BY AMANDA MESTER JULY 28, 2017 

On July 28, 1992, Mary J. Blige released a debut album that would alter the course of contemporary R&B and Soul and introduce the world to a new Queen. What’s The 411? remains the keystone to her career, 25 years and 12 solo LPs later. A quarter of a century has passed since Miss Mary’s triple-platinum classic arrived and records like “Real Love,” “You Remind Me,” “My Love,” and “Love No Limit” set the tone for the kind of music she would make for the next 2 and a half decades: deeply personal, heartbreaking, and self-affirming songs about love, loss, pain, and resurrection. The songs she created for the genre are the blueprint on which artists like Faith Evans, Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child, Ashanti, and countless other sirens built their career paths. However, there is no contest when identifying the artist who most personifies Hip-Hop Soul – and perhaps no song more than What’s The 411?‘s title track encapsulates that sweet marriage of two worlds.

Featuring Grand Puba, “What’s The 411?” was not a single, but certainly the album’s signature example of Mary’s ability to shape a smooth, soulful sound on a beat that leaves heads bobbing. Although another rapper appears on the LP (and this version of “You Remind Me” features Greg Nice and there’s a Heavy D remix to “My Love”), the Busta Rhymes cut “Intro Talk” is precisely that, and doesn’t include any of Mary’s singing. Co-produced by Tony Dofat and Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, “What’s The 411?” paired the Uptown Records new signee with the Brand Nubian rapper, but it wasn’t their only collaboration. On his own 1992 solo debut, Grand Puba featured Ms. Blige on “Check It Out,” though several months after their original pairing.

READ THE REST AT AMBROSIA FOR HEADS.