Mary J. Blige turned private suffering into a public blueprint that redefined R&B and hip-hop. Born in the Bronx and raised partly in the Schlobohm projects in Yonkers, she was discovered through a raw mall-booth recording of an Anita Baker song and became Uptown Records' youngest artist and first female signee at 18.

This episode follows her discography as a serialized audio memoir, from the genre-fusing debut What's the 411 with Sean Combs, through the harrowing masterpiece My Life, to the reclamation of Share My World and the joy of No More Drama. It also covers her acting, her candor about public scrutiny and the autonomy of her second act.

• How her tough gospel-inflected vocals over hip-hop break beats birthed the hip-hop soul movement
• The dark reality behind My Life, an album made during depression, addiction and ...