Calling singer, songwriter, rapper, Oscar-nominated actor, producer, nine-time Grammy winner. Mary J. Blige the voice of a generation means acknowledging a rarely recognized fact. That those Black girls – especially the ones who had to find ways of surviving the cruelties of the city, those girls born in the shadow of an unfinished freedom struggle movement and its unmerciful backlash, the ones who bore witness firsthand to the brutalities wrought by stifled opportunities and broken promises – were not only worthy of our attention but also deserved a voice that could capture the complex depths of their humanity, their sorrows, and their longings.