Mary J. Blige's 10 Best Hip-Hop Collaborations

When we call Mary J. Blige the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul it means so much more than her being a singer who flows over classic Awesome Two beats. When “Real Love” hit the streets in the summer of ’92, R&B’s future was uncertain. Sophisticates Luther Vandross and Anita Baker were carrying on in a time-honored tradition, Teddy Riley had created a niche with his swing beats, but hip-hop, already coming into its third generation, was staging a straight takeover.

Sales were soaring, record labels were dedicating whole divisions to the evolving sound, and radio stations that had once boasted “hip-hop free zones” were flipping their formats. Rap was charting. Hardcore songs that in the past could’ve only hoped for jeep rotation were receiving regular spins in major radio markets. There were girls in the game, but the testosterone was so dominant that b-girls still favored the safety of baggy jeans over corsets and camisoles.

Enter Mary J. Blige. Here was a singer who didn’t dress her personal struggles in a gown and give them vague euphemisms. Mary spelled out her pain, the poverty that had shaped her childhood and the bankrupt way young men and women were attempting love in the hip-hop generation. Her early collabos flowed like duets—not guest spots.

A cruise through her catalog and collaborations is a short cut to each era’s most important MCs. She learned to rap with Grand Puba, pushed the Lox out of Yonkers, she gave the Notorious B.I.G. his first ever official gig, blessing him with a few bars on her remix to “Real Love” when he was still a demo tape sensation, living in the back of his mom’s Bed-Stuy apartment.

"She has a musical library in her head," says Hank Shocklee, the legendary Public Enemy producer who Executive Produced her best-selling Share My World. "She knows all the classic singers and MCs and not just their hits—she knows the B-sides.” It’s that musical knowledge that gives her ears an edge. Mary's love of music has pointed her in the direction of new talent and kept her own sound in front of her own peers, helping to guide hip-hop itself.

But despite her singular occupation of a male-dominated art form, Mary has always concerned herself with love. She was unafraid to go to those painful places, where mornings feel like they’re covered in a blanket of wet sand, where rejection and lies rip strong women to pieces. She perched that pain on stiletto python boots and paraded it for the whole world to see.

There is no shame in vulnerability, she preached to a generation that liked to think itself bulletproof. An open heart was her gift to her fans and we fell deeply in love with this loyal-to-love singer, unable to hide her scars. Even when she wasn’t giving herself the love she deserved, she was royal and true. Thankfully her story didn’t end there, stuck in self-sacrifice.

When Mary began to choose herself, she literally dug her way up, fighting for self-respect, self-love, manifesting the kind of love that soars. She began to sing about spiritual bonding and shared dreams. And they weren’t fantasies, she promised. This new kind of healthy love was as real as the painful love she’d known as a younger woman. Album by album she tracked a path, taking her fans on a journey towards fulfillment. As Hov put it, “When Mary sings it heals your soul…”

As we await the release of her 10th album My Life II… The Journey Continues—on which she reportedly spits a few bars herself, recording under the pseudonym Brook Lynn—let’s take a look back at Mary J. Blige’s 10 greatest rap collabos.

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Written by dream hampton (@dreamhampton)

Year: 1992

Album: What’s The 411?

Complex says: Though she wasn't using the name "Brook Lynn" at the time, Mary debuted her rap alter ego on this collabo. I happened to be in the studio the night they recorded this. I was skeptical when Puff said she planned to trade bars with Puba. But Mary nailed her verses in less than three takes.

Year: 1997

Album: Share My World

Complex says: It was Mary who put her Yonkers' brothers the Lox on, and they gave her respect like she was royalty. She's always considered Kiss one of the best to ever touch the mic, and on this record he shows why.

Year: 1993

Album: What's the 411? Remix

Complex says: On her remix album, where Mary made room on all the songs from her debut for a dozen rapper's bars, Mount Vernon's C.L. Smooth shone. Inviting him on her debut's second major single—a song about remembering—was Mary's nod to "T.R.O.Y," C.L. and Pete Rock's tribute to Heavy D's "Boy" Trouble T Roy.

Year: 1998

Album: The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill

Complex says: Mary respected the fact that Lauryn was a producer. Hank Shocklee once described Mary's ear as "better than a DJ's." In another world, Mary would have been a producer herself. Here she and Lauryn help each other through the disappointment of false starts at love.

Year: 1990

Album: Father’s Day

Complex says: Mary sang background vocals on this radio hit for Uptown Records. The label barely knew she existed at the time. She was pre-weave and fresh out the karaoke booth at her local Westchester mall. Puff "saw" her, asked his boss Andre if he could take her off the shelf and practice making albums with her. The rest is history.

Year: 1992

Album: N/A

Complex says: This was Big's first studio recording, made in Daddy-O's basement just weeks after he met Puff. Big only had a few bars to claim his space and he took his time on the Queen's single seriously. For him Mary was not only a crush, she symbolized the kind of success he dreamed of accomplishing with Puff.

Year: 1996

Album: Reasonable Doubt

Complex says: Mary graced Jay-Z's debut album when he was a new emcee on an indie label and she was a platinum-selling, chart-topping singer working on her third album. Serenading her generation's everyman, the hustler, Mary's disposition is deep understanding. She is more than a moll here, down to shop; she has the power to grant Jay a pardon for his crime—and she refuses to judge.

Year: 1997

Album: Share My World

Complex says: Kim and Mary had each other's back on this showdown song. This is a 'I'll ride with my girl to the hotel room door and kick it down' kind of night. It's about competition and hierarchy, an unabashed wrestling match to be wifey.

Year: 1995

Album: Tical

Complex says: Many would put this classic at the top of their lists. Some have marched down the aisle to Meth and Mary's remaking of Tammy and Marvin's ode to devotion. The New York Times published essays about this hit, citing it as an all-time signature summertime anthem. Summer is for lovers, and Mary and Meth played star-crossed hood lovers like they were born to each other.

Year: 1996

Album: Ironman

Complex says: Like Gil Scott, Ghostface strips the shame from poverty with this naked recording that sounds like it was written on a crowded, pissy mattress. Ghost reached deep inside when he went into the studio with Mary, revealing a side he's not shown since. He rhymes about picking roaches out of dry cereal, borrowing food from a neighbor, and sharing a bed with a half dozen relatives. Mary is understanding itself, acting as the universal mother, holding Ghost up, holding him down.