Mary J. Blige - "No More Drama" (2001)

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Her fifth studio album that was released on August 28, 2001. No More Drama debuted and peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200, the official albums chart in the United States, on September 6, 2001 – second only to Aaliyah's self-titled third album. The album sold 294,351 units in its first week of release. No More Drama was Blige's highest debut week album sales, until it was surpassed by The Breakthrough (2005), which sold 729,000 copies in its first week. By the end of 2001, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and became the seventy-third best-selling album of that year in the United States. The album's commercial performance was reinforced by the subsequent release of a reissue. The release of the special edition helped No More Drama to re-enter the top ten in February 2002, gaining more than 200 percent in sales at a total of 61,000 copies. The same month, No More Drama was certified double platinum by the RIAA. As of August 2003, the album has sold 1.9 million copies in the US, while the special edition moved an additional 1.1 million units.

No More Drama received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 77, based on 12 reviews.

This is definitely my fave album she had released from the 2000s, and it's in my top 3 Mary J albums, overall. The theme of the album resonates so well to me because I also had so much "dramatic" and dark moments in my life.  I would say the "The Breakthrough" is my second fave from the 2000s. "Growing Pains" was decent. I could never really get into "Love & Life". It just wasn't an instant favorite with me like her other albums. It's definitely her WEAKEST output of the bunch in comparison to her other 2000s albums, in the bottom barrel for me along with "Stronger With Each Tear" and her 2010s albums, overall. I also found some of the singles to be very weak and forgettable so I hardly seek them out. The album itself just felt very disjointed and overproduced. It had a very weak flow. Clearly, at this point, her and Diddy just didn't have that same magic like they did in the 90s.

I love all the tracks and singles on "No More Drama". Apart from the singles, my top faves are "PMS", "Keep It Moving", "Crazy Games", "Steal Away", "Where I've Been", "Beautiful Day", "In The Meantime", "2U", and "He Think I Don't Know".

reissue:

Family Affair: #1 Hot 100, #1 R&B, #1 Top 40

Dance For Me ft. Common: #4 UK R&B, #13 UK Singles

No More Drama: #15 Hot 100, #1 Dance, #16 R&B, #18 Top 40

Rainy Dayz: #12 Hot 100, #6 Dance, #8 R&B, #22 Top 40

[Deleted]

Her first four albums were all outstanding, so I was disappointed in this at the time but it has a bunch of tracks that I love. My biggest issue with it is that it's just way too long.. 17 songs on the original, bonus track editions, and then the 2002 re-release with even more tracks. If they cut it down to the best 10-12 songs, it would be a very strong album.

[Fat Ass Kelly Price]

Mary brought out all the wigs this era.

[B-Boy]

The only tracks I cared about from this album were the singles and the non-singles like "Steal Away", "Love", and "Never Been". The "No More Drama" remix from Diddy and Mario Winans is good too.

[Rican@]

Oh I forgot about “Never Been,” that was my song!

[#LisaRinna]

Never Been
He Think I Don't Know
Destiny

These are the album tracks I use outside of the singles.

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

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