Best Mary J. Blige Songs: Top 5 Tracks Ranked


What are the absolute best Mary J. Blige songs of all time? Narrowing down the legendary discography of the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul is a massive challenge for music lovers. In this edition of Top 5, hosts Garrett Gonzales and Mike Joseph take on the impossible task of ranking her career-defining tracks.
The duo navigates decades of emotional hits to debate their personal favorites, including her iconic Grammy-winning smash with Method Man, the classic "I Love You (remix)", and the foundational masterpiece "Real Love". Beyond the countdown, they face off in a rapid-fire game of "Rock With It/Stop With It" to evaluate the legacy of:
- The club-shaking energy of "Family Affair"
- "Rainy Dayz" featuring Ja Rule
- The heartfelt ballad "Give Me You"
- The vocal masterclass "Be Without You"
By listening, you’ll gain a fresh perspective on Mary’s artistic evolution and settle the ultimate debates around her catalog. This episode serves as the definitive audio guide to an R&B legend.
Find 50 For 50:
- Website: https://www.50for50.net/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@50_For_50
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/50-for-50-life-music-friendship/id1857746432
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0ADmN7bp4fXQzAZsnSuFQj?si=a283674c59b44be2
- Contact at: GG@BSPNMedia.com
00:10.294 --> 00:12.975
[SPEAKER_01]: We're back up 50 for 50 with our top five.
00:13.515 --> 00:15.336
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary J. Blyge.
00:15.876 --> 00:21.638
[SPEAKER_01]: We previously just put out our 50 for 50 episode on 1992's.
00:21.838 --> 00:23.499
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the 411?
00:23.959 --> 00:27.701
[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever I say that album, I always want to say hunt at the end.
00:27.861 --> 00:28.961
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the 411 on?
00:29.421 --> 00:29.822
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
00:30.122 --> 00:30.482
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, man.
00:30.502 --> 00:31.322
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just natural.
00:31.342 --> 00:33.263
[SPEAKER_01]: I think for the hunt to be there.
00:33.283 --> 00:34.683
[SPEAKER_01]: But all right.
00:34.743 --> 00:37.064
[SPEAKER_01]: So before we get into our top five,
00:39.517 --> 00:41.238
[SPEAKER_01]: rock with it, stop with it at you.
00:41.258 --> 00:42.179
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
00:43.220 --> 00:48.924
[SPEAKER_01]: So first family affair, where are you at with that song in 2026?
00:49.064 --> 00:56.970
[SPEAKER_00]: I am all about, you know, let's, let's, let's, we don't want to have no hate a
01:03.331 --> 01:10.092
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't heard it in a long time, but there was a time when that song was on all the time.
01:11.853 --> 01:13.413
[SPEAKER_00]: It was very, very popular.
01:14.873 --> 01:22.495
[SPEAKER_00]: And one thing that's funny is that there's a rock band called Eagles of Death Metal that made a cover of family affair and it's hilarious.
01:22.595 --> 01:29.636
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's actually kind of good, but it is hilarious to hear these like corny white dudes doing a rock cover
01:34.462 --> 01:35.964
[SPEAKER_01]: rainy days with job rule.
01:36.664 --> 01:38.106
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to say it's job rule.
01:38.126 --> 01:40.188
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to start it.
01:40.368 --> 01:43.712
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, you know, I'm very on the fence about that song.
01:43.812 --> 01:44.413
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like it.
01:44.453 --> 01:45.194
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't dislike it.
01:45.594 --> 01:48.657
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I went through listening to my Mary albums.
01:49.639 --> 01:54.547
[SPEAKER_01]: I completely forgot that that song even existed for like a half of a second.
01:54.607 --> 01:57.010
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, oh, I kind of remembered this song.
01:57.571 --> 01:58.533
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what else I did?
01:58.553 --> 02:00.255
[SPEAKER_01]: I was on a flight recently.
02:00.275 --> 02:04.842
[SPEAKER_01]: I was on a business trip and I was coming back from Dallas back to the bay.
02:06.203 --> 02:28.441
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know how like you can go to like Netflix and you can actually download stuff to your phone so that when you're offline you could just like watch it you don't have to have a connection so I downloaded I think what I download oh days isn't confused or not maybe wasn't Netflix or something else but anyways I downloaded something and I was going to watch it on the flight home and for some reason it didn't work sounds like oh man what am I going to do.
02:29.262 --> 02:45.232
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, these airlines have this in-flight stuff where they just have a selection of movies that you can watch and, you know, you just pull it up on your, on your browser, and so I watched the fast and the furious, which I haven't seen in a little while, but I've seen it a couple times.
02:46.032 --> 02:48.133
[SPEAKER_01]: And who's right smack dab in that movie?
02:48.953 --> 02:55.855
[SPEAKER_01]: Jaro's in the first fast in the first he may even be in the second.
02:55.995 --> 02:58.636
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember exactly, but yeah, he's in the first movie.
02:59.016 --> 02:59.996
[SPEAKER_01]: Jaro's.
03:00.496 --> 03:00.816
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
03:02.337 --> 03:02.697
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
03:03.559 --> 03:09.847
[SPEAKER_01]: What about give me you, which I remember as the Michael Jordan video.
03:10.908 --> 03:11.368
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
03:11.408 --> 03:13.070
[SPEAKER_00]: I forgot Michael Jordan was in that video.
03:13.851 --> 03:14.913
[SPEAKER_00]: And not my favorite song.
03:14.973 --> 03:15.834
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm stop with it.
03:17.357 --> 03:17.877
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of boring.
03:18.438 --> 03:41.949
[SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty boring and it's really like syrupy and like it's and then like MJ's not doing anything but it's like walking like just hanging out you know he's chillin um and it is very much an MJ song though I just that's like an like yeah MJ's in that video then Kobe Kobe could have been in that video a few years ago and older you know let's just the adult contemporary NBA stars.
03:42.009 --> 03:42.769
[SPEAKER_01]: All right last one
03:44.960 --> 03:46.501
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's a rock with it for show.
03:46.981 --> 03:47.962
[SPEAKER_01]: I really like that song.
03:48.322 --> 03:49.944
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
03:49.964 --> 03:54.507
[SPEAKER_01]: But what about the line of turning on the radios if you can't be without your baby?
03:55.387 --> 03:56.268
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, that's cute.
03:56.628 --> 03:57.109
[SPEAKER_01]: That's cute.
03:57.369 --> 03:58.069
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an angry.
03:58.470 --> 03:58.710
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
03:59.750 --> 04:08.557
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a, um, I remember when that song came out and I was like, you know, this is very creative.
04:09.477 --> 04:13.340
[SPEAKER_01]: It, it was Mary, um,
04:14.657 --> 04:19.320
[SPEAKER_01]: in kind of a, not a new way, but it was an updated version.
04:19.340 --> 04:22.122
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was very, really, really liked contemporary.
04:22.242 --> 04:22.522
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
04:22.983 --> 04:23.163
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
04:23.863 --> 04:24.104
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
04:24.124 --> 04:25.304
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, let's get to our top five.
04:25.845 --> 04:26.125
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
04:26.665 --> 04:30.268
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you have as your number five, Mary J. Blasher?
04:30.808 --> 04:32.449
[SPEAKER_00]: So my number five is real love.
04:32.870 --> 04:33.510
[SPEAKER_00]: And mine too.
04:33.550 --> 04:36.232
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes the average okay, sweet.
04:36.592 --> 04:37.333
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just eight.
04:38.067 --> 04:51.893
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, certain songs take you back to like exactly where you were when they were popular and I can just remember being You know, 16 years old had the cassette single of real love and just like being that out like, you know,
04:53.230 --> 04:54.911
[SPEAKER_00]: I can only speak for where I came from, right?
04:54.951 --> 05:02.077
[SPEAKER_00]: So New York City, early nineties, like you could not move for like six months without hearing real love.
05:02.097 --> 05:11.264
[SPEAKER_00]: And then for like a year, different songs off of what's the 411, but real love was like the big like bomb of the song that kind of like do that record up.
05:11.384 --> 05:12.545
[SPEAKER_00]: It was everywhere.
05:13.322 --> 05:19.546
[SPEAKER_01]: I gotta give some credit to, yeah, I've talked about my dad a lot of the early stuff that I would listen to is just because he was listening to it.
05:20.407 --> 05:26.111
[SPEAKER_01]: My next or neighbor, he was a big jazz guy, like Charlie Parker's favorite.
05:26.211 --> 05:30.393
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's like, if you look at his record collection, it was a lot of jazz records.
05:30.534 --> 05:31.954
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wasn't really into that.
05:32.435 --> 05:37.558
[SPEAKER_01]: But he would also try and stay on the up and up with current music as well.
05:38.039 --> 05:39.419
[SPEAKER_01]: He's the first person I knew.
05:40.240 --> 05:54.135
[SPEAKER_01]: who had the belbed of jiveau album and look he's like he's older than he's older than my dad right so he's like uh... if my dad is what what else is my dad might have like twenty two years twenty one twenty two years older than me
05:55.158 --> 05:58.962
[SPEAKER_01]: And so my neighbor would be another two or three years older than my dad.
05:59.202 --> 05:59.483
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
05:59.643 --> 06:04.969
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, he doesn't have to kind of like be, be where.
06:05.349 --> 06:05.729
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
06:05.869 --> 06:10.775
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, like he's just like, but he just wanted to kind of listen to new stuff.
06:11.115 --> 06:11.736
[SPEAKER_01]: I respect that.
06:12.076 --> 06:15.179
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember he actually had the lords of the underground album.
06:15.320 --> 06:15.940
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like,
06:16.861 --> 06:18.363
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even listen to this stuff yet.
06:18.443 --> 06:21.126
[SPEAKER_01]: And you bought this album, and you can taste.
06:21.706 --> 06:25.470
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he had, what's the 411?
06:25.570 --> 06:34.219
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the one, that's the way that I was able to borrow it from him and record it was because he bought it, you know, right, when it came out, like he was one of those dudes.
06:34.860 --> 06:36.120
[SPEAKER_01]: who would go to tower.
06:36.161 --> 06:37.721
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure it was tower records back then.
06:38.421 --> 06:42.243
[SPEAKER_01]: Every Tuesday and just kind of going, go, what's new?
06:42.323 --> 06:42.823
[SPEAKER_01]: What's out there?
06:42.843 --> 06:43.463
[SPEAKER_01]: What came out?
06:43.663 --> 06:47.825
[SPEAKER_01]: And so a lot of albums that I listened to were because he would buy them.
06:48.505 --> 06:49.765
[SPEAKER_00]: That always bugged me out, right?
06:50.746 --> 06:59.009
[SPEAKER_00]: So I worked in record stores for 10 years and you would get customers that came in and it was just like, give me what's new and what you like.
06:59.849 --> 07:02.230
[SPEAKER_00]: Music is such like a personal thing for me.
07:02.350 --> 07:02.850
[SPEAKER_00]: I would not
07:03.982 --> 07:11.046
[SPEAKER_00]: feel comfortable going up to like a stranger and being like, what music are you listening to now and I will spend money on it?
07:11.146 --> 07:15.529
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause that just opens the door for so much like bad stuff to happen.
07:16.910 --> 07:27.356
[SPEAKER_00]: So as I think as you're telling me this and I think about it now, just for people to have the ability to put their faith in somebody else just because they work in a record store and be like, give me what you like.
07:27.716 --> 07:32.519
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's, you know, good for them for being that way, I couldn't do it.
07:33.502 --> 07:43.726
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you were kind of interested in like what's hot, right, you know, you would go what's selling what are people into, you know, then you're not actually asking them to make a recommendation.
07:43.746 --> 07:46.108
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just saying like what do you know, what are people buying, right?
07:46.128 --> 07:48.048
[SPEAKER_01]: What's pop, what kind of, yeah, what's the new thing?
07:48.409 --> 07:51.830
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I mean, I would get a lot of what do you like, I'd be like, what I like.
07:51.910 --> 07:53.751
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's certainly going to be the same is what you like.
07:54.831 --> 07:57.393
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I don't know, very interesting.
07:57.513 --> 07:57.813
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
07:57.833 --> 08:03.516
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, obviously, people don't consume music that way anymore, but it is a really interesting kind of relic of the past.
08:04.317 --> 08:04.517
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
08:04.537 --> 08:05.197
[SPEAKER_01]: What's your number four?
08:06.518 --> 08:09.480
[SPEAKER_00]: My number four is the title track from my life.
08:10.400 --> 08:15.864
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, it's, it's, I don't know, it's Mary at like her saddest.
08:16.719 --> 08:34.152
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of, and that album is just a whole vibe, like it's really hard for me to pick specific songs off of my life, even though a song from my life is my number one as well, because that album just fits so well together, like you listen to it as like a whole thing, but you know, the song
08:42.578 --> 08:43.679
[SPEAKER_00]: my upbringing has been hard.
08:43.699 --> 08:53.250
[SPEAKER_00]: I've had a rough, you know, go up until now, but I am, you know, putting my faith in God and, you know, I'm going to try to like make a better way for myself.
08:53.270 --> 08:55.352
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a very inspirational song.
08:56.874 --> 08:59.857
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm about to go the drama route from my next two.
09:00.417 --> 09:00.798
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
09:00.978 --> 09:02.620
[SPEAKER_01]: Number four, I'm going down.
09:04.064 --> 09:05.045
[SPEAKER_01]: because you ain't around.
09:05.065 --> 09:05.505
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
09:05.685 --> 09:06.546
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
09:06.826 --> 09:15.593
[SPEAKER_00]: That's another one of those songs where I'm like, it's a remake and Mary doesn't really do anything other than sing the original version over.
09:16.214 --> 09:17.695
[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably because I don't know.
09:17.775 --> 09:19.176
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know the original version.
09:19.196 --> 09:19.417
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
09:19.537 --> 09:19.677
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
09:19.697 --> 09:21.078
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is on the record?
09:21.118 --> 09:22.119
[SPEAKER_00]: It's by Rose Royce.
09:23.020 --> 09:23.960
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
09:24.080 --> 09:24.781
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
09:24.801 --> 09:25.281
[SPEAKER_00]: Same perfect.
09:25.301 --> 09:26.703
[SPEAKER_00]: It's on a car wash soundtrack.
09:26.843 --> 09:27.183
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
09:29.167 --> 09:31.549
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I mean, it's funny.
09:31.589 --> 09:36.952
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I think of that song and I think of the video, which has like a hundred Mary's sitting on a staircase.
09:40.395 --> 09:41.536
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, not my favorite Mary J.
09:41.556 --> 09:44.918
[SPEAKER_00]: Blood song, but, you know, people love it.
09:45.999 --> 09:48.460
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just such a feeling, right?
09:48.620 --> 09:52.723
[SPEAKER_01]: Like she does feeling almost better than anybody.
09:53.103 --> 09:56.286
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, in that, you know, the knock on her at the beginning was like, she can't say.
09:57.352 --> 09:59.354
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and first of all, that's B.S.
09:59.374 --> 10:08.384
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary J. Blage can definitely sing, um, but also, it's like, you know, even if she wasn't like a Whitney or a Mariah.
10:09.413 --> 10:12.855
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, the lyrics that she was singing felt real, like they came from the heart.
10:13.735 --> 10:19.317
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you are singing from the heart, you don't have to hit every note because people are gonna feel what you're singing.
10:19.757 --> 10:34.464
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, you know, I think Mary is kind of through time and time again that like feeling, you know, you wanna have a combination of feeling and skill, but you know, a lot of times, just feeling can overpower just skill.
10:36.145 --> 10:36.965
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, let's number three.
10:37.980 --> 10:46.103
[SPEAKER_00]: So number three is an interesting one it is her it is a cover it is her version of one by you two.
10:47.824 --> 10:55.767
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is I mean one first of all the original version by you two is one of my five favorite songs of all time and I think Mary just added
10:56.187 --> 11:09.919
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary threw some soul in there that that song needed to have and you know it's to do what with Bono and like she's just this is where like her skill caught up with her feeling and I think she just kind of knocks this one out the park.
11:11.240 --> 11:17.926
[SPEAKER_01]: She sings it like if I hear the the YouTube version and then
11:19.768 --> 11:36.120
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, even, like, I don't know if it's a pitch thing or something where she's a little bit up and it makes you feel like the YouTube version to me was always a little bit monotone but hers, she's a little bit higher.
11:36.160 --> 11:41.244
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it is, but there's like a little bit more pep in it just by the way, she sings it to me.
11:41.404 --> 11:44.847
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's ADM and it's so, she's going for it.
11:45.763 --> 11:53.245
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, my number three, and like I'm telling you, we're sitting deep, deep, deep in the drama, not going to cry.
11:54.066 --> 11:56.126
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that was, I considered that from my list.
11:56.947 --> 11:58.547
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that a way to an exhale?
11:58.967 --> 11:59.808
[SPEAKER_00]: Way to exhale, yeah.
12:00.308 --> 12:04.349
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, way to exhale, sound track which is baby face at the time.
12:04.409 --> 12:12.152
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the idea of like this movie were tons of women on the soundtrack was, you know, I don't know if it was,
12:13.155 --> 12:29.497
[SPEAKER_01]: different than what but there was a marketing to it where it was Whitney's like this is you know this is Whitney soundtrack and there's going to be all these female songs on here and I love the idea of it and then you know just getting to hear Mary on the soundtrack was really cool.
12:30.151 --> 12:32.753
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's really raw.
12:34.494 --> 12:38.998
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an interesting thing because, you know, Mary was super young at the time.
12:39.038 --> 12:40.799
[SPEAKER_00]: I think she was maybe 24, 25.
12:41.340 --> 12:49.006
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's singing about somebody who was in like an 11 year relationship getting fed up and being like, I should have left you ass at a long time ago.
12:50.707 --> 12:53.968
[SPEAKER_00]: And one, R and B singers didn't curse like that in record.
12:53.988 --> 13:08.494
[SPEAKER_00]: It's prior to Mary J. Blage, but be just the idea that she was able to like inhabit this character who was much older and still like the super believable singing that song is just kind of a testament to her ability to translate lyrics.
13:09.214 --> 13:10.855
[SPEAKER_01]: Should left your last 1000 times.
13:11.135 --> 13:11.815
[SPEAKER_00]: 1000 times.
13:12.595 --> 13:13.175
[SPEAKER_00]: 1000 times.
13:13.616 --> 13:14.376
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, what's number two?
13:15.278 --> 13:41.640
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two is the remix, and it is the remix to the song Love No Limit, which very prominently does feature KC on background vocals, but you know, I don't I don't know a puppy invented the remix although he says he did, but it was you know like all of our previous songs had remix versions that were kind of like
13:42.693 --> 13:43.753
[SPEAKER_00]: You take the original version.
13:43.773 --> 13:46.334
[SPEAKER_00]: You throw a wrap on it and like hype to beat up a little bit.
13:46.354 --> 13:47.435
[SPEAKER_00]: They were very similar.
13:47.795 --> 13:48.415
[SPEAKER_00]: Love no limit.
13:48.455 --> 13:52.156
[SPEAKER_00]: She actually just changed the whole like she changed the whole song.
13:52.396 --> 13:53.617
[SPEAKER_00]: It, you know, it's sped up a little bit.
13:53.637 --> 13:54.817
[SPEAKER_00]: She changes the pitch of the song.
13:54.837 --> 13:56.338
[SPEAKER_00]: She like re-sings it and changes like the melody a little bit.
13:56.438 --> 14:03.300
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's just like a, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
14:05.262 --> 14:12.703
[SPEAKER_00]: Is a remix that has enough to do with the original version to be an actual remix, but it's still kind of a different song.
14:13.504 --> 14:18.305
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember like that, remix came out right after I graduated high school.
14:18.325 --> 14:25.726
[SPEAKER_00]: And right around that time, my man Pete made me like a mix tape of all the stuff that he was into at the time.
14:25.766 --> 14:27.026
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is, you know, again, June of 1993.
14:27.046 --> 14:27.626
[SPEAKER_00]: And the amount of.
14:32.508 --> 14:45.207
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I remember that that's the one time anyone made me a mix tape and I can remember a damn near every single song that was on that mix tape because it was so dope and that remix was on there and it just, you know, to this day I still love playing that song.
14:46.257 --> 15:05.120
[SPEAKER_01]: My number two is also a remix, but it is, I love you featuring Smith and Weston, yeah, I think I don't think you could find that remix except maybe was it like an international like, like there was a thing I remember because it was one of my one of my buddies favorite song and he was like,
15:06.261 --> 15:12.530
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't really buy this version, but now you now it's out there, but I'm going to come back and like gosh, the late 90s.
15:12.610 --> 15:17.877
[SPEAKER_01]: He was like, I can't find this and then when Napster and all that stuff came out, then you can finally find it.
15:19.215 --> 15:26.198
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man, it was, I don't know if it was like an import single or something like that or something they just, you know, put on a radio.
15:27.679 --> 15:31.761
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, there were a couple of remixes around that time that were not available anywhere else.
15:32.721 --> 15:40.225
[SPEAKER_01]: And so now we're back back deep back from we went from emotional to we're back in like the hip hop and Mary J. Blasch.
15:42.015 --> 15:42.796
[SPEAKER_01]: R&B hip-hop.
15:43.156 --> 15:43.857
[SPEAKER_01]: It's time for me.
15:43.917 --> 15:45.258
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, what's number one?
15:45.758 --> 15:48.701
[SPEAKER_00]: So number one is actually like a song that was not a single.
15:48.881 --> 15:51.283
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like buried on the my life album.
15:51.664 --> 16:03.073
[SPEAKER_00]: But to me, it's such like a beautiful song is called I never want to live without you and it is very like faith centric like you hear faith Evans very prominently on song.
16:03.334 --> 16:04.234
[SPEAKER_00]: I think she co-wrote it.
16:06.176 --> 16:09.519
[SPEAKER_00]: But their voices together, A, sound really, really good.
16:09.839 --> 16:11.260
[SPEAKER_00]: And I wish they'd done more together.
16:11.720 --> 16:14.462
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, I think there was definitely some beef at that time.
16:17.104 --> 16:18.205
[SPEAKER_00]: May still be, I don't know.
16:19.846 --> 16:23.528
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is just like a beautiful love song.
16:25.810 --> 16:26.491
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, A is like,
16:29.275 --> 16:40.175
[SPEAKER_00]: idea of never wanting to live without somebody feels like, I don't know if I personally like that sentiment, but that song definitely captures that emotion very accurately.
16:41.150 --> 16:43.770
[SPEAKER_01]: My number one is very chalky.
16:44.171 --> 16:48.491
[SPEAKER_01]: It's Mary J. Blige and Method Man.
16:48.971 --> 16:49.531
[SPEAKER_00]: All I need.
16:50.012 --> 16:50.912
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
16:50.972 --> 16:51.732
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be there for you.
16:51.772 --> 16:52.852
[SPEAKER_01]: You're all I need to get by.
16:53.872 --> 16:58.713
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this is like one of the greatest songs of this time frame.
16:59.133 --> 17:01.714
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the greatest current D hip-hop collaborations.
17:01.934 --> 17:04.834
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so perfect, you know, even today.
17:05.994 --> 17:08.455
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember when the song came out
17:13.162 --> 17:28.096
[SPEAKER_01]: it was kind of interesting to hear like because I was like looked at the sides of it like okay Mary's on it method man's on it method man's wrapping Mary singing like who's song is it who's right right but it is a true collaboration like
17:28.677 --> 17:37.541
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you've heard, you know, if it was just method method men without the Mary piece, like it's kind of, it's fine, but it's, it's kind of empty.
17:37.941 --> 17:49.245
[SPEAKER_01]: And if it's just the Mary piece without the method man piece, it's like that Alicia Keys Empire State of mind version without Jay Z, where you're like, okay, it's reasonable, but I don't want to listen to it without Jay Z.
17:49.845 --> 17:50.066
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
17:50.126 --> 17:55.748
[SPEAKER_01]: So, um, yeah, just like the perfect collaboration, like they just almost to the point of like,
17:56.628 --> 18:00.070
[SPEAKER_01]: where you're kind of like, should they have done an album together?
18:00.270 --> 18:01.331
[SPEAKER_00]: Together, seriously.
18:01.711 --> 18:09.055
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what, I mean, it was funny decades later to see Mary and meth on a TV show together.
18:10.095 --> 18:18.317
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is kind of hilarious, but the great thing about Mary is that you can make a top five Mary songs list.
18:18.457 --> 18:20.618
[SPEAKER_00]: You can make a top five Mary remakes list.
18:20.918 --> 18:23.238
[SPEAKER_00]: You can make a top five Mary collaborations list.
18:23.819 --> 18:27.219
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you could do so many different things when it's funny.
18:27.360 --> 18:36.282
[SPEAKER_00]: As you and I have been talking, I've been writing down a list of every artist that I can think of that collaborated with Mary J. Blage and like literally filled up a piece of paper.
18:37.082 --> 18:41.345
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so just for the sake of like wanting to do this, like I'm going to read the list off to you.
18:41.425 --> 18:42.426
[SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hmm.
18:42.446 --> 19:01.140
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, the dream Kanye West, Christopher Williams, ludicrous TI, Mariah Carey, the game, Lil Kim, LL Cool Jay, Jamie Fox, Neil Usher, Drake, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamard, Dr. Dre, heavy D, J to kiss, Nas, Shaka Khan, Lord Hill, Wyclam, Shondra, Stewart, Sam Smith, Buster on his George Michael, Jasmine Sullivan, Ropio, Sidique, Will Smith.
19:01.620 --> 19:13.827
[SPEAKER_00]: YouTube, baby face met the man 50 cent jazzy notorious bg Keith Murray, Eve missy Elliott, uh, Beyonce, Elton john era Clapton, a breath of Franklin dmx, Jarrow did he George Benson and Foxy Brown.
19:15.168 --> 19:18.390
[SPEAKER_01]: So now going back to 1992 when we first heard her.
19:19.876 --> 19:26.097
[SPEAKER_01]: There's probably a lot of artists that you would have never thought that 1992 Mary J. Blasher would have eventually collaborated with.
19:26.498 --> 19:34.179
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mary J. Blasher, out in John record, or Mary J. Blasher, in Rod Stewart record, even in Mary J. Blasher, in the Rita Franklin record, like a Mary J. Blasher Mariah.
19:34.539 --> 19:41.441
[SPEAKER_00]: Like who would have in 1992, and they're both at like the outset of their careers, who would have been like those two were gonna make a record together one day.
19:41.621 --> 19:41.821
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
19:42.881 --> 19:43.061
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
19:44.282 --> 19:44.562
[SPEAKER_01]: Crazy.
19:44.582 --> 19:44.902
[SPEAKER_00]: Crazy.
19:46.535 --> 19:47.616
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, there you go.
19:47.956 --> 19:50.378
[SPEAKER_01]: And check out 50 for 50.net.
19:50.738 --> 20:02.206
[SPEAKER_01]: After you hear this, we'll have a playlist that we'll go up with all of our top five, as well as Mike Fillin and the Gats to get a full playlist for everything Mary Zay Blush.
20:02.386 --> 20:04.167
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll not be difficult this time around.
20:05.108 --> 20:05.929
[SPEAKER_01]: Not like Hammer, huh?
20:06.329 --> 20:06.529
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
20:08.130 --> 20:09.011
[SPEAKER_00]: No, not at all.
20:10.632 --> 20:11.813
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, that is it from here.
20:11.933 --> 20:14.475
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll be back next week.
20:15.364 --> 20:20.442
[SPEAKER_01]: For Mike, I'm double G, 50 for 50.NET, find everything that we've done so far.
20:21.345 --> 20:21.867
[SPEAKER_01]: Peace out.