After all, she is the Queen of Hip Hop Soul. She may not be technically great, but you FEEL what she sings

3.5/5 at best.

Yeah she sings more on feeling than pitch and keys because I guess most pop star/R&B singers don't focus on pitch/keys that much. She relies on feeling and emotion and that gets her by.

Vocally, she was at her best between 1992 and 1995 and then there was that good period in 1999-2002 during the Mary and early No More Drama eras but post-2002 Grammy's were the start of the real hit and miss as far as Mary's vocal range. I liked the 1996-1998 Mary because she relied totally on feeling than actual singing because her cocaine addiction had ravaged it for a minute.

But I was unsure of her voice during the Love & Life era. She was better during the Breakthrough/Growing Pains periods. It seems like lately her voice has gotten back to that rasp vocal style especially during No More Drama so I don't know. She was good on her last album vocally though because she didn't use that vibrato all the time.

She use alot of me's in her songs..

I gotta be me, that's all I can be y'all

Lemme be me!!! ooohh....me me me me y'all!! me!!!

I always felt she was overrated. She makes an occasional decent song here and

there but i've never been moved to buy any of her albums. She's butchered a

few classic songs too like Natalie Cole's Our Love

good, but overrated. and REALLY overdoes it. like Patti Labelle type overdone.

Good and would be better if she stopped screaming

Average at best.

Puffy named her "the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul", and I don't think he is so qualified to annoint such on anyone, yet alone a singer. Lauryn Hill would've been a better choice since she raps and sings.

Mary J. Blige is at best a D+/C- as a singer, as a writer I would give her a B-; as a personality a B+. Her vocal tone cna be quite irritaing like chalk on a blackboard. Her pitch is very questionable, especially live. The actor Terrence Howard and the singer Alanis Morrisette once called her The Queen of R&B - yeah right.

RnBAmbassador said:

Puffy named her "the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul", and I don't think he is so qualified to annoint such on anyone, yet alone a singer. Lauryn Hill would've been a better choice since she raps and sings.

Mary J. Blige is at best a D+/C- as a singer, as a writer I would give her a B-; as a personality a B+. Her vocal tone cna be quite irritaing like chalk on a blackboard. Her pitch is very questionable, especially live. The actor Terrence Howard and the singer Alanis Morrisette once called her The Queen of R&B - yeah right.

Totally agree with what you wrote. As an old school HipHop head, I feel insulted when people misuse the term "HipHop" when they seem to have no idea what the true HipHop culture is really about.

I liked her first three albums, and my all time favorite album of her will always be her debut album because, as much as I like My Life, it just sounded waaaaay too derivative. The best songs on it rely so heavily on the samples that it´s not even funny. It´s ironic that Alicia Keys´s debut album also had the same flaw...too derivative....it basically sounded like a rehashed idea of a rehashed idea.

This being said, I really liked MJB in the 90s....she used to be one of my favorite singers but I never thought that she was technically a good singer, I just liked her as a person and I liked how she conveyed her inner pain and struggles through her music.

But as far as her singing is concerned, she overdoes it too many times.

Eric Leeds once said that this is called a melisma and that he can´t stand it, and I wholeheartedly agree. I feel the same way about Nikka Costa, especially during her performance on Prince´s Aladdin DVD. (ONA live in Las Vegas).

I know some people call it soulful singing but I can´t stand it when some singers yell and scream all the time. I´d rather listen to a less talented singer who doesn´t scream all the time.

But yeah, I used to like Mary J. A LOT in the past, despite this little flaw and her diva attitude and tantrums.

For me, she is a good singer, who's material is average at best, (with a few exceptions). I have always thought that, Mary has to be depressed in order to put out a great song. For when she is happy, all of her material songs like, My favorite song of her's is, "Not 'Gon Cry". She interpretted, Babyface's lyrics very well. Favorite album, "My Life". The rest of her catalogue is average.

I've said this many times:

I HATE HER VOICE.
The only thing I "feel" when she sings is annoyed.

She reminds me of that lady in the church choir who grabs all the solos, knowing damn well she can't sing...

But she jumps, and sweats, and waves her arms and puts on such a visual show that no one is paying attention to the fact that she sounds awful!

After church, people are talking about how she SANG the song....

I take a lot of junk about not liking her, but I don't care...

chocolate1 said:

I've said this many times:

I HATE HER VOICE.
The only thing I "feel" when she sings is annoyed.

She reminds me of that lady in the church choir who grabs all the solos, knowing damn well she can't sing...

But she jumps, and sweats, and waves her arms and puts on such a visual show that no one is paying attention to the fact that she sounds awful!

After church, people are talking about how she SANG the song....

I take a lot of junk about not liking her, but I don't care...

You're post made my day... . I agree with you, to a point.

Timmy84 said:

3.5/5 at best.

Yeah she sings more on feeling than pitch and keys because I guess most pop star/R&B singers don't focus on pitch/keys that much. She relies on feeling and emotion and that gets her by.

Vocally, she was at her best between 1992 and 1995 and then there was that good period in 1999-2002 during the Mary and early No More Drama eras but post-2002 Grammy's were the start of the real hit and miss as far as Mary's vocal range. I liked the 1996-1998 Mary because she relied totally on feeling than actual singing because her cocaine addiction had ravaged it for a minute.

But I was unsure of her voice during the Love & Life era. She was better during the Breakthrough/Growing Pains periods. It seems like lately her voice has gotten back to that rasp vocal style especially during No More Drama so I don't know. She was good on her last album vocally though because she didn't use that vibrato all the time.

She was okay back in the day, I like her 90's stuff better than the 00's and the present but I was never one of her biggest fans. She's had some great tunes, don't get me wrong, but I think she sucks live, even though in recent years, I've heard that she's improved in that area. Still hasn't sold me though as I won't spend a dime on her. She just sings about the same ole stuff all the time, each album is the same bland recurring theme. Honestly, she's boring.

I've never taken time to pay attention to her voice because I can't get past how horrible the music behind it sounds.

I love Mary J's MY LIFE era mostly and thats what mostly I am a fan of... everything else is pretty much overrated and boring to me. Her vocals were its strongest during the 90s and now she mostly just screams. I got tickets to see her and D angelo... I really got them to see D angelo (because dont know when his ever gonna come back to my area again) and Melanie Fiona appearance is just icing on the cake.. Mary J isnt that good live to me :/

mjscarousal said:

Y'know, I'm tired of hearing people say about Blige that "she may not be

technically polished but you can feel what she's saying." What the fuck are

you guys talking about? She's an R&B singer, not a classically trained opera

diva. Her pitch is fine and she sings on key just fine. Again, she's not a

robot programmed to have perfect pitch (I'm a musician with great relative

pitch; perfect pitch is fucking RARE) and I don't recall ever hearing her on

an album go off key so much as to warrant a discussion about it. If y'all

want a singer with a polished technique, go listen to Kathleen Battle or

Sarah Brightman sing Puccini arias in Italian at La Scala.

She gets a 3.5 outta 5 stars in my opinion and y'all stop frontin' like y'all

have ascertained the lack of MJB's supposed lack of technical prowess on

your own. The bitch can sing.

I feel she can be a bit overrated vocally. I think RS even put her in there top 100 singers list...

I feel she is good but nothing beyond that, but i do agree with Tim imo she was vocally her strongest in the mid 90's.

duccichucka said:

Y'know, I'm tired of hearing people say about Blige that "she may not be

technically polished but you can feel what she's saying." What the fuck are

you guys talking about? She's an R&B singer, not a classically trained opera

diva. Her pitch is fine and she sings on key just fine. Again, she's not a

robot programmed to have perfect pitch (I'm a musician with great relative

pitch; perfect pitch is fucking RARE) and I don't recall ever hearing her on

an album go off key so much as to warrant a discussion about it. If y'all

want a singer with a polished technique, go listen to Kathleen Battle or

Sarah Brightman sing Puccini arias in Italian at La Scala.

She gets a 3.5 outta 5 stars in my opinion and y'all stop frontin' like y'all

have ascertained the lack of MJB's supposed lack of technical prowess on

your own. The bitch can sing.

I'm not a musician but just curious about which famous singers were known for their perfect pitch, just to give me an idea of what that sounds like. Thanks!

SeventeenDayze said:

duccichucka said:

Y'know, I'm tired of hearing people say about Blige that "she may not be

technically polished but you can feel what she's saying." What the fuck are

you guys talking about? She's an R&B singer, not a classically trained opera

diva. Her pitch is fine and she sings on key just fine. Again, she's not a

robot programmed to have perfect pitch (I'm a musician with great relative

pitch; perfect pitch is fucking RARE) and I don't recall ever hearing her on

an album go off key so much as to warrant a discussion about it. If y'all

want a singer with a polished technique, go listen to Kathleen Battle or

Sarah Brightman sing Puccini arias in Italian at La Scala.

She gets a 3.5 outta 5 stars in my opinion and y'all stop frontin' like y'all

have ascertained the lack of MJB's supposed lack of technical prowess on

your own. The bitch can sing.

I'm not a musician but just curious about which famous singers were known for their perfect pitch, just to give me an idea of what that sounds like. Thanks!

You're confusing terms. "Perfect pitch" means a person can sing a pitch (like an A or a G) on command without having to hear it to jog his/her memory. As far as singers being off key, everyone does it at times (some more than others, of course).

I love Mary J. She's not the greatest singer, but so what? She's given me a lot of great music over the years.

She IS the Queen of Hip Hop Soul.

I mean look at her competition. Who comes close? Keyshia Cole?

She brings the emotion and drama and that's about all you have to ask of R&B divas these days. At least she does that much.

I saw her open for Prince last year and she sang her heart out. She impressed me...

Who else is in the Hip Hop Soul catagory?

chocolate1 said:

I've said this many times:

I HATE HER VOICE.
The only thing I "feel" when she sings is annoyed.

She reminds me of that lady in the church choir who grabs all the solos, knowing damn well she can't sing...

But she jumps, and sweats, and waves her arms and puts on such a visual show that no one is paying attention to the fact that she sounds awful!

After church, people are talking about how she SANG the song....

I take a lot of junk about not liking her, but I don't care...

DAV123 said:

I like some songs but NEVER understood the title she carries......now when she's on a show I think she really is believing the hype. Lauren Hill's one album Miseducation places her waaaaay over MJB....she is ok, but I never get all geeked if she is performing.....she is always trying to keep it hood, ya know the hunched over pigeon toed bop she gets into....and it seems to always follow with her catching the hood holy spirit, and this is where her voice reaches areas of screaming instead of singing......I'm all for the streaming but you better keep that shit in key.

LOL

duccichucka said:

Y'know, I'm tired of hearing people say about Blige that "she may not be

technically polished but you can feel what she's saying." What the fuck are

you guys talking about? She's an R&B singer, not a classically trained opera

diva. Her pitch is fine and she sings on key just fine. Again, she's not a

robot programmed to have perfect pitch (I'm a musician with great relative

pitch; perfect pitch is fucking RARE) and I don't recall ever hearing her on

an album go off key so much as to warrant a discussion about it. If y'all

want a singer with a polished technique, go listen to Kathleen Battle or

Sarah Brightman sing Puccini arias in Italian at La Scala.

She gets a 3.5 outta 5 stars in my opinion and y'all stop frontin' like y'all

have ascertained the lack of MJB's supposed lack of technical prowess on

your own. The bitch can sing.

Different strokes for different folks. I'll say it again she's overrated. Nobody is expecting

her to be a classically trained singer. As has been stated a lot of songs she oversings to

the point your ears bleed. Some call it emotion some call it screeching. I personally can

name several r&b female singers i dig better Tamia, Deborah Cox, Chante Moore, Lalah

Hathaway just to name a few. It's cool if you are one in the fandom of Mary J but she's

not everyone's cup of tea and this has nothing to do with classically trained singers but

some of us prefer not to listen to a trained out of tune screecher either.

phunkdaddy said:

duccichucka said:

Y'know, I'm tired of hearing people say about Blige that "she may not be

technically polished but you can feel what she's saying." What the fuck are

you guys talking about? She's an R&B singer, not a classically trained opera

diva. Her pitch is fine and she sings on key just fine. Again, she's not a

robot programmed to have perfect pitch (I'm a musician with great relative

pitch; perfect pitch is fucking RARE) and I don't recall ever hearing her on

an album go off key so much as to warrant a discussion about it. If y'all

want a singer with a polished technique, go listen to Kathleen Battle or

Sarah Brightman sing Puccini arias in Italian at La Scala.

She gets a 3.5 outta 5 stars in my opinion and y'all stop frontin' like y'all

have ascertained the lack of MJB's supposed lack of technical prowess on

your own. The bitch can sing.

Different strokes for different folks. I'll say it again she's overrated. Nobody is expecting

her to be a classically trained singer. As has been stated a lot of songs she oversings to

the point your ears bleed. Some call it emotion some call it screeching. I personally can

name several r&b female singers i dig better Tamia, Deborah Cox, Chante Moore, Lalah

Hathaway just to name a few. It's cool if you are one in the fandom of Mary J but she's

not everyone's cup of tea and this has nothing to do with classically trained singers but

some of us prefer not to listen to a trained out of tune screecher either.

Tamia and especially Deborah Cox are terribly underrated in the R&B world. I cant believe they didnt blow up like Mary did and not to mention their both attractive with killer vocals.

mjscarousal said:

phunkdaddy said:

Different strokes for different folks. I'll say it again she's overrated. Nobody is expecting

her to be a classically trained singer. As has been stated a lot of songs she oversings to

the point your ears bleed. Some call it emotion some call it screeching. I personally can

name several r&b female singers i dig better Tamia, Deborah Cox, Chante Moore, Lalah

Hathaway just to name a few. It's cool if you are one in the fandom of Mary J but she's

not everyone's cup of tea and this has nothing to do with classically trained singers but

some of us prefer not to listen to a trained out of tune screecher either.

Tamia and especially Deborah Cox are terribly underrated in the R&B world. I cant believe they didnt blow up like Mary did and not to mention their both attractive with killer vocals.

Their problem was/is material. Neither of them have recorded an album anywhere near any of Mary's top 5 or so.

[Edited 8/8/12 21:33pm]