Editor’s note (Nov. 28): The untitled song will be featured on the official soundtrack for The Color Purple, set to release on Dec. 15, with the movie following on Christmas Day (Dec. 25).
Mary J. Blige has reportedly reunited with songwriter Johntá Austin and songwriter/producer Bryan-Michael Cox for new music.
Austin confirmed the news on Friday morning (Nov. 24) on X (formerly Twitter).
“This new Mary record that my brother @bryanmichaelcox and I did feels so pure! Can’t wait for y’all to hear. #likedishere,” he wrote.
Cox, who also is senior vice president of A&R, and executive producer at Love Renaissance (LVRN), endorsed Austin’s post by sharing it in his Instagram stories.
“New MJB. Soon come,” Cox wrote in a create mode via Instagram Stories. He also tagged Austin and G. Bliz, a songwriter, producer, and guitarist who has worked with Raheem DeVaughn, Teyana Taylor, and Rod Wave.
The upcoming track’s title and official release date have not yet been announced.
It also is uncertain whether it will follow Blige’s rising single “Still Believe In Love,” featuring Vado, which is on track to reach the top 10 on R&B charts.
Cox and Austin have not collaborated with Blige in over ten years. Blige last worked with Cox in 2012 on “Everyday People,” which also involved Jermaine Dupri and remains a SoundCloud exclusive.
Before that, Blige collaborated with two hitmakers for her 2009 album Stronger withEach Tear.
Austin co-wrote and provided backing vocals for the album’s second single, “I Am.”
The song peaked at No. 2 on the Adult R&B Airplay chart and No. 4 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, according to Billboard.
On the other hand, Cox co-wrote and produced “We Got Hood Love.” Austin also had a co-songwriting credit on the track, which peaked at No. 25 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
In 2007, Cox and Austin’s fingerprints were all over Blige’s Grammy-winning album, Growing Pains. Cox and Austin had their hand in songs such as “Stay Down” and “If You Love Me?” which Cox exclusively told Rated R&B was initially for another artist.
“That was actually a record that we did for Monica,” Cox shared in a 2017 interview. “I played it for Mary at one of our sessions just by accident. We held the record for so long that I forgot that Clive [Davis] had it on hold. When I played it for Mary, she was like, ‘I want that song.’ She cut the song, then I remembered I was like, ‘Oh snap, we did this song for Monica.’ It was kind of like Mary wanted it right then, so we gave it to her and she killed it. She flipped a few things, changed some lyrics here and there, but she killed it.”
Austin also contributed to “Talk To Me,” a heart-wrenching song produced by Eric Hudson.
“We would discuss where she was in life and how she wanted to convey a real emotion and description in the writing and everything built from that,” he told Rated R&B in the same year.
As mentioned earlier, Cox and Austin worked together on “Stay Down,” a follow-up to their hit collaboration “Be Without You” (more on that later).
Despite its potential, the song only peaked at No. 35 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, performing lower than their prior work together and other singles from the album Growing Pains.
“I think the label just didn’t prepare properly for [Growing Pains] in general,” Cox stated to Rated R&B when asked about the performance of the mentioned song. “I think they just thought it was going to ride the fumes of The Breakthrough. I don’t think they really thought they had to really work these songs.”
A year before the debut of Growing Pains, Cox and Austin contributed to Blige’s greatest hits album, Reflections (A Retrospective), which included three new tracks, including “We Ride (I See the Future)” and “Reflections (I Remember).”
In 2005, Blige formed an alliance with Cox and Austin that led to the creation of “Be Without You.”
Billboard recognized this signature ballad as the most successful R&B/hip-hop song of all time in 2017.
Its title was fitting as it held the No. 1 spot for 15 weeks, setting a record at the time. It also peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
“Be Without You” won two Grammys: Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, as well as four Billboard Awards.
By the end of 2007, “Be Without You” went 2x multi-platinum by the RIAA for selling more than two million equivalent units.
The love anthem has since garnered 188.5 million streams on Spotify. Meanwhile, the official video, directed by Matthew Rolston, has been watched 288 million times on YouTube.
Unfortunately, Mary J. Blige has not performed her hit song “Be Without You” since 2015. This includes her Lifetime Achievement Award performance at the 2019 BET Awards.
In recent news, Cox and Austin have had new successes individually and collaboratively with artists such as Ari Lennox (“Pressure“), dvsn (“If I Get Caught“) and Muni Long (“Made for Me“).
This new Mary record that my brother @bryanmichaelcox and I did feels so pure!
Cant wait for y’all to hear. #likedishere
— Johnta Austin (@johntalsr) November 24, 2023
