Mary J. Blige’s Share My World album queued up for the boom box at a moment’s notice. Yes the album consistently had me in a trance, but that was mainly because I had never seen a Black woman so fabulous.
The image of the quintessential “fly girl” adorned by a cocaine-white ensemble and Fendi shades on the cover of the singer’s third studio album was seared in my memory during my formative years.
At 28, that still remains the case, but for reasons far beyond Blige’s fashion sense. As I began to find my groove in this crazy game of adulthood, I realized that Share My World, which is 25 years old today, speaks to me on a completely different level than the R&B singer’s other pieces of work.
Navigating the ebbs and flows of life while coming into my own as a grown man helped me realize that the 1997 EP is more than an album — it’s a cultural artifact that serves as a reminder to listeners to find one’s happiness at all costs.
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