Mary J. Blige's "Thick Of It" Is A Powerhouse Ballad
Having just wrapped up an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Mary J. Blige has now announced a new album, and just dropped an accompanying single titled "Thick Of It."
Co-written by Jazmine Sullivan (who made an appearance on Frank Ocean's Endless), the track finds Blige singing about a relationship on the rocks, backed by some dynamic instrumentation.
"Who's gonna love you like I do / Who will you trust / I gave you too much / Enough is enough / Now we're in the thick of it," Blige sings.
The song is very much a powerhouse ballad, with the accompanying iTunes description describing it as "This is classic MJB, transforming drama into cathartic release."
Blige also released a statement with the song, saying:
"This song is so personal it's almost painful to let it out. I don't hold back though, it's not who I am and there's no way I am going to start changing now. We all deal with love and the emotions that we get tangled up in, and we gotta survive, grow and remain honest to our best selves. I feel that with this song and it's the first one off this album I've been immersing myself in for 2 years now. Music just saves me no matter what in life is happening."
The single is expected to show up on Blige's forthcoming Strength of a Woman album, her first full length since 2014's The London Sessions.
The announcement of a new album also comes at a time where Blige is prepping a joint headlining tour with Maxwell.
"We really, really wanted to do this and it was something that had to happen," Blige told Okayplayer about the tour, dubbed the "Queen Of Hearts" tour. "We would discuss it when we would see each other out at clubs. It was an idea of ours that needed to come to fruition. We had to do it. Eventually, we brought in the people that would manage it and once you take it to them, it seems like they move a little slower than we were wanting to move [laughs]. We've been going over this for the past four years now, which is a little while, but it is something we had to make them believe that we wanted to do. Now, they believe it and now it is happening. That's it."
Listen to "Thick Of It" below.
