Watch Mary J. Blige Perform Swaggering ‘Love Yourself’ With the Roots
Mary J. Blige performed “Love Yourself” on The Tonight Show on Monday, enlisting the Roots to recreate the song’s rugged hip-hop soul backdrop.
“Love Yourself” is a drama-filled paean to persistence and the rejuvenating effects of love. “Thought they’d put my life on hold, but I knew somethin’ they didn’t know,” Blige sings. “I know myself too much to ever fold/ Dark clouds, I’m movin’ past you.”
She began the performance in shadow, singing with only piano accompaniment. The lights kicked in before the first chorus, revealing the Roots and a beefed-up horn section that included two saxophones, two trumpets and a trombone. The brass was necessary to recreate the blaring sample – taken from the SCLC Operation Breadbasket Orchestra and Choir’s “Nobody Knows” – that makes up the core of the “Love Yourself” beat.
The recording of “Love Yourself,” which also features Kanye West, appeared on Blige’s recently released Strength of a Woman album. The lead single from the LP, “Thick of It,” made the fastest climb to Number One on the Adult R&B Songs chart in over two decades, according to Billboard. Blige’s formidable follow-up, “U + Me ( Love Lesson),” jumped to Number One on the same chart last week.