Blige to keep her head up. Battles with drink, drugs, depression and a troubled relationship with Jodeci singer Cedric ‘K-Ci’ Hailey caused her to start her second album completely out of balance. She incorporated the sheer despair she felt into her music. In the film, music producer Chucky Thompson and songwriter Big Bub endorse that the writing and recording sessions were therapeutic for Blige. She dared to take matters into her own hands, to process her own experiences in her lyrics and to share it with her fans through her music. For a black artist, a woman of only 23, that was quite special at the time.

‘Mary J Blige’s My Life’ receives full support from those directly involved, not least from Mary J. Blige herself. The singer is in fact one of the executive producers of the film on the role and that is usually a sign that the documentary is not too critical in tone. The ‘talking heads’ that were caught were mainly artists who worked with Blige (Nas, Method Man, Alicia Keys) and famous fans (Tyler Perry, Taraji P. Henson) who are especially lyrical about the album and about Blige, which turns this film into a superficial hagiography. We would also have liked to see more footage of the anniversary concerts from 2019 than we get now. After all, that’s what it’s all about: the music. The images of the contact that Blige has with the fans, however, make up for it. Because the meaning of the music for the fans, who say that they find comfort and support in the songs, hits the viewer most powerfully. What does this do to Blige, that’s what we want to know. But we do not get a concrete answer to those questions. Central to this is the creation of a legendary album, but images from the recording studio are only served to a very limited extent. Another missed opportunity is the fact that countless questions remain unanswered, so that the film remains very superficial and does not provide insight into how deep Blige had to go to make the album, what obstacles she encountered, how she did learn the success later on. offer, what influence ‘My Life’ has had on her later work, et cetera.

It’s clear that as executive producer, Blige has kept complete control over what she does and doesn’t want to share. Perhaps out of self-defense? That is of course her right. But it does detract from the quality of this documentary, which is therefore a lot less candid than the music that is discussed so lyrically in it.