FACULTY
Mary J. Blige, My Life, and My First Cover Story
By Emil Wilbekin
On Nov. 28, 1994, when I was working as a junior editor at VIBE magazine, Mary J. Blige released her iconic album My Life. This collection of soulful and moody R&B tracks would be a cultural zeitgeist moment and a tipping point in my career as a writer.
I want to underscore the “junior” part of my editor title and experience. My actual title was associate editor, and heretofore, I had been editing “Next,” the new talent section of the magazine, breaking debut artists like Maxwell, Brandy, and Aaliyah. I had written smaller stories and one-page features about fashion, style, and music. But I had never written a long-form journalism profile, let alone a cover story.
But I was obsessed with Mary J. Blige—the Queen of Hip Hop Soul. For my peers and me, she was the voice of our generation. Her songs represented our love, loss, and angst, all riding classic soul music samples remixed over a hip-hop beat. Her music was the soundtrack to our lives—Mary is my generation’s Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé.
As a young, gay Black journalist, I had the privilege of writing about Mary for the premiere preview issue of VIBE in 1992, upon the release of her culture-shifting first album What’s the 411? on Uptown Records.
As a new diva, Mary was notoriously difficult, but we bonded during our interview; we understood each other: two young people starting out in their careers with grand ambitions and deep-seated imposter syndrome. Two years later, when I heard My Life, I knew I had to write that cover story.
So I begged my boss, Danyel Smith, then-music editor of VIBE, to let me write it. Mary’s music—and the audacious attitude of hip-hop—had given me the courage to ask for what I wanted. Finally, Danyel said yes! Mind you, My Life was one of the most anticipated albums of that year, and everyone was vying to interview Mary. It was a plum assignment, and it was mine.
Just five years out of Columbia University’s journalism school, I was flying first class with Mary J. Blige to Los Angeles. She was doing tapings with MTV and BET, and I would shadow her and interview her between appearances, manicures, fittings, and posh meals at Crustaceans in Beverly Hills.
I returned to New York with an intimate and deeply personal interview—she even cried. But … I had no idea what to do with it. I spiraled. After missing my deadline, I went into Danyel’s office and confessed that I was lost in the maze of paragraphs: evocative exchanges, the introduction, scenes, and secondary quotes. I was a hot mess.
Danyel, who was also my mentor, assigned me to work with our brilliant features editor, Rob Kenner. Rob sat with me, helping me organize my thoughts and create an outline and structure for the piece. He walked me through the process of writing my first cover story.
In the years that followed, I collaborated with Mary numerous times, writing two more cover stories and styling four covers and multiple fashion shoots at VIBE, editing Mary when she was guest editor of a special edition of ESSENCE, and even styling her “I Can Love You” video.
I’ve written many cover stories since. Most recently, about Shonda Rhimes for Architectural Digest, Colman Domingo for Ebony, Taraji P. Henson for Town & Country, Keke Palmer and Sergio Hudson for ESSENCE, Ziwe Fumudoh for Grazia USA, and an elaborate portfolio on young, queer Black creatives for T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
I’m so grateful to have had such a beautiful, teachable moment as a young journalist, for the mentorship of Danyel and Rob, and for the confidence and courageous spirit of Mary J. Blige to open doors to my satisfying career in journalism.
Emil Wilbekin is an assistant professor of Advertising and Marketing Communications with an emphasis on journalism.