Her biggest hits include "Real Love", "You Remind Me", "I'm Goin' Down", "Not Gon' Cry", "Everything", "No More Drama", "Be Without You", "One" (with U2), "Just Fine" and the Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "Family Affair".

Her other film roles include Prison Song (2001), Rock of Ages (2012), Betty and Coretta (2013), Black Nativity (2013), Trolls World Tour (2020), Body Cam (2020), The Violent Heart (2021), Respect (2021) and Rob Peace (2024).

established Blige as a dynamic storyteller whose performances of love narrative drew upon both her musical influences and her lived experiences as an icon of the hip-hop-generation.

[32] According to Entertainment Weekly's Dave DiMartino, with the record's commercial success and Blige's "powerful, soulful voice and hip-hop attitude", she "solidly connected with an audience that has never seen a woman do new jack swing but loves it just the same".

Treva B. Lindsey, in her piece "If You Look in My Life: Love, Hip-Hop Soul, and Contemporary African-American Womanhood", highlights the regulating by men saying, "Although the lyrics on What's the 411?

establish an African American woman-centered discourse, male artists' words of adoration and longing first introduce listeners to Blige as a hip-hop storyteller.

It marked a departure from her more familiar hip hop-oriented sound; this set featured a more earthy, whimsical, and adult contemporary-tinged collection of songs, reminiscent of the 1970s to early 1980s soul.

The second disc was enhanced with the music videos for the singles "All That I Can Say" and "Deep Inside" and included two bonus tracks: "Sincerity" (featuring Nas, Andy Hogan and DMX) and "Confrontation" (a collaboration with hip hop duo Funkmaster Flex & Big Kap originally from their 1999 album The Tunnel).

In the meantime, MCA used the album to expand Blige's demographic into the nightclub market, as club-friendly dance remixes of the Mary singles were released.

The album featured covers of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed", and previous recordings of Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue".

Critics and fans alike largely panned the disc, citing a lack of consistency and noticeable ploys to recapture the early Blige/Combs glory.

The album produced three more singles including two more top-five R&B hits—"Enough Cryin'", which features Blige's alter ego Brook-Lynn (as whom she appeared on the remix to Busta Rhymes's "Touch It" in 2006); and "Take Me as I Am" (which samples Lonnie Liston Smith's "A Garden of Peace").

Blige was featured with Aretha Franklin and the Harlem Boys Choir on the soundtrack to the 2006 motion picture Bobby, on the lead track "Never Gonna Break My Faith" written by Bryan Adams.

[56] On August 7, 2008, it was revealed Blige faced a US$2 million federal suit claiming Neff-U wrote the music for the song "Work That", but was owned by Dream Family Entertainment.

[71] It was announced May 30, 2014, that Think Like a Man Too (Music from and Inspired by the Film), released June 17 on Epic Records, would introduce new songs by Mary J. Blige, including the single "Suitcase".

[75] Blige spent a month in London recording her album in RAK Studios with a host of young British acts, including Disclosure, Naughty Boy, Emeli Sandé and Sam Smith.

In August 2016, Blige was recruited to perform the new theme song for the ABC Daytime talk show The View for its twentieth season titled "World's Gone Crazy" written by Diane Warren.

A music video was also shot for the new theme song with co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Candace Cameron Bure, Raven-Symoné, Paula Faris, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin and Jedediah Bila.

[86] On February 13, 2022, Blige performed at the Super Bowl LVI halftime show alongside fellow American rappers Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, and Anderson .Paak.

In 1998, Blige made her acting debut on the sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show, playing the apparently southern Ola Mae, a preacher's daughter who wanted to sing more than gospel music.

That same year, Blige made a cameo on the Lifetime network series, Strong Medicine; playing the role of Simone Fellows, the lead singer of a band who was sick, but would not seek treatment.

In late 2005, it was reported that Blige landed the starring role in the upcoming MTV Films biopic on American singer/pianist and civil rights activist, Nina Simone.

[98] Blige starred alongside Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough, and Alec Baldwin in the 2012 film adaptation of the 1980s jukebox musical Rock of Ages.

Blige starred in the Lifetime movie Betty and Coretta alongside Angela Bassett, Malik Yoba and Lindsay Owen Pierre.

[133][134][135][136] Blige has had endorsement contracts with Reebok, Air Jordan, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Gap, Target, American Express, AT&T Inc., M·A·C, Apple Inc., Burger King and Chevrolet.

[146][147] In late 2020, Blige and her close friend, Simone Johnson-Smith, a cancer survivor and wife of rapper LL Cool J, co-founded Sister Love, a jewelry line for women.

[158] Tom Horan of The Daily Telegraph comments that Blige, being an immensely influential figure in popular music, "invented what is now called R&B by successfully combining female vocals with muscular hip hop rhythm tracks.

[162] African American scholars have noted the implications of Blige's presentation and representation of black womanhood and femininity in the typically male-dominated and centric sphere of hip hop.

Using her personal experiences and struggles with her family as source material for her songs, Blige refutes notions of black female hypersexuality by "imploring women to love and empower themselves through both autonomy and intimacy.

With particular attention on her single "Real Love", critics note how the song is "a performative text, declaratively demand[ing] recognition of Blige's full humanity and, more broadly, that of hip-hop-generation women.