Share My World

Share My World marked several personal and professional changes in Blige’s life and career. Following the departure of label head Andre Harrell the year before, Blige defected from Uptown Records in favor of its MCA parent. Meanwhile, she severed professional ties with long-time producer, manager and mentor Sean "Puffy" Combs shortly before the production of Share My World began. His absence was filled with a bevy of high-profile producers, such as: Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Babyface, Bryce Wilson and R. Kelly. The end result produced an album that was less entrenched in the hip hop soul of her first two albums, and replaced with a style that was more aligned with R&B.

During the making and run of her second album My Life (1994), Blige had reportedly experienced clinical depression, while also battling drug and alcohol addiction, and enduring an often turbulent relationship with K-Ci Hailey — all of which heavily influenced the dark mood of that album.^[3][4] In late 1996, however, Blige reportedly made a concerted effort to clean up her life and subsequently found herself in more positive frame of mind while recording Share My World, which influenced the albums noticeably lighter mood.

Alex Henderson of AllMusic wrote in his review, "Her strongest and most confident effort up to that point, Share had much more character, personality, and honesty than most of the assembly line fare dominating urban radio in 1997. For all their slickness, emotive cuts like "Get to Know You Better," "Love Is All We Need," and "Keep Your Head" left no doubt that Blige was indeed a singer of depth and substance. Although high tech, the production of everyone from R. Kelly (with whom she duets on the inviting "It's On") and BabyfacetoJimmy Jam and Terry Lewis doesn't come across as forced or robotic, but, in fact, is impressively organic."^[15] Ernest Hardy of Rolling Stone commended Blige's transition from sound to singing, writing that "On Share My World even Blige's harshest critics will have to concede that she's moved beyond sound to real singing. Listen to "Seven Days," "Missing You" and the already-classic "Not Gon' Cry" (also on the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack), and you hear Blige's signature ache married to newfound technique. There's shading, depth and control in her vocals now."^[16]

Steve Jones of USA Today said the songs "run the usual gamut of love themes, but it's Blige's powerful, emotional deliveries and street sensibility that separate her from the competition."^[13] Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said "Blige is a diva for her own time. As befits her hip hop ethos, she's never soft if often vulnerable, and as befits her hip hop aesthetic, she plays her natural vocal cadences for melodic signature and sometimes hook. She redefines the New York accent for the '90s. And she's taken two straight follow-ups to the next level."^[14] Jonathan Bernstein from Entertainment Weekly was more critical, finding Share My World "uneven" and the songwriting "meandering and half finished."^[8] Tom Moon later wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that the record displayed "Blige's hit-song savvy but fewer memorable performances" than previous albums.^[11] The Sydney Morning Herald critic Bernard Zuel found that "the well-stocked cupboard here (18 songs) is full of lush settings and beats which suggest a little action, even if they are more supine than fly-time [...] Lyrically, this is your typical R&B deadzone with many of the raps heading nowhere fast and Mary J. having not much to say beyond love me/stay with me/come back to me."^[17]

For the Billboard issue dated May 10, 1997, Share My World debuted at number one on both the USBillboard 200 and R&B Albums chart with sales of 240,000 copies, marking Blige's first official number-one album on the Billboard 200 chart.^[18] The album had ended the four-week stint of Life After DeathbyThe Notorious B.I.G., which was released posthumously five weeks earlier.

In addition to debuting number one in the US, the album also debuted in the top ten in countries such as Canada, Sweden and the UK. The album also reached the top forty in France, Germany and New Zealand.

Share My World was certified triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of three million copies in the US. As of December 2009, the album has since sold 2.8 million copies domestically.^[19]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} denotes co-producer(s)

Sample credits

• "I Can Love You" contains a sample of "Queen Bitch" as performed by Lil' Kim.
• "Love Is All We Need" contains a sample of "Moonchild" as performed by Rick James.
• "Round and Round" contains a sample of "Go Back Home" as performed by Allen Toussaint.
• "Share My World" contains an interpolation of "Share My World" by DeBarge.
• "Everything" contains a sample of "You Are Everything" as performed by The Stylistics; "The Payback" as performed by James Brown; "Sukiyaki" as performed by A Taste of Honey.
• "Searching" contains replayed elements of "Searchin" as performed by Roy Ayers.

• List of number-one albums of 1997 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B albums of 1997 (U.S.)

• Share My WorldatDiscogs