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R&B CLASSICS: Mary J. Blige - What's The 411?

Discussion in 'Music Forum' started by The Lucky Moose, Jun 13, 2020.

  1. The Lucky Moose Jun 13, 2020
    (Last edited: Jun 13, 2020)
    The Lucky Moose

    I'm Emotional, I Hug the Block Prestigious

    Inspired by the Hip Hop Classics series of threads (the first one is up now, dedicated to Public Enemy’s timeless classic ‘It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’), some of us decided that we should do the same for Rap’s close relative R&B, in an effort to introduce more of you to the genre.

    The first album we will cover is Mary J. Blige’s 1992 debut album ‘What’s The 411?’, which was one of the albums responsible for R&B’s pivot towards Hip Hop and thereby helped lay the groundwork for what R&B would sound like decades to come. As Craig Jenkins writes:

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    @Henry Not sure if you want to pin this one too or not?
     
  2. The Lucky Moose Jun 13, 2020
    (Last edited: Jun 13, 2020)
    The Lucky Moose

    I'm Emotional, I Hug the Block Prestigious

    I hear some of you think, “if this is one of the albums that led to a paradigm shift, what are the others?”, which leads me to the elephant in the room that is R. Kelly. Some of us have talked about how to address this and we decided that ignoring his existence is not feasible when trying to talk about R&B history. We however also do not think that we should use our platform here to recommend listening to his albums. So, we hereby acknowledge the influence his work has had on the genre and popular music and leave it at that.
     
    xapplexpiex and riotspray like this.
  3. riotspray

    Prestigious Prestigious

    I'm gonna have to revisit this album (and R&B in general)

    When I was young (like 5-10 years old), I was super into hip hop and R&B (and this Mary J record was one of my favorites) - But around 10-11 years old, I was introduced to Metallica and got really into heavy music. I still listened to hip hop but the R&B kinda fell to the wayside and since the 90s/early 2000s, I haven't really heard a lot of R&B that's caught my attention. Will have to give it another shot because I'm sure there's a lot out there I would enjoy.
     
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  4. The Lucky Moose

    I'm Emotional, I Hug the Block Prestigious

    We got you
     
    riotspray likes this.
  5. Henry

    Moderator Moderator

    So I'm not sure what we should do with this thread. I think it's a great idea to do this and pin threads. I'm just not sure how many I want to have up there at once. It was one of the discussions we had at the onset of the site. Pinning too many things makes it so threads can't jump up on the first page.
     
    The Lucky Moose likes this.
  6. Henry

    Moderator Moderator

    Maybe unpin recently listened to and I can't find this song? I dunno.
     
    The Lucky Moose likes this.
  7. DaveyA89

    Newbie

    So as luck would have it, this album has a Gratitude episode on Apple Music as well, with Nelly Furtado discussing it
     
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  8. The Lucky Moose

    I'm Emotional, I Hug the Block Prestigious

    Up to you. You probably could unpin can’t find this song, because ironically people would find it.
     
  9. Jake W

    oh my god, I'm back on my bullshit Prestigious

    Haven't listened to the full album yet but I really liked what I've heard. Maybe I'll just prefer 90s R&B more than 00s like I do with hip hop lol
     
    riotspray likes this.
  10. cherrywaves

    Trusted

    Listened to this record for the first time last year. I don’t remember much about it other than that I liked it
     
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  11. xapplexpiex

    sup? Supporter

    I have not spent a lot of time with R&B, but I’ll give this a try tomorrow on my walk.
     
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  12. The Lucky Moose

    I'm Emotional, I Hug the Block Prestigious

    Personally, Mary was never one of my absolute favorite R&B artists, but I do love this album a lot.
     
  13. OotyPa

    fall away Supporter

    I have strong childhood memories attached to my mom driving me and my brother with this and other early Mary albums playing. It's a vibe, for sure. Real Love, Sweet Thing, and Slow Down are perfect songs.
     
    The Lucky Moose likes this.
  14. DeeRocka

    Newbie

    I would have to say that this was a "classic" indeed. May not have topped "My Life" in my opinion because on that Chucky was on fire.