*Retirement may be imminent for Mary J. Blige, but with a new album on the way, a new film out now, and a solid approach to living her best life, don’t expect her to be in that mindstate anytime soon.
Reflecting on the latest single, the Fabolous-included “Breathing,” Blige approached her forthcoming and possibly final album with an attitude of appreciating herself and her journey. The new release is slated to arrive later this year.
“I can stop holding my breath now and exhale,” the 53-year-old hip-hop soul queen told HuffPost of the single, which dropped earlier this month. “It’s about the celebration of what true love really is. And what true love really is for me, is the love that I found for myself.”
With a life filled with personal and professional highs and lowlights, Blige is the personification of the music she sings.
And fans who have been with her since her start with her first album “What’s the 411,” and its fellow epic successor “My Life,” can testify, with its sounds and messages infiltrating on a personal level.
Thank you, TD Jakes.
“I used to watch [his sermons] in the morning, and he said, ‘What you believe about you and say about yourself is more effective than what anyone else could say about you,’” she recalled about how the prominent pastor and therapy have helped her shift to a better mentality. “That’s what started it for me. And my therapist, now, she’s saying the same thing, you have to believe the best of you. You have to believe the best of you.”
In addition to Fabolous, Blige has fellow New Yorker Jadakiss on board for the new album as well as others who she is tightlipped on. No matter what, her approach to the project is a notable one compared to earlier musical offerings.
“Each time [I’m recording an album] I’ll be like, ‘gosh, I really don’t know how to do this,’” she said of her process, explaining that her confidence in the music grows as she works on it more. But she has suspended doubt with her forthcoming album. “It’s great. The next single that’s coming after this is pretty damn incredible. I don’t even speak like that, but I have to. I’m speaking like that now.”
Blige’s new album approaches as she returns to the big screen with her latest feature, “Rob Peace.” Directed by and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film, which arrived in theaters on Aug. 16, is based on the true story of Rob Peace (Jay Will), a young Black man from Newark who tries to reconcile his path to creating a new, better future for himself with his determination to not leave his community behind. At the center of that work is helping his father (Ejiofor), who’s serving a life sentence, get his murder conviction overturned.
Blige’s attachment to the drama is personal, as it hits close to home with her drawing inspiration from her mother, Cora Blige, to play Jackie, Rob’s mother. In the film, Jackie advises her son to stay focused on creating a better life for himself.
“She was that woman living in the inner cities and in the projects wanting her children to have more and more than anything in the world, and wanting us to succeed,” Blige shared about her matriarch. “And being just a single parent mom trying to do that, the deadbeat dad and my mom went through the whole thing.”
For more of Mary J. Blige’s interview with HuffPost, click here.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mary J. Blige Lead Cast in Heart-Wrenching True Story ‘Rob Peace’ | Watch Trailer
