A mature-yet-saucy Mary J. Blige appears on the cover of the newest issue of The Advocate. Inside she talks about her gay fans (loves them!), homophobia in hip hop, and her work fighting HIV/AIDS. Some snippets after the jump.
On having gay fans:
“The majority of them are [gay], and I have to really make sure that they know I’m paying attention to the fact that they support me, and I support them.”
On the reason she became involved in the fight to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS:
“It was the elephant in the room that nobody’s looking at. It made me be like, Oh, this is right at our front door. This can touch us. So why wouldn’t I want to get involved with something that can help save all our lives, save everybody’s lives?”
On homophobia in the hip-hop community:
“The real hip-hop, […] the real people don’t even care about [someone being gay]. They’ll love you and accept you no matter what because they know who they are.”
On why her music resonates with the gay community:
“I believe that at the end of the day, it’s the honesty that draws [the gay community] in. And the honest thing is, who am I to have anything to say about anyone? Because I’m such a mess myself.”
Great outlook and attitude Mary!
Now if she could just make a record i’d be willing to buy/download.
Don’t stone me for this, but I loathe her music. LOATHE. It’s not the voice. It’s the lyrics. So after the first fifty songs about surviving something or another, it gets old. I kinda felt that way about Alicia a few years ago.
MJB seems like a wonderful, genuine person.
I kinda agree with you Daria. I’m all for praising the Lord for new found happiness (I do it ofen), but her songs are starting to sound alike. I think she’s going to turn into a gospel singer at some point. Then I’ll have a new favorite gospel singer.
She has a few killer songs in her catalog, but i’ve always thought she was OVERRATED.
Hmm…interesting…does she really love the gays? Especially considering that she sang that incredible duet with George Michael (”Always” by Stevie Wonder) and refused to have it released as a single because it was just around the time when George Michael had his unfortunate coming out. (Check it out on Youtube if you haven’t heard it - it’s one of the greatest duets!). That would have been such a great opportunity to get onto this “I love the gays” platform. Don’t want to be a hater, but it all seems a bit disingenuous…