Mary J. Blige burst onto the music scene in 1992 with the iconic album What's the 411? and the R&B/pop climate hasn't been the same since she introduced her soulful yet edgy hip-hop meets pop sound.

Although born in the Bronx, Blige grew up in Savannah, GA, singing at her Pentecostal church before her family moved to the New York suburb of Yonkers, where she endured a rough adolescence in the Schlobam housing projects. Blige recorded her first demo tape, a version of Anita Baker's "Caught Up in the Rapture," at a strip mall karaoke studio and signed with Uptown Records after label CEO Andre Harrell heard the tape. Sean "Puffy" Combs (as he was known in the pre-Diddy days) took her under his wing and her debut album What's the 411? went straight to the top of the pop (#6) and R&B (#1) charts in 1992 thanks to its unique blend of urban music with classic soul sounds (the album featured a cover of Chaka Khan's "Sweet Thing".) The album's single "Real Love" rendered Blige as the year's biggest crossover artist and hailed her the "queen of hip-hop soul music," a title which she proudly wears today. Blige issued her sophomore album, My Life, in 1995 but parted ways with Combs and Uptown soon after its release, signing with MCA and hiring Suge Knight as her financial advisor.

In 1997 Blige's album Share My World debuted at number one and was followed by 1999's Mary, which took her in a more classic soul direction. In 2001 Blige released her most personal effort yet, No More Drama, which was a clear departure from the album that put her on the map, What's the 411? The mature Blige reunited with Combs (now P. Diddy) for 2003's Love and Life and two years later she released The Breakthrough, which lived up to its name with the popularity lead single "Be Without You." Blige released her eighth studio album, Growing Pains, in 2007.