Mary J. Blige On R&B Becoming "Popular" When Adele Puts Out A Song From The Genre
Mary J. Blige let her opinion known about the state of R&B after sitting down with DIddy in a candid conversation on the history behind the genre and how when new tracks are released, it is labeled as "popular."
"Who killed R&B?" Diddy posted on his social media accounts before heading to his Instagram Live with Mary J. to have a chat.
“You can't kill something that's in our DNA,” said Blige. “It's gonna keep transitioning from generation to generation to generation to generation. They was trying to kill it.”
She continued, “Before I say what I'm gonna say, let me just say this: I wanna thank all the radio stations around the country that are playing R&B music and sincerely support it.”
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"But, you know, a lot of the radio stations killed it for the same thing that Tank was saying. They ain't gon' jump on the bandwagon of whatever the hottest things is—but, let me just say this. We have to keep ourselves alive as R&B singers," she added, referring to words expressed by Tank when he appeared on the Drink Champs podcast.
Blige then gave out virtual flowers to some of the greats in the R&B genre Chaka Khan, Etta James, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Jazmine Sullivan, and SWV, before reiterating that these artists and their contributions to R&B can't be "killed."
"They wanna call it 'Popular Music' with Adele and Justin Timberlake get ahold to it, so now it's 'Popular Music.' But it's been popular music! We've been had it!"
Watch Mary J. Blige’s conversation with Diddy below:
