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

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2:01Mary J. Blige: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 Forbes. Backdrop. Backdrop. F*** a mic drop. Backdrop. Backdrop.

2:50Money. It comes with a lot of questions. and Fidelity can help you get answers. Visit fidelity.com slash blackwealth to learn more. Make some noise. Make some noise. Thank you. Thank you. Very, 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 with 18 ,000 people and you got business vendors and you got multiple different things.

3:54So what was the thought process in putting together this festival and what was the commitment on the time, financial relationships that it took to put this together?

4:06Mary J. Blige:Well, the 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 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, 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.

5:00Mary J. Blige: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 on the roof of the 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 are our partners in this and they came through and I really don't have too much more to say except for here we are right now because of the Mary J.

5:52Mary J. Blige: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 told this to you before but being kids from Westchester County. 914, I forgot to mention that. Come on. Yeah. 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 switched to you or clicked 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 that are coming out in a few weeks.

6:34When did that go off? You know what? I want to do something bigger. I want to be more than just a talent in front. I want to be the one behind as well.

6:40Mary J. Blige:Well, for me, it's never like always I want to do something bigger. It's just observing how, you know, I wanted to have, I wanted to be in production, to be a producer, to create more 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. that's why I wanted to be a producer. 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, have us as black people uplifted in a better light other than just being, you know, drug dealers and whatever the case may be.

7:26Mary J. Blige:You have, you know, these two Lifetime movies that I'm doing right now. And this woman is, you know, Real Love is one of the movies. And she's in college, you know, and she beats her boyfriend in college. And so I never went to college. So I wanted people to see that 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 our culture. The time has come, ladies and gentlemen. Invest Fest, that's right. That's right. Invest Fest 2023 is here. August 25th, 26th, and 27th in Atlanta, Georgia. We are taking it to a new level. Bigger than ever.

8:05This year, we're going to do 20 ,000 people in Atlanta, Georgia. I want you to do yourself a favor. Head over to InvestFest.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 experience. Vendor Marketplace, Food Truck Village. You know how we do. Don't wait. Don't hesitate. Head over now.

8:34So you're obviously extremely talented on the music side, but when you're acting, right? Anybody a fan of the Power Series?

8:48A few people watch it, I see. So how is that different for you acting as opposed to singing? And which one do you like, or what's the differences that you like about it?

9:02Mary J. Blige:Well, you can't compare them because singing is something I've been doing all my life. It's easy. 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 are 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, 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 want to perfect the craft even more because I haven't reached the point in my acting career where I'm like, gosh, I love when I did that.

9:52Mary J. Blige:You know, I'm still like, gosh, I could have did that better. That feels funny. you know so I want to perfect the craft even more you know to when I look at Angela Bassett you know I feel like that like oh like look like how she did that you know what I'm saying yeah when you walk in these rooms how is it do you want to be respected as Mary J the actor or the the talent that we know the queen of 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.

10:28Mary J. Blige:If I'm acting, I want people to respect me as an actress. You know, it's two different things. You know, yeah. You talked about Angela Bassett. Have you had any mentors in Hollywood that have helped you? And if so, what are some people? Yeah, I mean, I have friends that are super amazing actresses. Taraji, Queen Latifah, Angela Bassett, Tasha Smith. 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 learn so much from Taraji, I learn so much from Queen Latifah and Angela Bassett, Tasha Smith was my acting coach for and still is, and one of my really good friends, so yeah, you know, I have 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 i mean the last time we spoke you were telling us about mentorship in business and so a lot of times you get invited to rooms and if you don't know the person you i gotta 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 in the spirits world come from what a spark came from i was on tour with maxwell Maxwell is a really good friend of mine.

11:54Mary J. Blige:And Maxwell was about to put his own wine out. And he took me to dinner with him and some Italian people. Oh, yeah. They, they. We call them they.

12:11Mary J. Blige:And I was guzzling Santa Margarita Pina Grigio. You know, and they were like, Maddie, why don't you do your own wine? And I didn't blink. I didn't stutter. I said, absolutely, 100%. And then right after that, maybe like three weeks later, while I was on tour with Maxwell, I found myself on a plane to Friuli, Italy to meet Marco Fantinello. And we touched down to his place and his whole place was the winery. And the rest is history. You know, we put the wine out during the first quarantine of COVID when everybody was drinking and we... They remember. They remember very well. We sold it. We sold it on wine.com.

12:57Mary J. Blige:It was sold out every single... It was just sold out, you know? And so we knew, you know, what my people, what I love about them, they're honest. And if it's whack, it's whack. If it's nasty, it's nasty. They were going crazy over it. So they gave me, you know, people that bought the wine gave me the confidence to keep going. and it just keeps growing and growing and growing and growing. So, yeah, that's where that came from. We actually tasted the wine. Our friend and your good friend, Angie Martinez, invited us to 4040, and we had to sample it. Of course. And it's actually extremely good. I'm not even a wine connoisseur.

13:34I don't like wine, but I stamp your wine.

13:37Mary J. Blige:Well, now we have a Prosecco. We have a Prosecco Rosé. We have a Merlot, and we have a Sauvignon Blanc. And of course, you know, the Pinot Grigio, Ramada Rosé, the wine, actual wine. So it's just growing and growing and growing. In a minute, we're going to have it in little bottles with little straws. In the Capri Suns. So let me ask you this. For 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 and a new industry?

14:18Mary J. Blige:I don't think you never really know when it's time. Because ideas, something could come right now. You know, and I do one thing at a time. And then as I keep going, you know, 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 for me yeah that's that's how it goes for me yeah 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 experiences, a lot of business opportunities would come, but we just don't have the bandwidth ourselves to do it.

15:11And 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 of how can I help?

15:23Mary J. Blige:To build more team, definitely to employ more people, to keep people employed and to just keep making where I have revenue stream while I'm sleeping, you know what I'm saying? And the money's not, I'm just not working, working, working so hard. And one day I'll just be sleeping, a billion dollar check will come because I have businesses out there, they're going. So everything is a plan for the future and a plan to 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 to your ex-husband.

16:09I don't know if the number is correct. I saw it was like 30 ,000 a month or something like that.

16:13Mary J. Blige:Yeah. Correct us if we're wrong. So looking back on it in hindsight, what would 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 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, 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 them purposely?

17:11Mary J. Blige: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 just try to take control over your life. So yeah, exactly. 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 control your money or to help you, you know, to help you keep your money in a safe place. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, we spoke about this a little bit early before you came on.

18:00It's important to make money, but it's more important to keep the money.

18:04Mary J. Blige:Yeah. And so we've had plenty of conversations with people in entertainment. And the one thing that they always talk about, and Fat Joe spoke about it, Steve Harvey spoke candidly about it, is paying taxes. Yeah. So check it out. Speaking of taxes, I owe so much money. I never thought I was ever going to get out of debt. I'm out of debt now. But I mean, I owe millions, millions, like hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. And I think, right, you know, I'm sorry. I lost my train of thought. Go back to this. So I was trying, we were going to get into that. So the lack of education around that, right?

18:49As you're getting this large sum of money, you're accumulating it. Right. How are we even getting educated? Who are we surrounding ourselves to protect ourselves to make sure that we are paying taxes? Is it a financial advisor, somebody on our team?

19:00Mary J. Blige: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 are not my money. My tithes are not my money. So I'm like, pay my payroll, pay my taxes, pay my tithes. All of that money, I don't even want to see it because it doesn't belong to me. 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 tithes, 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 going to, you know, we don't want to do all that, but, you know, that's how I do.

19:48Mary J. Blige:Those things are important to me. Payroll, taxes, tithes, anything that, you know, if anyone's doing a service, you have to pay them for it, you know, and you have to call people back. You know, sometimes people just want to, you know what, okay, I'm going to 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 are acknowledging them if you owe them money. You understand what I'm saying? 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 business properly.

20:33Mary J. Blige:You understand what I'm saying? So, yeah, those things are important to me now. So this is Strength of a Woman's 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 That'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 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's 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 got to 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?

21:50Mary J. Blige:You mean I got to pay him for cheating and lying to me and ruining my life? So, yeah, and the law is you have to, you know? So, I say get a prenup, cover yourself up. Yeah. I'm telling you, man, it's crazy.

22:11My wife is here so baby I love you But uh 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

22:37Mary J. Blige:I feel 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 can just put music out. I can just do whatever I want. It's liberating. Hey, DJ, you're supposed to drop just fine when I ask how she's feeling.

23:04so as far as a lot of 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