Track Listing

1. Intro (Mary J. Blige/My Life)
2. Mary Jane (All Night Long) - Chucky Thompson, Mary J. Blige, P. Diddy, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Tony Maserati
3. You Bring Me Joy
4. Marvin Interlude
5. I'm The Only Woman
6. K. Murray Interlude - Chucky Thompson, Mary J. Blige, Nashiem Myrick, Nashiem Sa Allah Myrick, P. Diddy, Sean "Puffy" Combs
7. My Life
8. You Gotta Believe - Chucky Thompson, Herb Middleton, Mary J. Blige, P. Diddy, Sean "Puffy" Combs
9. I Never Wanna Live Without You - Chucky Thompson, Herb Middleton, Mary J. Blige, P. Diddy, Sean "Puffy" Combs
10. I'm Goin' Down - "Prince Charles" Alexander, "Prince" Charles Alexander, Chucky Thompson, Mark "Led" Ledford, Mary J. Blige, P. Diddy, Sean "Puffy" Combs
11. My Life Interlude
12. Be With You
13. Mary's Joint
14. Don't Go
15. I Love You
16. No One Else - Mary J. Blige, Mr. Dalvin
17. Be Happy - "Prince" Charles Alexander, Mary J. Blige, P. Diddy, Poke, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Tony Maserati
18. (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman - Mary J. Blige

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13797 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 68 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
During one of the "interludes" on My Life, Keith Murray is rapping about "Grab your cranium for my ultimatum", when someone in the studio control booth asks producer Chucky Thompson, "Hey, Chuck, put on some of that smooth [stuff]". Murray disappears; the dreamy synth chords of Blige's title track emerge, and her sultry voice moans with a combination of weary loneliness and unslaked desire. The ballad which follows is "smooth" but never slick, for the singer's sinuous, extended notes confess the blues even as they yearn for something better. It's tempting to see this little scenario--the rapper being turned off in favour of the soul diva--as a repudiation of hip-hop in favour of old-fashioned R&B. An honest listen-to-this album, however, makes such an interpretation impossible. Blige does no actual rapping herself on her long-awaited second outing, but the sound of "My Life" would have been impossible without hip-hop. The results confirm the promise of Blige's '92 debut; she is the premier soul diva of the hip-hop generation. --Geoffrey Himes

CD Description
The immediate success of her triple-platinum debut WHAT'S THE 411? put Mary J. Blige in a singular class as a soul-hop visionary, and opened the door for other hip-hop-influenced R&B acts. Yet as the follow-up approached, the nature of hertalent began to be questioned, and the strength of her debut became an obstacle.
If Blige heard all those rumours, she must've decided that musical revenge is the best payback of all. Thus, MY LIFE comes across as another ground-breaking venture, linking R&B's new and old schools, filling the airwaves with delightful harmonies AND hip-hop samples. When Blige connects with her music's roots, she doesn't pussy-footaround soul's perimeters searching for eligible influences--so "You Bring Me Joy", "My Life" and "Be Happy" sample suchluminaries as Barry White, Roy Ayers and Curtis Mayfield, respectively. The reconstruction of the Mary Jane Girls' "AllNight Long" is (Mary Jane) Blige's shout-out to the funky '80s, while "Don't Go" is a feminist retort to Guy's "Goodbye".
Even though much of the album's musical direction is steered by producers Sean "Puffy" Combs and Chucky Thompson, Blige is the dominant songwriter here. And that's the main reason MY LIFE turns out to be such a statement of purpose--a17-song diary full of Blige's life, love, and struggles in defending her title as the queen of hip-hop soul.

Customer Reviews

the best soul album ever?????......... maybe
i decided recently that if i could only have one album for the rest of my life......it would be this.....anybody who likes soul, r&b or wotever you wanna call it should hear this album.....

if you only listen to ashanti and co then buy this album and witness how hip-hop inspired soul is meant to sound......

Mary J. Blige lets you inside her diary
If you want to hear a woman in love with a man who is in the process of dumping her than My Life is waiting for your ears. Song by song, Blige lets listeners into her troubled relationship with K-Ci Hailey from the R&B group Jodeci. She may not have the best voice in the world, but like her debut album, What's The 411?, Blige still lets you know she is and will always be the Queen of Hip Hop Soul. This time singing over more sophisticated samples, Blige opens up with the Rick James sampled "Mary Jane," in which she pleads, "if you give me one more chance/I can still show you romance." A couple of tracks later she takes you into "I'm The Only Woman" and if you know Blige, you know she's not afraid to hide her feelings on wax. It takes a few minutes but Blige goes from "I'm The Only Woman" to the Roy Ayers sampled "My Life." Sounding like she's on the verge of tears she quails, "if you look at my life you will see I'm so blue." As much as we love her honesty on some tracks it's clearly blatant she's a woman in love on the bass driven, "Be With You"

One of her best!
My Life, the follow-up to 1992's What's The 411?, sees Mary change direction. Gone is the minimal backing of Changes I've Been Going Through, instead the tracks are backed by a range of synthesisers and a full band. While it's predecessor was more hip-hop influenced, My Life heads in a more soulful diection, as shown on tracks such as I'm Goin' Down, her signature tune. 70's soul samples by the likes of Barry White, Curtis Mayfield and Roy Ayers are used to full effect on the hip-hop soul of You Bring Me Joy, the classic sounding I'm The Only Woman and the dreamy My Life. Each track is good or very good, with the exception of the dull, overlong ballads You Gotta Believe and Never Wanna Live Without You. Overall, one of Mary's most consistent works.