This intro is FIE! Whoever put this stageshow together is brilliant, especially with the Rick James "Mary Jane." This is how you put on a show. All hail the Queen Of Hip-Hop Soul

This is one of my favorite live performances. You can automatically feel that they were dating and truly singing this song to each other. The album version was already classic & they proceded to even blow it out of the water.

And say what you want about K-Ci, he is the reason that Mary J wrote & recorded a classic album ("My Life") all about him lol. And I miss when MTV did Unplugged. I don't think too many current singers could even attempt to do one.

This song is still one of my favorite R&B/Hip-Hop collabos of all time from Mary's Whats The 411? Remix album. Absolutely flawless and they ripped this live performance (crazy that I still remember watching this as a yungin and have it on VHS lol). Mary just exemplifies that 90s around-the-way-girl steez on here (peep the big hoops, Jodeci boots and Cross Colours hanging off the shoulder lol). I'm shocked nobody's remade this cut.

And besides being a dope rapper, Grand Puba (from the group Brand Nubian) is without a doubt the most underrated trendsetter in rap history. Its almost 20 years later and we're still rocking trends that he started (he also started the word "skins," which is slang for...umm..."gettin female affection" lol).

Grand Puba is the man singlehandly responsible for popularizing Girbauds & Tommy Hilfiger clothing popular by constantly namedropping & rocking them, which made baggy preppy clothing cool with the hip-hop generation in the early 90s. In fact, on the album version of this song, he says "Girbauds hangin baggy/Tommy Hilfiger top gear" but switched it to Polo because that was what he was rocking on this performance (I'd still kill for this Alpine Polo rugby).

Here's a quote from a 2004 article from the NY Times that shows how huge Puba's influence on the fashion industry is:

"In the early 1990's, at Kennedy Airport, as Mr. Hilfiger and his brother Andy were returning from a business trip, they saw a group of young men sauntering through the terminal, wearing monstrously large versions of Tommy's clothing line. Andy Hilfiger, a former rock musician, introduced his brother to Maxwell Dixon, a rapper known as Grand Puba, who was one of the group.

Mr. Hilfiger remembers that he was delighted with the way they wore his clothes, and started making some clothes bigger and brighter, and some logos immense."

Puba also was hip-hop's first "backpacker" and the man behind wearing high-end backpacks. Kanye got his entire College Dropout dress style from what Puba started over a decade before.  So let this be a lesson to all you yungins that nothing is new, its just recycled and repackaged for a different generation!

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 Fifteen years ago Mary J. Blige released My Life, a breakthrough album chronicling her inner struggles while catapulting her to superstardom as the Queen of Hip Hop Soul. In celebration of this milestone, we gathered nine dynamic male artists to record re-imaginings of their favorite My Life songs for Men Love Mary: A Tribute to My Life, a digital EP presented by SoulBounce. The EP is hosted by one of Bad Boy's legendary "Hitmen," Chucky Thompson, who was a key producer on the My Life album.

My Life was a pivotal point in Mary's career where her voice shined as a beacon of hope and understanding to men and women all over the world. Men Love Mary: A Tribute to My Life offers a fresh perspective from Eric Roberson, Jesse Boykins III, Slakah the Beatchild, Nino Moschella, Bradd Marquis, TL Cross, Darien, D Maurice, Fave and Siik--a new generation of artists inspired by her sincerity, longevity and artistry. My Life was about Mary's relationship with one man, and now many men have reinterpreted these songs in an effort to pay tribute to an artist who has given us so much of herself.

As a culture, we do a great job of paying tribute to our stars posthumously. Men Love Mary: A Tribute to My Life is an opportunity to celebrate our Queen and let her know how much she means to us and to music. This is our chance to honor her and give her flowers while she's still here, and we're sharing the bouquet with her adoring fans.

SoulBounce is proud to present to you this labor of love, Men Love Mary: A Tribute to My Life. Download the EP and enjoy these new renditions of some of your favorites from My Life.

via SoulBounce