Mary J

Date of birth

January 11 1971

Place of birth

Bronx NY

Early years

Mary spent her first few years of her early childhood years in Savannah, Georgia although she was born in the Bronx. Her family returned to New York when she was five years old, and at the age of seven, she first began singing in a church choir. Though Bilge talked about the happy times in church, for the most part she experienced a tough upbringing in Younker's projects. As a teenager, Bilge began landing solos in the church choir and in school talent shows, and when she was seventeen, friends encouraged her to cut a demo tape at a local White Plains shopping mall. Her stepfather passed the resulting recording, a cover of Anita Baker's Caught Up in the Rapture, to someone who knew someone, and before Bilge knew it, a very interested Uptown Records C.E.O. Andre Harrell contacted her by phone. But it was Sean Combs, an enterprising young producer at Uptown, who helped Bilge perfect the sound and the image that would soon crown her Queen of Hip-Hop Soul. Her 1992 debut album, what's the 411? Mixed an R&B sensibility with hip-hop beats, and generated a No. 1 single, Real Love.

Really comprehend when a person is saying in a meeting or you don't even understand

Education

As Mary entered her teen years, she began experimenting with drugs and eventually dropped out of high school. Mary left school as a 16 year old in the 11th grade, and now she admit she's suffering the consequences. She says it hurts a lot when you cannot really comprehend when a person is saying in a meeting or you don't even understand what you're reading in your contract. She admits she used to be ashamed to ask questions for fear of being though stupid but not anymore.

Marriage/Family

In 2000 she began a relationship with record industry executive Martin Kendo Isaacs. Martin help Mary kick the drugs after issuing an ultimatum to Bilge that he was leaving her if she came home drunk. Martin and Bilge married on December 7, 2003. Bilge is now the stepmother of Martin's three children from a previous marriage.