Happy 17th anniversary Share My World

Today marks the 17th anniversary that the Queen of Hip Hop Soul Mary J. Blige’s third album, Share My World. This was the first album that didn’t have Diddy as producer and it became her first number one album. The tone of the album was different, she became more of a lover instead of a fighter, thanks to her relationship with fellow singer, K-Ci Hailey from the group Jodeci. The singles that were released from the album were”Love Is All We Need” featuring Nas, “I Can Love You” featuring Lil Kim, which is a sample of her song, “Queen B**ch”, the female anthem “Not Goin Cry”, and the love song, “Everything”.

For the concept of the album cover, Mary adds her hip hop swag, but this time it’s ghetto fabulous, with her rocking a mink coat with white Fendi sunglasses. The album featured appearances by Nas, Lil Kim, The Lox, R.Kelly, Roy Ayers, and George Benson. Although critics had mixed reviews about it, the album was nominated for a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album.

Since the release of the album, she have starred in two movies, Rock Of Ages and Tyler Perry’s I Can Do All Bad By Myself and continued to release hit albums. This was one album, I definitely remember playing over and over again.

FYI if the album title sounds familiar that is because it is named after the hit single by the R&B group DeBarge.

-Matia (@ms_hip_hop)