As usual, Mary J. Blige’s poignant voice is hitting an emotional nerve. The Queen of Hip Hop and Soul has just released “See What You’ve Done,” a 2021 Academy Awards Best Original Song contender from the upcoming Belly of the Beast documentary, and her trademark soul sound has never sounded better.
Blige, who has championed the lives of women since the beginning of her nearly three-decade career, wears the innate hat of a spokeswoman for this heart-wrenching record that she described as “a testimony, a call to be strong, and an anthem for a movement.”
For the track of survival, DJ Camper, who produced and co-wrote the song alongside Blige and Nova Wav, builds her soulful pipes around dramatic piano notes and bass-heavy instrumentation that steers listeners in the direction to advocate change as it relates to the stirring film’s plight.
Directed by Erika Cohn, Belly of the Beast is a doc about the enforced and illegal sterilization of Black and Latinx women at Central California Women’s Facility. It premieres on November 23 at 10 p.m. EST on PBS.
In other music news, Blige is preparing to drop her 14th studio album sometime soon. She told The Los Angeles Times that the forthcoming record is “about life, love, struggle, but mostly triumph.”
Blige, who is the ruthless queenpin in Starz’s new series Power II Book: The Ghost, also is re-issuing her landmark album My Life on November 20.
Stream “See What You’ve Done” by Mary J. Blige below.
