It's been a long, arduous trek from the production of Mary J. Blige's classic 1994 album My Life to the release of My Life II… The Journey Continues (Act 1). Released last Tuesday, the sequel LP represents MJB's painful yet enlightening journey from local sensation to a world renowned music icon.

This past weekend the Queen of hip hop soul decided to celebrate the continuation in the series at an intimate party in Atlanta.
Attended by friends and family including Monica, Young Jeezy, DeVyne Stephens and husband-manager Kendu Isaacs, the Hennessy-sponsored after-party event took place at Luckie Food Lounge following a memorable performance at ATL's Tabernacle in which she performed My Life in its entirety and ran through some of the material on her latest album.
As previously reported, Mary J. Blige spoke with BET.com about the follow-up to My Life and the trials and tribulations that brought it into existence.
"The first My Life album, we were like, hurt really, really bad. We was dark, we was ready to really kill ourselves basically and we just kept going and living," says Blige. "That's growth and evolution. And while you're growing and evolving, in the midst of all of that, there's still trials, there's still discomfort, but the only thing that can get you to change is discomfort. It's been painful for me. It's a painful thing to walk through that fire. So when you end up here on this My Life album, you ask were there any challenges? Absolutely. There was nothing but challenges, but the beautiful thing is I'm here to tell the story. I'm not dead. My journey continues."
My Life II is available in stores now.

(Photo: Thaddaeus McAdams for BET.com)