John Dote' Breaks Through With Mary J Blige Deep Inside
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Born in The Bronx, New York City, New York to a jazz musician father and a nurse mother, Mary was exposed to music from an early age. At the age of four, Mary's father, Thomas, left the family, leaving her mother Cora to raise Mary and her older sister Latonya alone. (On the February 1, 2006 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Mary revealed that she was sexually assaulted as a child by a family friend.) A couple years later, Mary's family relocated to Yonkers, where they resided in one of the city's most dangerous housing projects. Music eventually became Mary's refuge, singing lead in her church's choir, and at seven she won a talent contest singing Aretha Franklin's "Respect."
While continuing to remain true to her love of music, as Mary entered her teen years, she began experimenting with recreational drugs and eventually dropped out of high school.
She has a young brother named Bruce Miller ( he contributed lyrics to Family Affair ), as well as sisters LaTonya Blige-DaCosta ( the woman dancing with Mary in her Family Affair music video ) and Jonquell.
Music career
In 1988, at age seventeen, Mary recorded an impromptu coverof Anita Baker's 1986 "Caught Up In The Rapture" at a recording booth in a local shopping mall. Mary's mother's boyfriend at the time later played the cassette for a music industry contact, Jeff Redd, a recording artist and A&R runner for Uptown Records. Redd sent it to the president and CEO of the label, Andre Harrell. At the time, the fledgling Uptown was home to a few noted hip-hop and R&B acts of the day, including Heavy D & The Boyz and Guy. Harrell met with Mary, and in 1989, she was signed to the label – becoming the company's youngest and first female artist.
After signing with Uptown, Mary's early years at the company were dormant as the label continued to focus most of its attention on its more established acts. During that time Mary became the label's background singer. Her first appearance to the world came in 1990 when Mary did her first live show as a background singer for artist Jeff Redd at the Apollo. In the same year she also sang the hook on "I'll Do 4 U" by rapper and label mate Father MC. Mary also appeared in the concert-themed music video, in the role of a back-up singer.
Uptown finally greenlit production for Mary's debut album in 1991. Andre Harrell's young protégé, up-and-coming label executive, Sean "Puffy" Combs was asked to oversee the project. Also enlisted were some of the top R&B and hip-hop producers of the time, among them were Tony Dofat, Mark Morales (of The Fat Boys fame) and Mark C. Rooney, and Dave "Jam" Hall. Also included in the producers mix were Combs, and Donald "DeVante Swing" DeGrate (member of, and driving force behind, fellow Uptown act Jodeci). The latter association would introduce Mary to Jodeci group member Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey, with whom she embarked on a long and tumultuous relationship.
On July 28, 1992, Uptown released What's The 411?. That summer, the album's lead single, "You Remind Me," was released to radio and eventually peaked at number twenty-nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and climbed to number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. It was followed up that fall with "Real Love," which fared even better – becoming Blige's second number-one on the R&B singles charts and first top 10 Hot 100 single, where it peaked at number seven. Both singles were also certified Gold.
More What's The 411? singles followed into 1993, including: "Reminisce,"
In December 2005, news spread that Blige had landed the starring role in the upcoming MTV Films biopic on Nina Simone. She was personally targeted for the role by the film's writer, Cynthia Mort, who felt Blige was the perfect person to bring Simone to life. There is no word yet as to when the movie will start shooting.
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