September 27, 2016

Someone Please Explain What the Hell Is Going on With This Mary J. Blige, Hillary Clinton Interview

The awkward singing. The staring.


On Monday, Apple Music announced that the first episode of Mary J. Blige’s new show, The 411—an apparent reference to her 1992 debut album, What’s the 411?—will feature an exclusive sit-down with Hillary Clinton. A quick teaser of the interview was released on social media, where it created far more confusion than the excitement Apple likely intended.

As she sat with the Democratic presidential nominee in an intimate living room setting, Blige looked regal like the queen she is. She belts out Bruce Springsteen’s classic “American Skin (41 Shots),” while Clinton stares back intensely. Awkward, dramatic music plays in the background; cheap slow-mo effects abound.

Reactions to the clips were less than kind:

Done cringing? Now relive the masterpiece that is “Real Love” below and remember that both Blige and Clinton are too good for whatever just happened.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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