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The Hip Hop Soul Queen During Mother’s Day weekend in Atlanta, Mary J. Blige will host the second annual Strength Of A Woman Festival. The legendary R&B group Jodeci is also on the bill.
Mary J. Blige and Jodeci were once two of the late Andre Harrell’s Uptown Records’ flagship acts. That music company from the 1990s also helped start the career of hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
When Mary J. Blige and the members of Jodeci perform at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on May 12, it will be the first time in over thirty years that the Platinum-selling Uptown Records originals share the same stage.
R&B Icons From The 1990s Collaborated On Several Projects
“At the end of the day, Jodeci and Mary J. Blige, we’re a family, and we helped each other in a lot of ways,” MJB remarked on V-103’s Audacy in an interview. “Me and [Jodeci member Joel “JoJo” Hailey] wrote some songs together, and he sang in the background.”
“So regardless of whatever our little beef was back in the day, we were young, but now we’re all grown,” Mary J. Blige said on V-103’s The Big Tigger Morning Show. At the end of the day, I’m a Jodeci fan. We recognize how important we are to one other, so seeing them was wonderful.”
Cedric “K-Ci” Hailey of Jodeci was featured on Mary J. Blige’s “I Don’t Want to Do Anything” from 1992’s What’s the 411? studio LP. Donald “DeVante Swing” DeGrate of Jodeci produced and co-wrote the song. In addition, JoJo and K-Ci wrote songs for Mary J. Blige’s second album My Life.
Both Mary J. Blige and Jodeci made their mark on the Billboard charts.
For several years, Mary J. Blige dated K-Ci. The alleged toxic relationship between the 9-time Grammy Award winner and K-Ci inspired the themes of sadness and abuse discussed in My Life. Blige acknowledges that she was in a “vulnerable, horrible state of mind” at the time.
Mary J. Blige’s discography includes the No. 1 albums Share My World, Love & Life, The Breakthrough, and Growing Pains, in addition to My Life, which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 chart. In 2001, her song “Family Affair” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Between 1991 and 1995, Jodeci released three studio albums: Forever My Lady, Diary of a Mad Band, and The Show, The After Party, The Hotel. All three Uptown Records-backed albums debuted at the top of the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list. In 2015, The Past, Present, and Future debuted.
Albums chart. The Past, The Present, The Future arrived in 2015.
