What's the 411? | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 28, 1992 | |||
Recorded | 1991–1992 | |||
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Length | 51:59 | |||
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Mary J. Blige chronology | ||||
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Singles from What's the 411? | ||||
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What's the 411? is the debut album by American R&B singer Mary J. Blige. It was released on July 28, 1992, by Uptown Records and MCA Records. After signing a record contract with Uptown, Blige began working on the album with producer Sean "Puffy" Combs. Other producers and songwriters included DeVante Swing, Tony Dofat, Dave Hall, Mark Morales and Mark "Cory" Rooney. The resulting music covered hip hop soul, contemporary R&B, and new jack swing styles.
What's the 411? was also met with positive reviews from critics, who applauded Blige's singing and the combination of hip hop and soul music, which led to her being named the "Queen of Hip Hop Soul". The album peaked at number six on the US Billboard 200 and topped the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. [2] It was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and eventually sold 3.5 million copies.
At the age of 17, Blige recorded a cover version of Anita Baker's "Caught Up in the Rapture" in a recording booth at a local mall. Her mother's boyfriend at the time later played the cassette to recording artist and A&R runner for Uptown Records, Jeff Redd. [3] Redd then sent it to the president and chief executive officer of the label, Andre Harrell. Blige met with Harrell in 1990 and performed the song for him. [4] [5] She was signed to Uptown and became the label's youngest and third female recording artist (after Finesse N' Synquis). [6]
After being signed to Uptown Records, Blige began working with record producer Puff Daddy. [5] He became the executive producer and produced a majority of the album. [7] The title, What's the 411?, derived from Blige's past occupation as a 4-1-1 operator; [8] it was also an indication by Blige of being the "real deal". [9] The music was described as "revelatory on a frequent basis". [10] Blige was noted for having a "tough girl persona and streetwise lyrics". [11] The album begins with "Leave a Message", a collection of Blige's answering machine messages over a drum beat. The following two tracks, "Reminisce" and "You Remind Me", are melancholy songs that are overlaid with hip hop beats. [12] A cover of Chaka Khan's "Sweet Thing" followed. [13]
What's the 411? was released on July 28, 1992. [14] It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. [2] It also peaked at number 53 on the UK Albums Chart. [15] The first single released to promote the album was "You Remind Me", originally from 1991 film Strictly Business . It reached the number 29 position on the pop charts and number 1 on the R&B charts in 1992. The next single, "Real Love" (#7 pop, #1 R&B, 1992), made Blige one of the year's biggest crossover successes. [16]
With the album, Blige became the most successful new female R&B artist of 1992 in the United States, according to music scholar Dave McAleer. [17] Reporting on the album's commercial success for Entertainment Weekly that year, Dave DiMartino said Blige's "powerful, soulful voice and hip-hop attitude" made her "solidly connected with an audience that has never seen a woman do new jack swing but loves it just the same". [18] The following year, a remix album was released to further market What's the 411?, while "Sweet Thing" reached number 28 on the pop charts as a single. [16]
In 2000, What's the 411? was certified triple platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over three million copies. [19] As of July 2022, it has sold 3.5 million copies in the United States. [20]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Bravo | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Calgary Herald | C+ [22] |
Chicago Tribune | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Christgau's Consumer Guide | ![]() |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Entertainment Weekly | A [26] |
Los Angeles Times | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
MusicHound R&B | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Orlando Sentinel | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
What's the 411? received positive reviews from contemporary critics. [14] Reviewing the album for Entertainment Weekly in 1992, Havelock Nelson hailed it as "one of the most accomplished fusions of soul values and hip-hop to date" while comparing Blige's "powerful voice" to Khan, Anita Baker, and Caron Wheeler. [26] Connie Johnson from the Los Angeles Times was particularly impressed by her rendition of "Sweet Thing" and "You Remind Me", calling the latter track "one of those perfect singer-to-song matches". [27] People magazine said the album succeeded because of Blige's "fly-girl attitude" and singing ability, even though "she may not be Chaka Khan or Gladys Knight". [30] Mitchell May was more critical in the Chicago Tribune , writing that aside from the title track and "Sweet Thing", What's the 411? was marred by dull production and "silly lyrics" depriving the singer of self-esteem. [23] Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was largely unimpressed, grading the album a "dud" in his consumer guide. [31] He later upgraded his score to a one-star honorable mention—indicating "a worthy effort that consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like"; he named "Sweet Thing" and "Real Love" as highlights while writing that "real is not enough, but attached to the right voice it's something to build on". [24]
The album was voted the year's 30th best in the Pazz & Jop—an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published by The Village Voice. [32] It also earned Blige two Soul Train Music Awards in 1993: Best New R&B Artist and Best R&B Album, Female. [33]
What's the 411? has since been viewed by critics as one of the 1990s' most important records. [14] Blige's combination of vocals over a hip hop beat proved influential in contemporary R&B. [34] With the album, she was dubbed the reigning "Queen of Hip Hop Soul", Stanton Swihart wrote in a retrospective review for AllMusic. He called it "the decade's most explosive, coming-out displays of pure singing prowess". [10] According to David O'Donnell from BBC Music, What's the 411? was groundbreaking in its fusion of R&B hooks and hip hop beats, creating the formula for the contemporary R&B of the following decade. He complimented Blige's "sweet, soulful vocals", in line with Puff Daddy's "rough, jagged, hip-hop beats made for a winning combination that remains one of Blige's finest albums". [35] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Tom Moon wrote that with the album, Blige offered "a gritty undertone and a realism missing from much of the devotional love songs ruling the charts at that time." [11]
In 2020, the album was ranked 271 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. [36]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Leave a Message" |
| 3:38 | |
2. | "Reminisce" |
| 5:24 | |
3. | "Real Love" |
|
| 4:32 |
4. | "You Remind Me" |
| Hall | 4:19 |
5. | "Intro Talk" (performed by Busta Rhymes) |
|
| 2:17 |
6. | "Sweet Thing" |
| 3:46 | |
7. | "Love No Limit" |
| Hall | 5:01 |
8. | "I Don't Want to Do Anything" (featuring K-Ci Hailey of Jodeci) | Devante Swing | DeVante Swing | 5:52 |
9. | "Slow Down" |
|
| 4:33 |
10. | "My Love" |
| Hall | 4:14 |
11. | "Changes I've Been Going Through" |
|
| 5:15 |
12. | "What's the 411?" (featuring Grand Puba) |
|
| 4:13 |
Notes
Sample credits
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Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI) [44] | Silver | 60,000* |
United States (RIAA) [45] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and actress. Often referred to as the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and "Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Awards, twelve NAACP Image Awards, and twelve Billboard Music Awards, including the Billboard Icon Award. She has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, including one for her supporting role in the film Mudbound (2017) and another for its original song "Mighty River", becoming the first person nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year.
Uptown Records is an American record label, based in New York City, founded in 1986 by onetime rapper Andre Harrell. From the late 1980s into the early 1990s, it was a leader in R&B and hip hop.
Hip hop soul is a subgenre of contemporary R&B music, most popular during the early and mid 1990s, which fuses R&B or soul singing with hip hop musical production. The subgenre had evolved from a previous R&B subgenre, new jack swing, which had incorporated hip-hop influences into R&B music. By contrast, hip hop soul is, as described in The Encyclopedia of African American Music, "quite literally soul singing over hip hop grooves".
No More Drama is the fifth studio album by American singer Mary J. Blige, released on August 28, 2001, by MCA Records.
Love & Life is the sixth studio album by American R&B recording artist Mary J. Blige. It was released by Geffen Records on August 26, 2003. The album marked Blige's debut on the Geffen label, following the absorption of her former record company MCA Records. In addition, it saw her reuniting with Sean "Diddy" Combs, executive producer of her first two studio albums What's the 411? (1992) and My Life (1994), who wrote and executive produced most of Love & Life with his Bad Boy in-house production team The Hitmen, including Mario Winans, D-Dot, and Stevie J.
Share My World is the third studio album by American R&B singer Mary J. Blige, released by MCA on April 22, 1997. The album became Blige's first to open at number one on the US Billboard 200 album chart. Moreover, it is her first album where she serves as an executive producer, alongside Steve Stoute, who also shared executive producer credits on the album.
Mary is the fourth studio album by American singer Mary J. Blige, released August 17, 1999, on MCA Records. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 239,000 copies in its first week. It spent 57 weeks on the chart and produced five charting singles. Upon its release, Mary received acclaim from music critics. It has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of two million units in the United States.
"Real Love" is a song by American singer Mary J. Blige from her debut studio album, What's the 411? (1992). Based on real life experiences, it was written and produced by Cory Rooney and Mark Morales, and samples Audio Two's 1987 song "Top Billin'". The song was issued as the album's second single on July 28, 1992 by Uptown and MCA. It became Blige's first top-10 hit, peaking at number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also topped the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Rhythmic charts and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on November 4, 1992. Marcus Raboy directed the song's music video. Rolling Stone included "Real Love" in their list of "500 Best Songs of All Time" in 2021 at number 327.
"You Remind Me" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mary J. Blige. It served as Blige's first single from her debut album, What's the 411? (1992). Written by Eric Milteer and produced by Dave "Jam" Hall, it was originally used on the soundtrack of 1991 comedy film Strictly Business. The song marked Blige's first top forty hit, reaching number twenty-nine on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B Singles chart. The music video was released in 1992. The song also sampled Patrice Rushen’s 1982 song, ‘Remind Me’.
My Life is the second album by American R&B recording artist Mary J. Blige, released on November 29, 1994, by Uptown Records and MCA Records. Many of the topics on My Life deal with clinical depression, Blige's battling with both drugs and alcohol, as well as being in an abusive relationship. Unlike her debut, What's the 411? (1992), Blige contributed lyrics to fourteen of the album's tracks, making it her most introspective and personal album at the time. Similar to her debut album, My Life features extensive production from Sean "Puffy" Combs for his newly founded label, Bad Boy Entertainment, which was at the time backed by Arista Records.
"Sweet Thing" is a song performed by American funk and R&B band Rufus with vocals by band member Chaka Khan. As a single, it peaked number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. Mary J. Blige recorded her version, which charted in the United States and New Zealand in 1993.
"I Can Love You" is a song by American recording artist Mary J. Blige. It was written by Blige along with her sister LaTonya Blige-DaCosta, Rodney Jerkins, and Lil' Kim for her third album, Share My World (1997), with Jerkins producing the song and Lil Kim having featured vocals. The contains elements of the song "Queen Bitch," a track from Kim's debut album Hard Core (1996), co-written by Carlos Broady and Nashiem Myrick. Due to the inclusion of the sample, they are also credited as songwriters.
What's the 411? Remix is a remix album by R&B singer Mary J. Blige, released on December 7, 1993, by Uptown Records and MCA Records. It is composed of remixed tracks from Blige's critically acclaimed debut album, and involved record producers and recording artists including Sean "Puffy" Combs, Teddy Riley, Eddie "F" Ferrell, Craig Mack, Heavy D, the Notorious B.I.G., and K-Ci Hailey. The album received favorable reviews, and debuted at number 118 on the Billboard 200, and number 22 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
"Be Happy" is a song by American singer Mary J. Blige. It was written by Blige, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Arlene DeValle, and Jean-Claude Olivier from duo Poke & Tone for her second studio album, My Life (1994), while production was helmed by Combs and Olivier. "Be Happy" contains an instrumental sample of the song "You're So Good to Me" (1979) by musician Curtis Mayfield and a re-sung vocal portion of the record "I Want You" (1976) by Marvin Gaye.
"I'm Going Down" is a song written and produced by Norman Whitfield, and performed by American soul and R&B group Rose Royce in 1976. It is from the film Car Wash and is featured on its soundtrack. In 1994, it was covered by American singer Mary J. Blige.
"Love No Limit" is a song by American recording artist Mary J. Blige. It was co-written by Kenny Greene and Dave "Jam" Hall for her debut album, What's the 411? (1992), while production was overseen by Hall. Released in May 1993 by Uptown and MCA as the album's fourth and final single, the song became a top-5 hit, reaching number five on the US Billboard R&B singles chart. It also peaked at numbers 44 and 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100. Hall has stated in interviews, that he wanted to give the song an urban, hip-hop feel to a much more jazzy sound, when it was created.
"My Love" is a song by American R&B singer Mary J. Blige from her debut album, What's the 411? (1992). The song, released by Uptown and MCA, was co-written by singer-songwriter Kenny Greene and Dave Hall, who served as the song's original producer. It peaked at number 23 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and at number 29 on the UK Singles Chart in 1994, becoming Blige's second single to reach the top 40 in the United Kingdom.
"Reminisce" is a song by American singer and songwriter Mary J. Blige from her debut album, What's the 411? (1992). It was co-written by Kenny Greene and Dave "Jam" Hall, who also produced it. Described as a new jack swing song inspired by 1970s soul music, it contains a sample of "Stop, Look, Listen" (1989) by American rapper MC Lyte. The single was released in October 1992 by Uptown and MCA, peaking at number fifty-seven on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. A more uptempo and hip hop-inspired remix of the song, featuring duo Pete Rock & CL Smooth, later appeared on Blige's 1993 remix album of the same name. The accompanying music video for "Reminisce" was directed by Marcus Raboy.
"Someone to Love Me (Naked)" is a song recorded by American singer Mary J. Blige for her tenth studio album My Life II... The Journey Continues (Act 1) (2011). It features guest vocals by American rappers Diddy and Lil Wayne. "Someone to Love Me (Naked)" was written by Blige, Jerry Wonda and Leroy Watson, and was produced by Wonda. The song is a remix of "Someone to Love Me" from Diddy-Dirty Money's debut studio album, Last Train to Paris (2010). It samples "You Roam When You Don’t Get It At Home" performed by The Sweet Inspirations. It was released on March 29, 2011, as the first promotional single from the album.
"25/8" is a song by American R&B recording artist Mary J. Blige. It was written by Blige, Crystal Johnson, Al Sherrod Lambert, and Eric Hudson for her tenth studio album, My Life II... The Journey Continues (2011), while production was handled by Blige and the latter. An R&B and soul song, "25/8" is built on drum splashes and a fluttering flute, and samples from B. T. Express's rendition of "Now That We Found Love", written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. Lyrically, it features the female protagonist expressing her need to have more than 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to spend time with her love interest.