Unbroken
Mary J. Blige
The Breakthrough
(Geffen)
Hip-hop might be the worst thing for the reigning queen of R&B.
She’s the genre’s definitive belter and rightfully deserves mention among Aretha, Tina, and pre-flameout Toni Braxton, so why Mary J. Blige is messing with album titles like The Breakthrough is anyone’s guess. For a decade she hasn’t necessarily been the floor sales leader, but proving herself or striving for relevance is a waste of her time.
So it isn’t the solid first half defining The Breakthrough, it’s the “TRL”-heavy backend that needs to go. Yes, Alabama recently became the third state mandating 75-minute hip-hop records eclipsing 15 tracks, but it isn’t standard throwaways bogging it down — though some by-the-numbers ballads don’t help — but some actual garbage. When “MJB Da MVP” first cuts in, it could just be a happy accident she used the same sample that made 50 Cent and The Game’s “Hate It Or Love It” 2005’s top hip-hop cut.
But the song is actually a sequel (or so we learn when 50’s “I’m gon’ shine homey ’til my heart stops” forms the chorus) and Blige belts “I’m the soul hip-hop queen/And I ain’t going nowhere/but you already know me.” It’s only slightly more embarrassing than a duet with U2, who decided “One” should become some sort of empty, all-star awards show anthem rather than a classic, and re-record it with her here.
Mariah Carey’s career went in the toilet pulling stunts like this, and no one ever called it a breakthrough.
— Steve Forstneger
