# Mary J. Blige on Tax Issues, Strength of a Woman, Divorce, Paying Alimony, Acting, Music & Business

An episode of [Earn Your Leisure](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1450211392), 2 Mar 2026, 33 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/8dbc4f54-a337-4481-9ef2-b355012b0a3d/bc1a4267-2140-4d21-b12c-b4010024b412/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=eac4c628-29cb-469a-b5c8-b355012b0a48

Join us as Mary J. BlMaryJBlige #StrengthOfAWomanarkable journey! She candidly discusses her past struggle with a staggering $100 million IRS debt and the invaluable lessons it taught her. She sheds light on the exhilarating, yet challenging world of her acting and music careers, while explaining why a Verzuz isn't on her agenda. Listen to her unique perspective on paying a hefty $30,000 a month in alimony to her ex-husband. Mary also introduces us to her empowering project – a music festival titled 'Strength of a Woman'. She gives us a peek into her relationship with music mogul Diddy, her stance on prenuptial agreements, and the critical business acumen she's acquired over the years. Dive into the exciting behind-the-scenes stories of her record label, her venture into the spirits industry, and her strides as a TV show producer. Lastly, she talks about navigating the daunting landscape of Hollywood while maintaining her independence as an artist. Don't miss this incredible conversation. #MaryJBlige #StrengthOfAWoman #divorce See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: I would have never let a person have that much
[0:04] Speaker 1: power over my money, my life, over anything ever again.
[0:12] Speaker 2: So now in.
[0:13] Speaker 1: Control of my business, I'm in control of my life,
[0:17] Speaker 1: and it's mandatory that I learn more about finance, business,
[0:21] Speaker 1: you know, so I don't ever have to be robbed
[0:24] Speaker 1: again by you know, maybe somebody you think you can trust.
[0:29] Speaker 1: My graduates from my school being forced backdrop.
[0:35] Speaker 3: Drop, backdrop money.
[0:49] Speaker 4: It comes with a lot of questions and Fidelity can
[0:52] Speaker 4: help you get answers. Visit fidelity dot com slash black
[0:56] Speaker 4: Wealth to learn more.
[0:57] Speaker 5: Make some noise you well, thank you, Harry, it's amazing.
[1:05] Speaker 3: Congratulations, thank you so much.
[1:08] Speaker 5: Yes, yes, so you guys can take your seats now
[1:11] Speaker 5: if you can, if possible, we don't want to block
[1:15] Speaker 5: anybody's view. I would just ask everybody one one thing. Obviously,
[1:22] Speaker 5: this is one of the greatest entertainers, one of the
[1:26] Speaker 5: icons of our generation, of any generation.
[1:32] Speaker 2: Thank you.
[1:35] Speaker 5: Let's get into it, Mary, I want to talk about
[1:39] Speaker 5: this right Strength of a Woman festival. It's not something
[1:42] Speaker 5: that is easy to put together. When you're talking about
[1:45] Speaker 5: selling out shows and eighteen thousand people, and you got
[1:49] Speaker 5: business vendors and you got multiple different things. So what
[1:53] Speaker 5: was the thought process and putting together this festival, and
[1:58] Speaker 5: what was the commit on the time, financial relationship that
[2:03] Speaker 5: it took to put this together.
[2:05] Speaker 1: What a thought process came from just performing and just
[2:12] Speaker 1: watching the women and the audience, how they just you know,
[2:18] Speaker 1: love and respect me and love and how my music
[2:23] Speaker 1: has done so much for them, and just watching them
[2:27] Speaker 1: just sometimes it just was mind blowing how they just
[2:30] Speaker 1: people are crying and passing out, and it just touched
[2:33] Speaker 1: my heart. And so to see us all in one
[2:37] Speaker 1: room loving on each other because of you know, you
[2:43] Speaker 1: know me, because of this performance, or because of all
[2:46] Speaker 1: the trials and tribulations and things that I've come through.
[2:49] Speaker 1: My music is a movement that has touched so many
[2:52] Speaker 1: women and saved so many lives.
[2:55] Speaker 2: And so the summit is about that.
[2:58] Speaker 1: The summit is about what the music has done, you know,
[3:02] Speaker 1: uplifting and encouraging and inspiring and bringing us all together
[3:06] Speaker 1: to love on each other and to learn self love
[3:09] Speaker 1: and self awareness and entrepreneurship. And you know, just so
[3:14] Speaker 1: that was the idea. It came from the concert, and
[3:17] Speaker 1: so here we are. It started as a meeting on
[3:24] Speaker 1: the roof of the Waldorf. A story in La between
[3:29] Speaker 1: me and my team, and within the next year it
[3:34] Speaker 1: was up and running. So PEPSI and Live Nation Urban
[3:40] Speaker 1: our partners in this, and.
[3:42] Speaker 2: They came through.
[3:43] Speaker 1: And you know, I really don't have too much more
[3:46] Speaker 1: to say except for here we are right now because
[3:50] Speaker 1: of the Mary J.
[3:50] Speaker 2: Blige movement. This is all because of the.
[3:54] Speaker 1: Thirty something years that I've been in the music business.
[3:58] Speaker 3: And yeah, clean, the clean, the clean.
[4:01] Speaker 4: I mean we've sold it to you before, but being
[4:04] Speaker 4: kids from west Chester County nine one four, I forgot
[4:07] Speaker 4: to mention that, Yeah, I mean, watching your thirty year career,
[4:12] Speaker 4: We've watched you as a singer, as an entertainer, as
[4:15] Speaker 4: an actress. Now I wonder when it's switched to your
[4:18] Speaker 4: click to you to say, you know what, I'm a
[4:21] Speaker 4: talent in front of the camera, but I want to
[4:23] Speaker 4: be known as a talent behind the camera. Creating your
[4:26] Speaker 4: own record label, having your own production. We sort of
[4:29] Speaker 4: preview for the movies that are coming out in a
[4:31] Speaker 4: few weeks. When did that go off? And you know what,
[4:34] Speaker 4: I want to do something bigger. I want to be
[4:36] Speaker 4: more than just a talent in front. I want to
[4:38] Speaker 4: be the one behind as well.
[4:39] Speaker 3: Well.
[4:39] Speaker 2: For me, it's never, like always, I want to do
[4:41] Speaker 2: something bigger.
[4:42] Speaker 1: It's just observing, how you know, I wanted to have
[4:46] Speaker 1: I wanted to be in production, to be a producer,
[4:50] Speaker 1: to create more content for our culture, because we never
[4:55] Speaker 1: get a chance to you know, control the narrative of
[4:58] Speaker 1: how we're looked at, you know, and so that's what
[5:01] Speaker 1: being a producer, you know, is about. That's why I
[5:06] Speaker 1: wanted to be a producer. That's why I created Blue Butterfly.
[5:10] Speaker 1: And so we can tell stories like the clock Sisters,
[5:12] Speaker 1: you know, have them tell their story, have women tell
[5:15] Speaker 1: their stories, have us as black people uplifted in a
[5:19] Speaker 1: better light other than just being you know, drug dealers,
[5:23] Speaker 1: and whatever the case may be. You have you know,
[5:26] Speaker 1: these these two lifetime movies that I'm doing right now,
[5:30] Speaker 1: and these This woman is you know, Real Love that
[5:33] Speaker 1: is one of the movies. And she's in college, you know,
[5:36] Speaker 1: and she beats her boyfriend in college.
[5:38] Speaker 2: And so I never went to college.
[5:41] Speaker 1: So I wanted people to see that that's that's possible,
[5:44] Speaker 1: and that's why I'm creating that. That's why I wanted
[5:46] Speaker 1: to be a producer, to just create more better content
[5:49] Speaker 1: for our culture.
[5:51] Speaker 3: The time is come, lady and gentlemen. Invest Fest that's right,
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[5:57] Speaker 5: August twenty fifth, twenty sixth, and twenty seventh in Atlanta, Georgia.
[6:01] Speaker 3: We are taking into a new level, bigger than ever.
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[6:12] Speaker 5: We will have activations for on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
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[6:20] Speaker 5: a completely life changing experience. Vendor, marketplace, food, truck village,
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[6:26] Speaker 4: Don't wait, don't hesitate that over now.
[6:32] Speaker 5: So you're obviously extremely talented on the music side, but
[6:36] Speaker 5: when you're acting, right, anybody a fan of the Power Series?
[6:47] Speaker 3: A few people watch it?
[6:48] Speaker 5: I see, So how is that different for you acting
[6:54] Speaker 5: as opposed to singing? And which one do you like
[6:58] Speaker 5: or what's the difference is that you like about it?
[7:00] Speaker 1: You can't compare them because singing is something I've been
[7:03] Speaker 1: doing all my life. It's easy, that's what that's that's
[7:06] Speaker 1: that's who I am, that's what I do. But acting
[7:08] Speaker 1: is hard. Because you have to take something that's on
[7:11] Speaker 1: a piece of paper that are words and turn them
[7:14] Speaker 1: into a character. So and what's really hard about it
[7:18] Speaker 1: for me is I have to for this character, I
[7:22] Speaker 1: have to dig in some really dark places to go
[7:24] Speaker 1: murder these people and you know, choke my kids and
[7:27] Speaker 1: all that stuff.
[7:29] Speaker 4: Yeah we saw, we saw yeah about that.
[7:36] Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, I mean it's it's a challenge. It's
[7:40] Speaker 1: a challenge, but I love a challenge. And I want
[7:42] Speaker 1: to perfect the craft even more because I haven't reached
[7:45] Speaker 1: the point in my acting career where I'm like, gosh,
[7:49] Speaker 1: I love when I did that. You know, I'm still like, gosh,
[7:52] Speaker 1: I could have did that better. That feels funny, you know.
[7:55] Speaker 1: So I want to perfect the craft even more, you know,
[7:59] Speaker 1: to when I look at it Angela Bassett, you know,
[8:03] Speaker 1: I feel like that, like, oh, like, look like how.
[8:05] Speaker 2: She did that? You know, I see what I'm saying.
[8:07] Speaker 4: Yeah, when you walk in these rooms, how is it?
[8:11] Speaker 4: Do you want to be respected as Mary Jay the
[8:13] Speaker 4: actor or the talent that we know, the queen of RB.
[8:16] Speaker 3: How does that? How do you approach it?
[8:18] Speaker 2: Well?
[8:18] Speaker 1: I approach it like this, you know, immediately they're like, oh,
[8:21] Speaker 1: let's let's let's let's let us sing. No, I'm acting,
[8:24] Speaker 1: I don't want to sing. If I'm singing, I'm singing.
[8:26] Speaker 1: If I'm acting and acting, I want people to respect
[8:28] Speaker 1: me as an actress. You know, it's it's two different
[8:31] Speaker 1: things you gonna you know.
[8:33] Speaker 5: Yeah, have you talked about Angela Bassett and have you
[8:37] Speaker 5: had any mentors in Hollywood that have helped you?
[8:41] Speaker 3: And if so, what are some people? Yeah?
[8:43] Speaker 1: I mean I have friends that are super amazing actresses, Taraji,
[8:49] Speaker 1: Queen Latifa, Angela Bassett, Tasha Smith. They they are so
[8:54] Speaker 1: confident in what they do. They call. When I called them,
[8:57] Speaker 1: I said, yo, I need help. They give me all
[9:00] Speaker 1: the tools. I learned so much from Taraji. I learned
[9:02] Speaker 1: so much from Queen Latifa and Angela Bassett. Tasha Smith
[9:07] Speaker 1: was my acting coach for It, still is and one
[9:11] Speaker 1: of my really good friends. So yeah, you know, I
[9:14] Speaker 1: have even even on Viola. You know, when I see her,
[9:18] Speaker 1: she's like, keep going, You're doing great, you know.
[9:21] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[9:21] Speaker 4: Yeah, you talk about mentorship in acting, but I mean
[9:25] Speaker 4: the last time we spoke, you were telling us about
[9:26] Speaker 4: mentorship in business, and so a lot of times you
[9:29] Speaker 4: get invited to rooms, and if you don't know the person,
[9:32] Speaker 4: I got to figure out who these people are, because
[9:34] Speaker 4: there's a reason they're in the room and the reason
[9:35] Speaker 4: there's a reason I'm in the room. So let's talk
[9:37] Speaker 4: about the spirits industry, right, because you have some goddess
[9:41] Speaker 4: and you have sister love jewelry. Where did that spark
[9:45] Speaker 4: and the interest in the spirits world come from?
[9:47] Speaker 2: What a spark came from? I was on tour with Maxwell.
[9:50] Speaker 1: Maxwell was a really good friend of mine and Maxwell
[9:53] Speaker 1: was about to put his own line out and he
[9:57] Speaker 1: took me to dinner with him and some Italian people.
[10:03] Speaker 4: Oh yeah, they they we call him they And.
[10:10] Speaker 1: I was guzzling Santa Marguerita Pina Gricio like you know,
[10:15] Speaker 1: and they were like, Maddy wants you to know, do
[10:17] Speaker 1: your own wine. And I didn't blink it in study,
[10:19] Speaker 1: I said absolutely, one hundred percent. And right after that,
[10:24] Speaker 1: maybe like three weeks later, while I was on tour
[10:26] Speaker 1: with Maxwell, I found myself on a plane too freely
[10:29] Speaker 1: Italy to meet Marco Fantineo and we touched down to
[10:33] Speaker 1: his place and his whole place was the winery and
[10:36] Speaker 1: the rest is history.
[10:37] Speaker 3: You know.
[10:38] Speaker 1: We put the wine out during the first quarantine of
[10:43] Speaker 1: COVID when everybody was drinking, and we.
[10:49] Speaker 3: They remember then, remember it very well.
[10:52] Speaker 2: We sold it.
[10:54] Speaker 1: We sold it on wine dot com and it was
[10:56] Speaker 1: sold out. Every single it was just sold out, you know,
[11:00] Speaker 1: and so we knew. You know what, my people, what
[11:03] Speaker 1: I love about them. They're honest and if it's whack
[11:06] Speaker 1: is whack. If it's nasty, it's nasty. They took they
[11:08] Speaker 1: were going crazy over it. So they gave me, you know,
[11:11] Speaker 1: people that bought the wine gave me the correct the
[11:13] Speaker 1: confidence to keep going. And it just keeps growing and
[11:15] Speaker 1: growing and growing and growing. So yeah, that's that's where
[11:18] Speaker 1: that came from.
[11:19] Speaker 3: We actually tasted the wine.
[11:21] Speaker 5: Our friend and your good friend, Angie Martinez, Yeah, invite
[11:24] Speaker 5: us to forty forty and we had to sample it,
[11:28] Speaker 5: of course, and it's actually extremely good. I'm not even
[11:31] Speaker 5: a wine connoisseur. I don't like wine, but thank you,
[11:34] Speaker 5: I stamp your wine.
[11:36] Speaker 1: Well, now we have a we have a prosecco, we
[11:39] Speaker 1: have a Prosecco Rose, we have them are Low and
[11:42] Speaker 1: we have a Solvet Young Blanc and of course you
[11:45] Speaker 1: know the Pinagregient over model.
[11:47] Speaker 2: Rose the wine actual wine. So it's just growing and
[11:50] Speaker 2: growing and growing. It in the middle. We're gonna have
[11:51] Speaker 2: it in little bottles with little straws.
[11:56] Speaker 3: In the free sunset. So so let me ask you this.
[11:58] Speaker 5: For people in the audience that are in entertainment or entrepreneurs,
[12:04] Speaker 5: the hardest thing to do is to know when it's
[12:06] Speaker 5: time to do something else, right, because you don't want
[12:08] Speaker 5: to just run into things. So how do you know
[12:12] Speaker 5: when it's time to start a new business in a
[12:15] Speaker 5: new industry.
[12:17] Speaker 1: I don't think you never really know when it's time
[12:20] Speaker 1: because ideas something could come right now, you know, and
[12:24] Speaker 1: I do one thing at a time, and then as
[12:27] Speaker 1: I keep going, every you know, it grows. So I
[12:31] Speaker 1: don't think, well, for me, it's not like, oh, it's
[12:33] Speaker 1: time to do something. When it comes, it comes, you know,
[12:38] Speaker 1: it's never.
[12:38] Speaker 2: Really a plan. It's just organic.
[12:42] Speaker 1: And then when it comes, then you start planning and
[12:45] Speaker 1: you start strategizing.
[12:46] Speaker 2: So it's always creative for me.
[12:49] Speaker 1: When it flows, it flows, when it comes, it comes,
[12:51] Speaker 1: and then I bring it, you know, to the team,
[12:53] Speaker 1: and then you know, like that, I mean for me,
[12:58] Speaker 1: that's that's how it goes. For me.
[13:00] Speaker 4: It's interesting because as you get more creative and more
[13:02] Speaker 4: business opportunities come to you. And it's something that we've
[13:04] Speaker 4: kind of experienced, is a lot of business opportunities would come,
[13:07] Speaker 4: but we just don't have the bandwidth ourselves to do it.
[13:10] Speaker 4: And so do you look at each opportunity as a
[13:13] Speaker 4: way to now build another team and employ more people?
[13:18] Speaker 4: How do you look at the opportunities from this landscape
[13:20] Speaker 4: hop that's going to help.
[13:22] Speaker 1: Should build more team, definitely, to employ employ more people,
[13:27] Speaker 1: to keep people employed, and to just keep make it
[13:31] Speaker 1: where you know, I have revenue stream while I'm sleeping,
[13:36] Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, And the money is not
[13:38] Speaker 1: just not working work and working so hard, and you know,
[13:43] Speaker 1: one day I'll just be you know, sleeping, a billion
[13:46] Speaker 1: dollar check would come, you know, because I have businesses
[13:49] Speaker 1: out there they're going. So everything is a plan for
[13:51] Speaker 1: the future, the plans to just not have to work
[13:54] Speaker 1: so hard.
[13:55] Speaker 2: I hope I answered the question.
[13:57] Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, So let me ask you this you've talked
[14:01] Speaker 5: about in the past where you had to go on
[14:03] Speaker 5: tour to pay alimony, yeah, to your ex husband. I
[14:07] Speaker 5: don't know if the numbers correct at Google. I saw
[14:09] Speaker 5: it was like thirty thousand a month or something like that.
[14:11] Speaker 4: Yeah, correct us if we're wrong.
[14:15] Speaker 5: So, looking back on it in hindsight, what would you
[14:19] Speaker 5: have done differently when you first got married in terms
[14:24] Speaker 5: of shielding your assets.
[14:27] Speaker 1: I would have never let a person have that much
[14:32] Speaker 1: power over my money, my life, over anything ever again,
[14:39] Speaker 1: So I would.
[14:42] Speaker 2: I would.
[14:43] Speaker 1: Now I'm learning, I'm in control of my business, I'm
[14:47] Speaker 1: in control of my life, and it's mandatory that I
[14:51] Speaker 1: learned more about finance business, you know, so I don't
[14:55] Speaker 1: ever have to be robbed again by you know, maybe
[14:59] Speaker 1: somebody you think you and trust, you know.
[15:00] Speaker 2: What I mean.
[15:01] Speaker 5: So do you think that it was more so just
[15:03] Speaker 5: a lack of education somebody playing on you not knowing
[15:07] Speaker 5: things and then purposely.
[15:09] Speaker 1: Yes, it was a lack of education, And it also
[15:13] Speaker 1: was just trusting people to help you when you don't know,
[15:17] Speaker 1: and you hope that they're going to help you and
[15:19] Speaker 1: not steal from you and lie to you, and and
[15:21] Speaker 1: and and and.
[15:24] Speaker 2: Just trying to take control over your life.
[15:27] Speaker 1: So yeah, exactly, you hope that people would help you
[15:33] Speaker 1: when you don't know, and a lot of times what
[15:36] Speaker 1: happened to me, they.
[15:38] Speaker 2: Rob you, you know.
[15:40] Speaker 1: So it's best to get education so you don't have
[15:44] Speaker 1: to depend on anybody to control your money or to
[15:48] Speaker 1: help you, you know, you know, to to help you
[15:51] Speaker 1: keep your money in a safe place.
[15:53] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Yeah.
[15:55] Speaker 3: Keeping you.
[15:56] Speaker 4: I mean, we spoke about this a little bit earlier
[15:57] Speaker 4: before you came on. It's important to money, but it's
[16:00] Speaker 4: more important to keep the money.
[16:02] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[16:03] Speaker 4: And so we've had plenty of conversations and people in
[16:05] Speaker 4: entertainment and the one thing that they always talk about.
[16:08] Speaker 4: In fact, Joe spoke about it, Steve Harvey spoken candly
[16:10] Speaker 4: about it.
[16:11] Speaker 3: It's paying taxes.
[16:13] Speaker 1: Yes, So so shut it down. Speaking of taxes. I
[16:18] Speaker 1: owe so much money. I never thought I was ever
[16:23] Speaker 1: going to get out of debt. I'm out of debt now,
[16:25] Speaker 1: but I mean I owed millions, millions, like hundreds of
[16:32] Speaker 1: millions of dollars in taxes, and I think, right, you know,
[16:40] Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought.
[16:43] Speaker 3: Go back to so I was trying, we were gonna
[16:44] Speaker 3: get to that.
[16:45] Speaker 4: So the lack of education around that, right as you're
[16:48] Speaker 4: getting this large sum of money and you accumulating, give,
[16:51] Speaker 4: how are we even getting educated? Who are we surrounding
[16:53] Speaker 4: ourselves to protect ourselves, to make sure that we are
[16:56] Speaker 4: paying tax is it a financially somebody in our.
[16:58] Speaker 1: Team, a great business management team, and you have to
[17:03] Speaker 1: have Now I have the wisdom. Now I look at
[17:05] Speaker 1: my payroll. That's not my money. My taxes are not
[17:07] Speaker 1: my money, My times are not my money. So I'm like,
[17:10] Speaker 1: pay my pay pay my business, pay my payroll, pay
[17:14] Speaker 1: my taxes, pay my times, anything. All of that money,
[17:20] Speaker 1: I don't even want to see it because it doesn't
[17:22] Speaker 1: belong to me.
[17:23] Speaker 2: And that's how I was moving period.
[17:27] Speaker 1: I was moving like that period, but nobody listened to me.
[17:30] Speaker 1: When I was married. I was like, pay my taxes,
[17:32] Speaker 1: pay my times.
[17:33] Speaker 2: Do everything.
[17:34] Speaker 1: And then you know, they didn't listen to me, so,
[17:37] Speaker 1: you know, but he was in control of everything, so
[17:42] Speaker 1: he wasn't gonna you know, we don't want to do
[17:44] Speaker 1: all of that, but you know, that's that's how I do.
[17:46] Speaker 1: Those things are important to me. Payroll, taxes, times, anything that.
[17:52] Speaker 1: You know, if anyone's doing a service, you have to
[17:56] Speaker 1: pay them for it, you know, and you have to
[17:58] Speaker 1: call people back. You know, sometimes people just want to
[18:03] Speaker 1: you know what, Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
[18:07] Speaker 1: get back to you. It's not always so much about
[18:10] Speaker 1: you know people vendors beating your door down because they
[18:13] Speaker 1: you know, they're just being aggravated. They just want to
[18:15] Speaker 1: know that you are. You are acknowledging them if you
[18:19] Speaker 1: owe them money. You understand what I'm saying. So if
[18:22] Speaker 1: you don't call people back, you know, it creates a
[18:26] Speaker 1: bad image for you, It creates, you know, chatter that
[18:29] Speaker 1: you don't handle do business properly. You understand what I'm saying. So, yeah,
[18:34] Speaker 1: those things are important to me now. So this is
[18:38] Speaker 1: strength of a woman's festival.
[18:41] Speaker 5: And a lot of times when we think about pre numps,
[18:45] Speaker 5: it's always from a man's perspective, Like a man wants
[18:48] Speaker 5: his wife to sign a pre nump before they get
[18:50] Speaker 5: married because he has more money. But there's not always
[18:53] Speaker 5: the case. Sometimes in your situation, the woman could be
[18:57] Speaker 5: the breadwinner or the woman can have more money. So
[19:00] Speaker 5: what are your thoughts on pre numps and how would
[19:03] Speaker 5: you approach you or what advice would you give as
[19:05] Speaker 5: far as for a woman that may be wealthy, well
[19:08] Speaker 5: off and they're looking to get married, get a pre nump.
[19:14] Speaker 2: Because I didn't have one, and that's why I was.
[19:19] Speaker 1: I ended up having to just give everything away because
[19:24] Speaker 1: it's so let me just speak.
[19:26] Speaker 2: It's so whack right.
[19:27] Speaker 1: Now that men you know, can come ask you and
[19:33] Speaker 1: get and you know, and get alimony. So when I
[19:37] Speaker 1: was getting a divorce, I was like, you mean to
[19:40] Speaker 1: tell me I got to pay him? And he cheated
[19:43] Speaker 1: and he lied and he stolen, you know, not to
[19:45] Speaker 1: get all petty, but you know what I'm saying.
[19:49] Speaker 2: You mean, I gotta.
[19:49] Speaker 1: Pay him for cheating a line or to me and
[19:53] Speaker 1: ruining my life. So yeah, and and the law is
[19:57] Speaker 1: you have to you know, So I say, get a
[20:00] Speaker 1: freeing up, cover yourself up.
[20:03] Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm telling you, man, it's crazy.
[20:09] Speaker 3: Mary.
[20:10] Speaker 4: My wife is here, so baby, I love you. But
[20:14] Speaker 4: so you said, you're debt free. And we see the
[20:16] Speaker 4: success of strength of a woman. We talk about the
[20:19] Speaker 4: spirits industry, but something monumental is happening in your music career.
[20:23] Speaker 4: You're now an independent artist. So let's talk congratulations. I mean,
[20:31] Speaker 4: let's talk about that. Let's talk about the feeling, the prompt,
[20:34] Speaker 4: the you know, how you feeling about this.
[20:36] Speaker 1: I feel like like I'm flying sometimes because I was
[20:41] Speaker 1: so low. I felt like I had anchors and you know,
[20:44] Speaker 1: I just was low and I felt like I owed
[20:47] Speaker 1: everybody everything. And now I don't owe a label nothing.
[20:50] Speaker 1: I can just put music out. I could just do
[20:53] Speaker 1: whatever I want. It's liberating.
[20:56] Speaker 3: Hey, DJ, you're supposed to drop just fine. When I
[20:58] Speaker 3: asked how some feeling.
[21:02] Speaker 5: So as far as a lot of artists these days
[21:06] Speaker 5: are selling their catalogs, that's like very popular, right, how
[21:11] Speaker 5: do you feel about that?
[21:12] Speaker 3: And would you sell your catalog?
[21:18] Speaker 2: Absolutely not, No, it's too valuable.
[21:26] Speaker 5: So when you say it's too valuable, too valuable from
[21:30] Speaker 5: just you personally, or too valuable as far as there's
[21:33] Speaker 5: not money this, you got to come with billions of
[21:35] Speaker 5: dollars for your catalog.
[21:37] Speaker 1: I don't think the catalog. Once you sell it, you're
[21:42] Speaker 1: going to spend that billion dollars. You'll never be able
[21:45] Speaker 1: to get those babies back. Like those are my babies.
[21:47] Speaker 1: They literally came out of my womb. I'm not gonna
[21:51] Speaker 1: you know, you know, maybe later when I get older,
[21:55] Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, But you know right now
[21:59] Speaker 1: I wouldn't do that.
[22:00] Speaker 3: No.
[22:02] Speaker 4: So I see there's a lot of brands that are here,
[22:06] Speaker 4: PEPSI being one of them. We talked about a lot
[22:08] Speaker 4: of nation urban When you're looking for a strategic business partner.
[22:11] Speaker 4: What are you looking for in a brand that is
[22:15] Speaker 4: it qualifies them to work with somebody of your caliber.
[22:19] Speaker 1: The first thing is do you know me? Because you
[22:23] Speaker 1: can't help me sell me if you don't know me.
[22:26] Speaker 1: You can't sell anything from my brand if you don't
[22:28] Speaker 1: know me. So the first thing is do you know
[22:31] Speaker 1: Mary J.
[22:31] Speaker 3: Blige?
[22:32] Speaker 2: What is she about?
[22:33] Speaker 1: Because then you're gonna you're gonna be full, You're gonna
[22:37] Speaker 1: be all the way in with me, and you're gonna
[22:38] Speaker 1: go hard with me to get get things sold, you know,
[22:42] Speaker 1: or to market me the right way, or to market
[22:45] Speaker 1: whatever we're marketing for.
[22:46] Speaker 3: Mary J.
[22:47] Speaker 2: Blisgerberg. So the first thing is.
[22:48] Speaker 1: Do you You gotta know you gotta you gotta have history.
[22:51] Speaker 2: You gotta know the history of me so we can
[22:54] Speaker 2: do the business.
[22:55] Speaker 5: So we was with the good Brother Swiss couple of
[22:58] Speaker 5: weeks ago and we had a conversation about you.
[23:03] Speaker 3: Versus would you do it? Versus? No? Why not? Why
[23:12] Speaker 3: would you not want to do that?
[23:14] Speaker 1: I just let me just say this that I love Swiss.
[23:17] Speaker 1: That I mean, I love Swiss. That's my friend, that's
[23:21] Speaker 1: my brother, that's up my people. I just don't care
[23:24] Speaker 1: about my verses. I don't want to be up there
[23:26] Speaker 1: who got And it's no disrespect. I just don't care,
[23:34] Speaker 1: Like I don't need to say I had to know.
[23:36] Speaker 1: I have some of the hottest records. I know, I
[23:38] Speaker 1: got a crazy catalog. I don't need to be like
[23:42] Speaker 1: your record my record sension.
[23:45] Speaker 3: Well, let me ask you.
[23:45] Speaker 5: Let me ask you this just from an admiration standpoint,
[23:50] Speaker 5: if you ever had to dance with somebody, who do
[23:53] Speaker 5: you have? Anybody that you would say this is a
[23:55] Speaker 5: counterpart that I really appreciate their music, and I would
[23:58] Speaker 5: love to have some level of.
[24:00] Speaker 1: So many people that have great music out there. I
[24:02] Speaker 1: mean there's so many women that have just catalogs, you know.
[24:07] Speaker 1: So I mean I don't have to I don't like
[24:10] Speaker 1: the putting everybody up against each other the right like,
[24:14] Speaker 1: I don't like it. I mean I could just put
[24:16] Speaker 1: my shirt on and just walk away. I could put
[24:20] Speaker 1: take that.
[24:23] Speaker 2: I could put the ons four on one album on
[24:26] Speaker 2: and just walk away.
[24:29] Speaker 4: Oh, I'm gonna be honest with you, and thank you
[24:31] Speaker 4: for protecting me because I mentioned somebody he protected me.
[24:33] Speaker 3: Thank you for shall But we had.
[24:36] Speaker 4: Old with us and he was like, I haven't really
[24:39] Speaker 4: seen Mary perform I said, listen, you gotta go to
[24:42] Speaker 4: a show and let I'm going down. Come on and
[24:46] Speaker 4: just look around and watch what happens to the audience.
[24:49] Speaker 4: Y'all know it's crazy. We saw a little bit of
[24:52] Speaker 4: it last night. So shout out to the four on one,
[24:55] Speaker 4: shout to share, my shout to all the.
[24:56] Speaker 3: Albums number one, thank you, but you brought the four.
[25:00] Speaker 4: One and it made me think about this guy who
[25:03] Speaker 4: was integral in that process. Puff and outside of the music,
[25:08] Speaker 4: he's been a major figure in life, especially in the
[25:12] Speaker 4: world of business. Can you talk about some of the
[25:14] Speaker 4: mentorship he's given you outside of music.
[25:17] Speaker 2: I mean, let me just start from the beginning.
[25:20] Speaker 1: When I met Puff, he was ambitious, a go get
[25:23] Speaker 1: it and I was just a little girl from Slovan
[25:27] Speaker 1: that was scared of success.
[25:28] Speaker 2: But this man wasn't scared of no success.
[25:31] Speaker 1: He wasn't scared to be fly, he wasn't scared to
[25:34] Speaker 1: be seen, and he was the opposite of everything that
[25:37] Speaker 1: I was. So just watching him was encouraging to me
[25:42] Speaker 1: and taught me a lot. And he was always about
[25:46] Speaker 1: He wanted the success more than we wanted it. He
[25:50] Speaker 1: wanted our success for us more than we wanted it. So,
[25:54] Speaker 1: I mean, he just gave me a lot of confidence.
[25:56] Speaker 1: And you know, and and and at that time, you know,
[26:00] Speaker 1: he gave me a lot of confidence in my music.
[26:02] Speaker 1: And you know, he was like a, Yo, you're gonna
[26:04] Speaker 1: get out there and bust a ass.
[26:05] Speaker 2: You're gonna get out there. Yo, you wanna do that.
[26:07] Speaker 2: And it was just like okay, okay, okay, okay okay.
[26:10] Speaker 1: So he made me my personality was very like like this.
[26:14] Speaker 1: But he really helped me a lot. He really, you know,
[26:18] Speaker 1: picked a lot of the right, you know, samples together.
[26:22] Speaker 2: We did a lot. I mean, it wasn't no you know,
[26:24] Speaker 2: just organic.
[26:24] Speaker 1: And he was just puff daddy, like the same puff
[26:28] Speaker 1: daddy you see today.
[26:29] Speaker 2: He's the same puff daddy he was then.
[26:32] Speaker 1: And he was so he wanted it for Mary, for
[26:36] Speaker 1: Joe to see, for all of us, more than we
[26:38] Speaker 1: even wanted it. So man, you know, that's that's you know.
[26:43] Speaker 1: He Yeah, he helped me sustain.
[26:46] Speaker 5: So your music has become the soundtrack to millions of
[26:50] Speaker 5: people's lives, millions of women's lives from the downs that
[26:54] Speaker 5: from ninety two to twenty twenty three, when you go
[26:57] Speaker 5: to all around the world, how does that feel when
[27:01] Speaker 5: they connect with you on a different level. It's like
[27:03] Speaker 5: a spiritual level, like you've helped guide them through, you know,
[27:06] Speaker 5: heartbreak and breakups and divorce.
[27:10] Speaker 3: How does that feel for you to play that role?
[27:13] Speaker 1: It feels good, and it's a responsibility because I'm not
[27:17] Speaker 1: doing anything special.
[27:18] Speaker 2: I'm just falling and getting back up. That's it.
[27:21] Speaker 1: I'm just falling. I'm getting back up, and am I
[27:25] Speaker 1: getting backed up? Sometimes I'm laying down longer than what
[27:28] Speaker 1: I'm supposed to, But I get up and I come
[27:31] Speaker 1: out on the other side. And so that's really all
[27:35] Speaker 1: I've done, you know. So I say, when people like
[27:38] Speaker 1: you saved my life, I'd be like, well, you really
[27:40] Speaker 1: need to give that credit to God for giving me
[27:42] Speaker 1: the strength to get back up.
[27:47] Speaker 4: So we talked about the spirits, We talked about the production,
[27:51] Speaker 4: we talked about the acting. Obviously, the talent in the
[27:54] Speaker 4: field of singing.
[27:56] Speaker 3: I'm looking that down.
[27:57] Speaker 4: Food to your right, and I'm thinking to myself, if
[27:59] Speaker 4: don in the room, there's more business to come.
[28:02] Speaker 3: And so I'm wondering one.
[28:03] Speaker 4: Hundred all right, we know, So what else is on
[28:07] Speaker 4: the vision board for the Mary J. Blige Empire? What
[28:12] Speaker 4: else is on the vision board, Like, what else do
[28:13] Speaker 4: you see, Like that's something I want to tackle that
[28:15] Speaker 4: I want to get involved in that business, or that's
[28:18] Speaker 4: something that I can see I can add to the portfolio.
[28:20] Speaker 2: Well, the Boots are coming.
[28:25] Speaker 1: Everybody's like, what's up with the Hey, Hey, that's the
[28:28] Speaker 1: next thing, said the boots.
[28:30] Speaker 2: Yes about the book line.
[28:32] Speaker 4: The dancing is so separately though, I said that dancing
[28:35] Speaker 4: is so separately.
[28:36] Speaker 3: Everybody can't dance like you in the boots.
[28:39] Speaker 2: We got talking about the dancing. We talking about the
[28:41] Speaker 2: bootline right now, Arders, what's going on? Listen?
[28:45] Speaker 4: Eylu is relaunching, revamping, retooling. That's why we're creating a
[28:49] Speaker 4: new educational experience that's more expansive.
[28:52] Speaker 5: Tell what we got, Yes, twenty twenty three, we got
[28:55] Speaker 5: a lot in store, a lot playing for you guys.
[28:57] Speaker 3: So you know that eyou already includes.
[29:00] Speaker 5: Monthly financial planning calls with Me, book club calls with Troy,
[29:04] Speaker 5: real estate calls with MG the mortgage got access to
[29:07] Speaker 5: the Home Buying Blueprint Volume one and Volume two. Part
[29:10] Speaker 5: of the revamp will include twenty seven local chapters from
[29:14] Speaker 5: across the United States, live interactive teaching, hands on not
[29:18] Speaker 5: just pre recorded videos, plus fifteen brand new curriculums.
[29:24] Speaker 3: The biggest just got bigger.
[29:35] Speaker 1: I just want to get that going because everybody you
[29:39] Speaker 1: don't really want it.
[29:41] Speaker 5: So what are some of the biggest lessons in business
[29:46] Speaker 5: and just in general that you've learned over your thirty
[29:48] Speaker 5: year career.
[29:50] Speaker 2: Take care of yourself?
[29:53] Speaker 1: Do I mean, go behind everybody, check in on your business,
[29:58] Speaker 1: check in on yourself. Just make sure you are in
[30:02] Speaker 1: on every single thing. And if they don't know you,
[30:05] Speaker 1: then they can't identify you. If they can't if they
[30:08] Speaker 1: don't have no history on you and what you're doing,
[30:10] Speaker 1: they can't help you.
[30:12] Speaker 2: So that's really it. Just take care of you.
[30:16] Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm sure there's plenty of women in here,
[30:18] Speaker 4: and we saw a lot of artists at the show
[30:20] Speaker 4: last night. Now that you have a label, are you
[30:22] Speaker 4: currently looking for talent to put on the label?
[30:24] Speaker 3: How does would somebody go about that? Well?
[30:27] Speaker 1: Right, So let me give you the backstory on why
[30:30] Speaker 1: I'm just getting the label. I tried to do it
[30:33] Speaker 1: a long time ago, and what I don't like doing
[30:36] Speaker 1: is promising people things, and I don't have the money
[30:39] Speaker 1: to back it up. So this is my first one
[30:43] Speaker 1: more is my first artists that I've signed because now
[30:48] Speaker 1: I have the money to make their dreams come true.
[30:52] Speaker 1: So I don't want to have people come and be
[30:55] Speaker 1: on my label and I'm selling you a dream because
[30:59] Speaker 1: I don't want nobody to sell me a dream. So
[31:01] Speaker 1: right now, I'm just on one more. I'm on one
[31:06] Speaker 1: more right now, and that's it. If you have talent,
[31:12] Speaker 1: you know, if you got some patience, you know, I'll
[31:18] Speaker 1: you know, I'll sign you. But you got to have
[31:20] Speaker 1: patience because you know, the stuff don't happen over It
[31:23] Speaker 1: took me so long to get my advance when I
[31:26] Speaker 1: was on you know, signed to Uptown Records.
[31:29] Speaker 2: But you got to have patience.
[31:30] Speaker 1: And I don't like making people wait and selling people dreams,
[31:33] Speaker 1: and people have bills and lives and stuff like that.
[31:36] Speaker 1: I want to be able to help you pay your bills,
[31:39] Speaker 1: you know. So that's why I only have one one
[31:43] Speaker 1: artist right now.
[31:44] Speaker 5: Before we leave, this is just the second year of
[31:47] Speaker 5: your festival. What is your vision for this festival in
[31:50] Speaker 5: ten years? Like, what do you like to see this
[31:52] Speaker 5: grow into?
[31:54] Speaker 1: Man that we we go to We have seventy thousand
[31:59] Speaker 1: people and the arena, it's like it just gets.
[32:02] Speaker 2: Bigger and bigger. But I just wanted to get bigger
[32:04] Speaker 2: and bigger.
[32:04] Speaker 1: And I want women to walk away and having their
[32:07] Speaker 1: own businesses when they walk away from this, having more ideas,
[32:11] Speaker 1: just and learning how to love ourselves and self awareness
[32:16] Speaker 1: and just all.
[32:17] Speaker 2: Kind of beautiful. I just want everybody.
[32:19] Speaker 3: I just want to be.
[32:19] Speaker 2: Bigger and bigger in all those things.
[32:21] Speaker 4: Ladies and gentlemen, we need everybody standing on your feet.
[32:24] Speaker 3: Please, yeah, please.
[32:29] Speaker 2: My graduates from my school being forced
[32:32] Speaker 3: Back drop bag drop my drop, back drop drop

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