Be Happy

Mary J. Blige recorded 'Be Happy' for her second album My Life, with production by Chucky Thompson and Sean Combs at Daddy's House Recording Studios in New York, building the track around a sample of Curtis Mayfield's 'Tripping Out'. Released in 1994 on Uptown/MCA Records, 'Be Happy' became one of the defining singles of My Life, an album widely regarded as a landmark in 1990s hip-hop soul, with Blige's raw emotional candour about depression and personal struggle resonating deeply with critics and audiences during a period of intense personal hardship for the singer. The track and its parent album are now considered foundational texts of hip-hop soul, with My Life frequently cited by critics and fellow artists as one of the most influential R&B albums of the decade, and Blige's vulnerability on songs like 'Be Happy' helped establish a new emotional honesty in mainstream R&B songwriting.