Although I have certain suspicions as to how this song ended up on our Top 100 Soul/R&B songs countdown (mainly having to do with the song's title, easily confused with a certain single from The Breakthrough) I have no complaints. Kicking the list off with this Mary J. Blige track is boss, since it's my favorite from the My Life album. It's one of the few that doesn't rely on a familiar classic in lyrics or instrumentation. Chucky Thompson dives in with a completely original composition, establishing that swaggering, post-New Jack, Hip Hop Soul sound that within recent years has given way to something decidedly more Pop and manufactured. The Lauryn Hill remix that followed breathed even more life into the track, extending the course of My Life and whetting our appetites for a remix album that would never come.
Mary J. Blige: "Be With You"
