In an interview for Blues & Soul, Blige explained the significance of the album's title, stating: Growing Pains was awarded the Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 51st Grammy Awards in February 2009. The third official single, ' Stay Down' reached the top 40 R&B charts, and was chosen in favor of ' Hurt Again', which was originally the third single, but eventually was only a radio single by receiving airplay in Spring 2008. ' Work That' was released as the second single on December 18, 2007, and managed to peak inside the top 20 of the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number 65 in the Billboard Hot 100.

Growing Pains was ranked number 29 on Rolling Stone 's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007 and was eventually certified Platinum by RIAA.

An R&B album that was released on December 18, 2007, by Geffen Records, it debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 629,000 copies in its first week, and reached number one in January 2008. remains a model R&B diva who paved the way for myriad successors, including Beyoncé and Ariana Grande.Growing Pains is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mary J. Even as she’s gone Hollywood (earning an Academy Award nomination for 2017’s Mudbound), Mary J. Mary (1999) saw her move toward a more classic sound, though 2001’s smash “Family Affair” swung back toward hip-hop that fertile tension has remained in her music since. Blige’s life was never separate from her art, and fans have followed her through addiction, marriage, divorce, and therapy, connecting with songs like “Not Gon’ Cry” and “No More Drama” out of deep identification: Here was an artist who sang women’s realities as they were almost never presented in popular music-and who always came out stronger. She and Sean Combs crafted her 1992 debut, What’s the 411?, which spawned the ubiquitous and beloved jam “Real Love” and helped set the template for R&B’s marriage to hip-hop. Her voice is elastic, scrappy, and versatile, with more than a hint of world-weary grit, and when a chance recording of Anita Baker’s “Caught Up in the Rapture” came before Uptown Records execs in 1988, the label immediately snapped her up as its youngest (and first female) signee. Born Mary Jane Blige in the Bronx in 1971, Blige was raised mainly in Yonkers, NY, where she grew up listening to the greats: Aretha, Chaka, and Gladys Knight. Dubbed the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul in the ’90s, Blige came off as tough and streetwise (unlike many of her contemporaries), and she could go toe to toe with rappers, including JAY Z, Method Man, and more recently Kendrick Lamar.

Blige is that rare singer who can channel your pain-and then drag you onto the dance floor to sweat it away.

Mary j blige the breakthrough download