What's the 411? (1992)

What's the 411? is the debut album by American R&B singer Mary J. Blige. It was released on July 28, 1992, by Uptown Records and MCA Records. After signing a record contract with Uptown, Blige began working on the album with producer Sean "Puffy" Combs. Other producers and songwriters included DeVante Swing, Tony Dofat, Dave Hall, Mark Morales and Mark "Cory" Rooney. The resulting music covered hip hop soul, contemporary R&B, and new jack swing styles.

What's the 411? was also met with positive reviews from critics, who applauded Blige's singing and the combination of hip hop and soul music, which led to her being named the "Queen of Hip Hop Soul". The album peaked at number six on the US Billboard 200 and topped the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and eventually sold 3.5 million copies.

Background

At the age of 17, Blige recorded a cover version of Anita Baker's "Caught Up in the Rapture" in a recording booth at a local mall. Her mother's boyfriend at the time later played the cassette to recording artist and A&R runner for Uptown Records, Jeff Redd. Redd then sent it to the president and chief executive officer of the label, Andre Harrell. Blige met with Harrell in 1990 and performed the song for him. She was signed to Uptown and became the label's youngest and third female recording artist (after Finesse N' Synquis).

Recording

After being signed to Uptown Records, Blige began working with record producer Puff Daddy. He became the executive producer and produced a majority of the album. The title, What's the 411?, derived from Blige's past occupation as a 4-1-1 operator; it was also an indication by Blige of being the "real deal". The music was described as "revelatory on a frequent basis". Blige was noted for having a "tough girl persona and streetwise lyrics". The album begins with "Leave a Message", a collection of Blige's answering machine messages over a drum beat. The following two tracks, "Reminisce" and "You Remind Me", are melancholy songs that are overlaid with hip hop beats. A cover of Chaka Khan's "Sweet Thing" followed.

Release and promotion

What's the 411? was released on July 28, 1992. It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It also peaked at number 53 on the UK Albums Chart. The first single released to promote the album was "You Remind Me", originally from 1991 film Strictly Business. It reached the number 29 position on the pop charts and number 1 on the R&B charts in 1992. The next single, "Real Love" (#7 pop, #1 R&B, 1992), made Blige one of the year's biggest crossover successes.

With the album, Blige became the most successful new female R&B artist of 1992 in the United States, according to music scholar Dave McAleer. Reporting on the album's commercial success for Entertainment Weekly that year, Dave DiMartino said Blige's "powerful, soulful voice and hip-hop attitude" made her "solidly connected with an audience that has never seen a woman do new jack swing but loves it just the same". The following year, a remix album was released to further market What's the 411?, while "Sweet Thing" reached number 28 on the pop charts as a single.

In 2000, What's the 411? was certified triple platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over three million copies. As of July 2022, it has sold 3.5 million copies in the United States.

Creation of hip hop soul

The release of this album would influence a larger wave within the hip-hop sphere, specifically championing the hip-hop soul genre. Daphne Brooks writes about the change this album evoked in her article, crediting Blige with pioneering the "hip-hop soul" sound, which combines the grit and rhythm of hip-hop with the emotional depth of traditional R&B. She goes on to explain that this fusion provided a platform for voicing the struggles and triumphs of young Black women in urban America. The album features an emphasized vulnerability and raw sound from Blige that would eventually come to be a staple sound in the hip-hop soul genre. What's the 411 is able to achieve the fused sound between hip-hop and R&B through this vocal sound as well as the lyrical content of the album. Blige conveys themes and stories of desire, betrayal, abandonment, affairs, marriage, domesticity, spirituality, sisterhood, and emotional violence. Before the release of this album, these storylines that represent experiences more relevant to Black women were rarely expressed in mainstream hip-hop. As a result, this album sparked a sub-genre that was based on hip-hop aesthetics, bass, and artists while appealing to a more female-dominated audience.