Mary J. Blige - (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman

What this video is

Released in 1995 as part of the New York Undercover television soundtrack on MCA Records, this cover connects Mary J. Blige's hip-hop soul identity to the classic soul tradition via Aretha Franklin's 1967 signature hit. The single arrived in the wake of Blige's career-defining My Life (1994) album, cementing her role as the 'Queen of Hip-Hop Soul.' The choice to cover a canonical soul standard signaled Blige's…

Why it matters

A key artifact of the mid-1990s hip-hop soul genre's engagement with classic soul heritage. Blige's cover demonstrates how New Jill Swing and hip-hop soul artists of the era positioned themselves as inheritors of the Aretha Franklin tradition, a strategy central to the commercial and critical…

The director

Brett Ratner (born 1969) is an American film director and producer who attended NYU Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1990. He began his career directing music videos in the 1990s, going on to direct over 100 videos for artists including Mariah Carey,…