Mary J. Blige on music as therapy

Brut America

Overcoming the pain of abusive relationships inspired some of Mary J. Blige’s biggest hits ... Here’s how music helped save her ...

Transcript

00:00If Mary J. Blige can pull out of the shitstorms that she's been in all her life since childhood,

00:06anybody can do it.

00:07Just hang in there.

00:08Stay strong.

00:09Put your head up.

00:10I don't care what kind of thing you win.

00:11Put your head up and push.

00:12Push and believe.

00:13When I was a little girl growing up in the projects, I just loved to sing.

00:36And I wanted to sing because it set me free from all of the negativity and all of the

00:46confusion that was happening outside of our home.

00:49We lived in the projects, but we had love in our home.

00:52But when we stepped out that door, it was hell.

00:55And we learned how to survive.

01:07My mom is a survivor.

01:08She was a single parent mother, very, very small.

01:11And she raised us on her own.

01:13She had three jobs and she never stopped.

01:16I just want to thank God for my mother right now.

01:21And I want to thank God for this moment, because it doesn't have to be like this.

01:43The music, it has to be therapy and it's therapy for me.

01:46I always have people come up to me and say things like, wow, Mary, no more drama saved

01:50my life, or the My Life album saved my life, or a particular song helped me get out of

01:54an abusive relationship.

01:56That's when you know it's therapy.

01:58So when it becomes therapy, it's bigger than you because everybody's healing from it or

02:02trying to get better or relate to it.

02:04I'm a giver.

02:05I believe that I'm in this music business, not just because of my talent and me being

02:10a singer or whatever, but it's because my heart is able to get everything, receive everything

02:17that I receive and then give it back to the universe, you know, seed time, harvest time.

02:30There's been times in my career that I didn't even want to step out of my house because

02:35I was hurt so bad.

02:38But God gave me the strength to keep stepping and keep my head up, regardless of what anybody

02:45thought about me, regardless of what was being said about me, regardless of who hated me

02:51or who didn't.

02:52My skin is tough.

02:54I walk out.

02:55I can handle it.

02:58The more famous I become, the more I return, the more I don't even have to return back

03:03to my roots.

03:04It's just been so hard for me in my life that I don't know any other way but to stay connected.

03:10And staying connected as I deal with what life really is.

03:13Just because my financial status is better than what it was, it doesn't mean that I don't

03:19still have to deal with the person I am.

03:21The person I am has issues from the past.

03:24So I'm always connected back to that.

03:28I remember being that little girl that didn't have things or didn't always get what she

03:32wanted for Christmas or had to watch her mother be abused.

03:36So I don't think I could ever disconnect from that.

03:39Money doesn't make me like, oh, things are beautiful.

03:43I have to continue to fix myself.

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