The hype that surrounded
Mary J. Blige in the beginning was simply ridiculous. When
What's the 411? was released in 1992, she was exalted as "the new
Chaka Khan"-- a definite exaggeration, considering how uneven that debut album was. But
Blige did show promise, and by the time she recorded her third album,
Share My World, she had developed into a fairly convincing soul/urban singer. Her strongest and most confident effort up to that point,
Share had much more character, personality, and honesty than most of the assembly line fare dominating urban radio in 1997. For all their slickness, emotive cuts like "Get to Know You Better," "Love Is All We Need," and "Keep Your Head" left no doubt that
Blige was indeed a singer of depth and substance. Although high tech, the production of everyone from
R. Kelly (with whom she duets on the inviting "It's On") and
Babyface to
Jimmy Jam and
Terry Lewis doesn't come across as forced or robotic, but, in fact, is impressively organic. With
Share My World,
Blige definitely arrived. ~ Alex Henderson