MARY J BLIGE DISSES BEYONCE & MARIAH CAREY....

It's always amazing at a certain timing when an artist chooses to take cheap shots at another artist. I wouldn't have expected them to come from a veteran in this day and age. Mary J Blige has made it clear on many occasions that she is not bitter that she passed on Rihanna's monster hit Umbrella because according to the singer, the song was too mainstream and she wanted to concentrate on her own sound. Fair enough. However, she lays into her contemporaries by taking cheap shots at Beyonce and Mariah Carey, two artists who are successful due to their mainstream appeal and sound: "I'm not going to chase what (mainstream) fans like. It might work for a Mariah. It might work for a Beyonce. But Mary J. Blige is looked at as some sort of organic thing."

Vintage Mary would probably stoop to this level but not older, newly self-confident Mary. I think she needs to keep it zipped. Mary's new album Growing Pains is probably one of her most mainstream sounding albums to date. She's gone on to indulge rock and has even duetted with Bono. Yet Umbrella was too mainstream for her. Secondly, she went ahead and used Chris Applebaum for her Just Fine video, the very director who directed Rihanna's Umbrella video to give her that Umbrella-mainstream feel which would explain why the magical effects are VERY similar to Rihanna's Umbrella visual.

Maybe she's not so confident in herself after all and smells her new CD flopping. After all, there hasn't been that much hype surrounding it and it's not as good as others make it out to be. Plus, I don't think it's going to do the same numbers that The Breakthrough enjoyed. Mary shouldn't be too quick to throw Mariah and 'em under the bus because her producer Bryan Michael Cox admitted that her people wanted him to duplicate the Mariah sound:

"I was leaving Vision when I got the call," remembered Cox, referring to the now-demolished Midtown nightspot. "It was about 2 a.m. And it's Jimmy Iovine - the chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records - asking me if I can make a record for Mary in the same lane of 'We Belong Together'. Something that can spark the kind of comeback that Mariah Carey had." He continues: "It was the fastest track I ever made in my life," the 29-year-old recalled. "There was so much frustration behind it. So much, 'Don't ask me if I can make you a "We Belong Together!" Ask me if I can make a hit record for your artist!'".

This is why you never speak too soon because your comments will end up biting you in the ass. I remember when she attacked Ashanti and Alicia Keys earlier on in their careers as well. I'm sure Mary would embrace mainstream love with open arms but right now she is coming across as bitter and resentful.