Mary J. Blige on Tax Issues, Strength of a Woman, Divorce, Paying Alimony, Acting, Music & Business

I would

have never let a person have that much

power

over my money my life

over anything ever again

so now I'm in control of my business I'm

in control of my life and it's mandatory

that I learn more about Finance business

you know so I don't ever have to be

robbed again by you know maybe somebody

you think you can trust

my graduates from my school being forced

backdrop backdrop a mic drop backdrop

[Applause]

money

it comes with a lot of questions and

Fidelity can help you get answers visit

fidelity.com

Blackwell to learn more Make some noise

Make some noise

[Applause]

this is amazing congratulations thank

you so much yes yes so you guys can take

your seats now if you can if possible if

possible we don't want to block

anybody's View

I would just ask everybody

one one thing obviously this is one of

the greatest entertainers one of the the

icons of of our generation of any

generation

thank you

let's get into it Mary I want to talk

about this right strength of a woman

Festival it's not something that is easy

to put together when you you're talking

about selling out shows of 18 000 people

and you got business vendors and you got

multiple different things so what was

the thought process in putting together

this festival and um what was the the

commitment on a Time Financial

relationship that it took to put this

together

when a thought process came from just

performing and

just watching the women in the audience

how they just

you know love and respect me and love

and how my music has done so much for

them and just watching them just

sometimes it just was mind-blowing how

they just people are crying and passing

out and it just touched my heart and so

to see us all in one room

loving on each other because of you know

you know me because of this performance

or because of all the trials and

tribulations and things that I've come

through my music is a movement that has

touched so many women and saved so many

lives and so the the Summit is about

that the Summit is about what the music

has done you know uplifting and

encouraging and inspiring and bringing

us all together to love on each other

and to learn self-love and

self-awareness and Entrepreneurship and

you know just so it that was the idea it

came from the concert and so here we are

it started as a meeting

um

on the roof of the uh Waldorf Astoria in

LA

between me and my team

and within the next year it was up and

running so Pepsi and Live Nation Urban

or our partners in this and they came

through and you know I really don't have

too much more to say except for here we

are right now because of the Mary J

Blige movement this is all because of

the 30-something years that I've been in

the music business

and yeah the Queen the Queen the queen I

mean we've sold it to you before but

being kids from Westchester County 914 I

forgot to mention that yeah you I mean

watching your 30-year career we've

watched you as a singer as an

Entertainer as an actress now I wonder

when it's switched to you or click to

you to say you know what

I'm a talent in front of the camera but

I want to be known as a talent behind

the camera creating your own record

label having your own production we saw

the preview for the movies uh that are

coming out in a few weeks when did that

go off yeah you know what I want to do

something bigger I want to be more than

just the talent in front I want to be

the one behind as well well for me it's

never like always I want to do something

bigger it's just observing how you know

I I wanted to have I wanted to be in

production of to be a producer to create

more con content for our culture because

we never get a chance to you know

control The Narrative of how we're

looked at you know and so that's what

being a producer you know is about

um that's why I wanted to be a producer

um that's why I created blue butterfly

and so we can tell stories like The

Clark Sisters you know have them tell

their story have women tell their

stories how have us as as black people

uplifted in a better light other than

just being you know drug dealers and

whatever the case may be you have you

know these these two Lifetime movies

that I'm doing right now and these this

woman is you know real love that this is

one of the movies and she's in college

you know and and she beats her boyfriend

in college and so I never went to

college so I wanted people to see that

that's that's possible and that's why

I'm creating that's why I wanted to be a

producer to just create more better

content for up for our culture the time

has come ladies and gentlemen invest

Fest that's right that's right invest

best 2023 is here August 25th 26th and

27th in Atlanta Georgia we are taking

into a new level bigger than ever this

year we going through 20 000 people in

Atlanta Georgia I want you to do

yourself a favor head over to

investments.com right now we will have

activations from Friday Saturday and

Sunday three days musical performances

billionaires everything is going to be a

completely life-changing changing

experience then the marketplace food

truck Village you know how we do it

don't wait don't hesitate that over now

[Applause]

okay so you're obviously extremely

talented on the music side but when you

acting right anybody a fan of the power

series

[Applause]

a few people watch it I see

that different for you acting as opposed

to singing and which one

do you like or what's the the

differences that you like about well you

you can't compare them because singing

is something I've been doing all my life

it's easy that's that's that's that's

who I am that's what I do but acting is

hard

because you have to take something

that's on a piece of paper that'll

that'll words and turn them into a

character so and what's really hard

about it for me is I have to

for this character I have to dig in some

really dark places to go murder these

people and you know choke my kids and

all that stuff

yeah yeah we saw

we saw yeah about that

yeah so yeah I mean it's a challenge

it's a challenge but I love a challenge

and I and I want to perfect the craft

even more because I haven't reached the

point in my acting career where I'm like

gosh I I love when I did that you know

I'm still like gosh I could have did

that better oh that feels funny huh you

know so I want to perfect the craft even

more you know to when I look at it

Angela Bassett you know I feel like that

like oh like look like how she did that

you understand what I'm saying yeah when

you walk in these rooms

how was it do you want to be respected

as Mary J the actor or the the talent

that we know the queen of r b how does

that how do you approach it well I

approach it like this you know

immediately they're like oh let's let's

let's let her sing no I'm acting I don't

want to sing if I'm singing I'm singing

if I'm acting and acting I want people

to respect me as an actress you know

it's two different things you want you

know yeah

have you talked about Angela Bassett and

other have you had any mentors in

Hollywood that have helped you and if so

what what are some people yeah I mean I

have friends that are super amazing

actresses Taraji Queen Latifah Angela

Bassett Tasha Smith they they are so

confident in what they do they call when

I call them I say yo I need help they

give me all the tools I learned so much

from Taraji I learned so much from

um Queen Latifah and Angela Bassett

Tasha Smith was my acting coach for for

and still is and and one of my really

good friends so yeah you know I have

like even um even on viola you know when

I see her she's like keep going you're

doing great you know yeah yeah you talk

about mentorship and acting but all I

mean the last time we spoke you were

telling us about mentorship and business

and so a lot of times you get invited to

rooms and if you don't know the person

you you I got to figure out who these

people are because there's a reason

they're in the room and the reason

there's a reason I'm in the room so

let's talk about the spirits industry

right because you have some uh sun

goddess and you have sister love jewelry

where did that spark in the interest

Spirits world come from what a spark

came from I was on a tour at Maxwell

Maxwell is a really good friend of mine

and Maxwell was about to put his own

wine out and he took me to dinner with

him and some Italian people

[Laughter]

oh yeah they they we call him today

[Laughter]

and I was guzzling

um Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio like you

know and they were like Maddie wants you

to know do your own wine and I didn't

blink I didn't stutter I said absolutely

it's 100 and then um right after that

maybe like three weeks later while I was

on tour with Maxwell I found myself on a

plane to friulia Italy to meet Marco fan

to know and we touched down to his um

place and his whole place was the winery

and the rest is history you know um we

we put the wine out during the first

quarantine of covet when everybody was

drinking and we um

they remember then they remember very

well we sold it we sold it on wine.com

it was sold out every single it was just

sold out you know and so we we knew you

know what what my people what I love

about them they're honest and if his

whack is whack if it's nasty is nasty

they took they were going crazy over it

so they gave me you know people that

bought the wine gave me the current the

confidence to keep going and it just

keeps growing and growing and growing

and growing so yeah that's that's where

that came from we actually tasted the

one our friend and your good friend

Angie Martinez yeah invited us to 4040

and um we had to sample it of course and

it's actually extremely good I'm not

even a wine connoisseur I don't like

wine but thank you I stamp your wine

well now we have a we have a Prosecco

yes we have a Prosecco Rose we have a

Merlot and we have a sauvignon blanc and

of course you know the um Pinot Grigio

Ramada Rose wine actually wine so it's

just growing and growing and growing in

the middle we're gonna have it in little

bottles with little straws

in the Capri Sunset so so let me ask you

this for uh

people in the audience that are in

entertainment or entrepreneurs the

hardest thing to do is to know when it's

time to do something else right because

you don't want to just run into things

so how do you know when it's time to

start a new business in a new industry

I think you never really know when it's

time because ideas

and then as I keep going every you know

it it grows so I don't think well for me

it's not like oh it's time to do

something

when it comes it comes you know it's

never really a plan it's just organic

and then when it comes then you start

planning and you start strategizing so

it's always creative for me when it

flows it flows when it comes it comes

and then I bring it you know to the team

and then you know like like that I mean

that for me yeah that's that's how it

goes for me it's interesting because as

you get more creative and more business

opportunities come to you and this is

something that we've kind of experienced

is a lot of business opportunities to

come but we just don't have the

bandwidth ourselves to do it and so do

you look at each opportunity as a way to

now build another team and employ more

people or how do you look at the

opportunities from this landscape how

can I help should build more TN

definitely to employ employ more people

to keep people employed and to just keep

make it where you know I have Revenue

stream while I'm sleeping you know I'm

saying and and the money's not I'm just

not working working so hard

and you know one day I'll just be you

know sleeping a billion dollar check

could come you know because I have

businesses out there they're going so

everything is a plan for the future the

plants are just not have to work so hard

I hope I answered the question yeah yeah

so let me ask you this

you've talked about in the past where

you had to go on tour to pay alimony

yeah to your ex-husband I don't know if

the number is correct I Google I saw it

was like 30 000 a month or something

like that yeah

um correct us if we're wrong so

looking back on it in hindsight

what what you have done differently when

you first got married in terms of

shielding your assets

I would

have never let a person have that much

power

over my money my life over anything ever

again

so

I would I would now I'm learning I'm I'm

in control of my business I'm in control

of my life and

um it's mandatory that I learned more

about Finance business you know so I

don't ever have to be robbed again by

you know maybe somebody you think you

can trust you know what I mean so do you

think that it was more so just a lack of

Education somebody playing on you not

knowing things and then purposely yes

it was a lack of education and it also

was just trusting people to help you

when you don't know and you hope that

they're going to help you and not steal

from you and lie to you and and and and

um

and and just try to take control over

your life

so yeah exactly

um

you hope that people would help you

when you don't know

and a lot of times what happened to me

they rob you you know so it's best to

get education so you don't have to

depend on anybody

to to control your money or to help you

you know you know to help you keep your

money in a safe place

you know what I'm saying

yeah keeping you I mean we spoke about

this a little bit earlier before you

came on it's important to make money but

it's more important to keep the money

yeah and so we've had plenty of

conversations and people in

entertainment and the one thing that

they always talk about in fact Joe spoke

about it Steve Harvey spoken candy about

it paying taxes yeah so so check it out

speaking of taxes

I owe so much money

it it I never thought I was ever going

to get out of debt I'm out of debt now

but I I mean I oh

millions millions like hundreds of

millions of dollars in taxes

and um I think

wait you know the I'm sorry I lost my

train of thought go back to this so I

was right we were going to go to that so

the lack of Education around that right

as you're getting this large sum of

money and you're accumulating it Mike

how are we even getting educated who are

we surrounding ourselves to protect

ourselves to make sure that we are

fantastic is it a financial somebody in

our team a great business management

team

and you have to have now I have the

wisdom now I look at my payroll that's

not my money my taxes and not my money

my tithes are not my money so I'm like

pay my pay pay my business pay my

payroll

pay my taxes pay my times any all of

that money

I don't even want to see it because it

doesn't belong to me and and that's how

I was moving period I was moving like

that period but nobody listened to me

when I was married I was like pay my

taxes pay my times do everything and

then you know they didn't listen to me

so you know but he was in control of

everything

so he wasn't gonna you know you know we

don't want to do all of that but you

know that's that's how I do those things

are important to me

um payroll taxes times anything that you

know if anyone's doing a service you

have to pay them for it you know and and

you have to call people back

you know sometimes people just wanna

you know what

oh okay I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm

gonna get back to you it's not always so

much about you know people vendors

beating your door down because they you

know they're just being aggravated they

just want to know that you were you are

acknowledging them if you owe them money

you understand what I'm saying yeah so

if you don't call people back you know

it creates a bad image for you it

creates you know chatter that you don't

do handle do you do business properly

you understand what I'm saying so yeah

those things are important to me now so

this is strength of a woman's um

festival and a lot of times when we

think about

prenups it's always from a man's

perspective like a man wants his wife to

sign a prenup before they get married

because he has more money but there's

not always the case sometimes in your

situation the woman could be the

breadwinner or the woman can have more

money so what are your thoughts on

prenups and what how would you approach

it or what advice would you give as far

as for a woman that may be wealthy well

off and they're looking to get married

get a prenup

because I didn't have one thank you

and that's why I was in I ended up

having to just give everything away

because

it's so let me just speak it is so whack

right now that men you know can come at

you and get and you know and get alimony

so when I was getting a divorce I was

like

you mean to tell me I gotta pay him and

he cheated and he lied and he stole you

know not to get all petty but you know

what I'm saying

you mean I gotta pay him for cheating

and lying on some b and ruining my life

so yeah and and the law is you have to

you know so I say get a prenup cover

yourself up

um yeah

I'm telling you man it's crazy

[Laughter]

no my wife is here so baby I love you

so you said you're debt free and we see

the success of strength of a woman we

talk about the spirits industry but

something Monumental is happening in

your music career you're now an

independent artist so let's talk

congratulations

I mean let's talk about that let's talk

about the feeling the prompt the you

know how you feeling about this I feel

like like I'm flying sometimes because I

was so low I felt like I had anchors and

you know I just was low and I felt like

I owed everybody everything and now I

don't owe a label nothing I could just

put music out

I could just do whatever I want it's

it's liberating Hey DJ you supposed to

drop just fine when I asked how she's

feeling

[Laughter]

artists these days are selling their

catalogs that's like very popular right

um how do you feel about that and would

you sell your catalog

absolutely not

no it's too valuable

So when you say it's too valuable too

valuable from just you personally or too

valuable as far as there's not a money

this you got to come with billions of

dollars for your catalog I I don't think

the catalog

once you sell it you're going to spend

that billion dollars and you'll never be

able to get those babies back like those

are my babies they literally came out of

my womb I'm not gonna you know oh you

know maybe later when I get older

you know what I'm saying but you know

right now I wouldn't do that no

so I see there's a lot of brands that

are here

Pepsi being one of them we talked about

Live Nation Urban when you're looking

for a strategic business partner what

are you looking for in a brand that is

it qualifies them to work with somebody

of your caliber

the first thing is do you know me

because you can

sell anything from my brand if you don't

know me so the first thing is do you

know Mary J Blige what is she about

because then you're gonna you're gonna

be full you're gonna be all the way in

with me and you're gonna go hard with me

to get to get things sold you know or to

Market me the right way or to Market

whatever we're marketing for Mary J

Blige right so the first thing is do you

you got to know you gotta you gotta have

history you got to know the history of

me so we can do the business

so we was with the good brother Swiss a

couple weeks ago and we had a

conversation about you versus

with you two of verses no

why

not why why would you not want to do

that I just I'll let me just say this I

love Swiss that I mean I love Swiss

that's my friend that's my brother

that's up my people I just don't care

about no verses I don't want to be up

there uh who got killed

oh

and it's no disrespect I just don't care

like I don't need to say I had to I know

I have some of the hottest records I

know I got a crazy catalog I don't need

to be like your record my record since

son well let me ask you let me ask you

this just from a admiration standpoint

if you ever had to dance with somebody

who do you have anybody that you would

say this is a a counterpart that I

really appreciate their music and I

would love to have some level of so many

people that have great music out there I

mean there's so many women that have

just catalogs you know so I mean I don't

have to I don't like the the putting

everybody up against each other the

right like I don't like it I mean I

could just put my on and just walk

away I I could put take that

I could put the what's the 4-1-1 album

on and just walk away

yo I'm gonna be honest with you and I

thank you for protecting me because I

mentioned somebody he protected me thank

you Rashad but I

with us and he was like I haven't really

seen Mary perform I said listen

you got to go to a show

and let I'm going down come on and just

look around and watch what happens to

the audience

y'all know yeah so crazy we saw a little

bit of it last night

so shout out to the 411 shout out to

share my shout out to all the albums

number one thank you but you bought the

4-1-1 and somebody it made me think

about this guy

who was integral in that process

Plus

and outside of the music he's he's been

a major figure in your life especially

in the world of business can you talk

about some of the the mentorship he's

given you outside of music

I mean let me just start from the

beginning

when I met puff he was ambitious a

go-getter and I was just a little girl

from slovan that was scared of success

but this man wasn't scared of no success

he wasn't scared to be fly he wasn't

scared to be seen and he was the

opposite of everything that I was so

just watching him was encouraging to me

and taught me a lot and he was always

about he he wanted the success more than

we wanted he wanted our success for us

more than we wanted it so I mean he just

gave me a lot of confidence and you know

and and and at that time you know he

gave me a lot of confidence in my music

and you know he was like a yo you want

to get out there and bust their ass

she's gonna get out then yo yo and it

was just like okay okay okay okay okay

so so he made me my personality was very

like like this but he really helped me a

lot he really

um you know picked a lot of the right

you know samples together we did a lot I

mean it wasn't no you know just organic

and and he was just Puff Daddy like the

same Puff Daddy you see today is the

same Puff Daddy he was then and he was

so he wanted it for Mary for Jodeci for

all of us more than we even wanted it

so man you know that's that's you know

he yeah he helped me sustain

so your music has become the soundtrack

to millions of people's lives millions

of women's lives from the UPS Downs that

from 92 to 2023 when you go to all

around the world how does that feel when

they connect with you on a different

level it's like a spiritual level like

you've helped guide them through you

know heartbreaking breakups and divorce

how does that feel for you to play that

role

it feels good and it's a responsibility

because I'm not doing anything special

I'm just falling and getting back up

that's it I'm just falling and getting

back up and am I getting back up

sometimes I'm laying down longer than

what I'm supposed to

but I get up and I come out on the other

side and so that's really

all I've done you know so I I say when

people like you saved my life I'm like

well you really need to give that credit

to God for giving me the strength to get

back up

so we talked about the spirits we talked

about the the production we talked about

the acting obviously the talent in the

field of singing

I'm looking at down food to your right

and I'm thinking to myself if Don's in

the room there's more business to come

and so I'm wondering 100.

right we know

for the Mary J Blige Empire

what else is on the vision board like

what else do you see like that's

something I want to tackle that I want

to get involved in that business or

that's something that I can see I can

add to the portfolio well look the boats

are coming

[Applause]

everybody's like what's up with the book

hey hey that's the next thing you said

the boots yes the book line the dancing

is sold separately though I said the

dancing is sold separately everybody

can't dance like you in them boots

we are talking about the dancing we talk

about the boat line right now Turners

what's going on listen e-y-l-u is

relaunching revamping retuning that's

right we're creating a new educational

experience that's more expensive Charlie

tell me what we got yes 2023 we got a

lot in store a lot playing for you guys

so you know that eyo you already

includes monthly financial planning

calls with me book club calls with Troy

real estate calls to mg the mortgage got

access to the home buying blueprint

volume one and volume two part of the

revamp will include 27 local chapters

from across the United States live

interactive teaching Hands-On not just

pre-recorded videos plus 15 brand new

curriculums the biggest just got bigger

[Applause]

I just want to get that going because

everybody

um you know really wanted

so what are some of the biggest lessons

in business and just in general that

you've learned over your 30-year career

take care of yourself

do I mean

go behind everybody check in on your

business checking on yourself just make

sure you are in on every single thing

and if they don't know you then they

can't identify you if they can't if they

don't have no history on you and what

you doing they can't help you

so that's really it just

take care of you

I'm sure there's plenty of women in here

and we saw a lot of artists at the the

show last night not that you have a

label are you currently looking for

talent to put on the label how does

would somebody go about that well right

so let me give you the back story on why

I'm just getting a label

I tried to do it a long time ago and

what I don't like doing is promising

people things and I don't have the money

to back it up so this is my first

um one more is my first

um artist that I've signed because now I

have the money

to make their dreams come true so I

don't want to have people come and be on

my label and I'm selling you a dream

because I don't want nobody to sell me a

dream so right now I'm just on one more

I'm on one more right now

and that's it

if you have talent you know if you've

got some patience

you know

I'll I'll you know I'll sign you but you

got to have patience because you know

it's the stuff don't happen overnight it

took me so long to get my Advance when I

was on you know signed to Uptown records

but you got to have patience and I don't

like making people wait and selling

people dreams and people have bills and

lives and stuff like that I want to be

able to help you pay your bills you know

so that's why I only have one one artist

right now before we leave this is just

the second year of your Festival what is

your vision for this Festival in 10

years like how what do you like to see

this grow into

man that we um

we go to we have 70 000 people in in the

arena it's like it just gets bigger and

big and bad I just wanted to get bigger

and bigger and I want women to walk away

and having their own businesses when

they walk away from this having more

ideas just just and and learning how to

love ourselves and and self-awareness

and just all kind of beautiful I just

want everybody I just want to be bigger

and big in all those things

ladies and gentlemen everybody's

standing your feet please yeah please

my graduates from my school

being Forbes backdrop backdrop a mic

drop back drop

[Applause]