MARY J. BLIGE COVERS ESSENCE OCTOBER’S ISSUE & ANSWERS FANS QUESTIONS…

Do you feel any pressure to keep pumping out hits because of the younger artists?—Angie Kyles, Los Angeles
MARY J. BLIGE: I feel no pressure. I pump out hits for my fans. They just want to hear from me. I don’t compete with the young generation, I learn from them. I listen to what they’re saying, so I can get a little bit of that, so we can cross, so we can have an understanding and hear each other.

When I listen to your music I can’t help but feel the emotion, whether it is joy, pain, anger or bitterness. How do you control and channel your emotions to give us these great performances?—Adina Oubre, New Orleans
Every lyric in my songs is real to me, so I channel the words and the feelings. Whatever those different songs are, they really are relatable to me. And then the fans give me the energy back, because they’re basically saying, “It’s us too Mary,” so I just take it to the next level.

I always wondered why, and I’m not hating on Faith Evans (I love her too), but were you to be the First Lady of Bad Boy?—Erica Neal,Columbus, Ohio
If I wasn’t signed to MCA, it could have been me, which I believe Puff would have wanted. But I understand Puff is a businessman, so he had to go get his First Lady, which I understand. It took me a couple of years to understand, but you know, after a while I was like, “Oh, okay. He had to do that,” because he didn’t have a female artist over there.

Will you ever sing “I Don’t Want to Do Anything Else” [her duet with Jodeci's K-Ci] live again? Angela Ervin—Greensboro, North Carolina
No. I mean, if I sing it with someone else, yes.

Do you feel any pressure to keep pumping out hits because of the younger artists?—Angie Kyles, Los Angeles
I feel no pressure to pump out hits because of the young artists. I pump out hits for my fans. They just want to hear from me. I don’t compete with the young generation. I learn from them, I listen to what they’re saying, so I can get a little bit of that, so we can cross, so we can have an understanding and hear each other.