"Real Love" is a 1992 hit single by hip hop soul singer Mary J. Blige. It was the second single from Blige's debut album, What's the 411?. Written and produced by Mark C. Rooney and Mark Morales (of The Fat Boys fame) and built off a drum sample from hip hop duo Audio Two's 1988 track "Top Billin'" and MC Lyte's song "10% Diss". It was one of the songs which gave Blige's reputation as "the queen of hip-hop soul."
"Real Love" was her first top-ten pop hit, peaking at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, and her second number one hit on Billboard's R&B singles chart. The remix featured the second appearance of rapper The Notorious B.I.G., who was then going by the name Biggie Smalls, and a sample of Betty Wright's 1972 single, "Clean Up Woman." The song eventually helped What's the 411? sell more than three million copies in America alone.
The song has since been covered by Mike Doughty (on his 2000 LP Skittish), by Toby Lightman (on her 2004 album Little Things) and the Twilight Singers (on their 2004 album She Loves You), as well as by a dancehall artist by the name of Fiona.
In 2007, the song was sampled on "Real Love", an album-track that appears on rapper/singer Eve's album Here I Am which features Mary J. Blige herself. In addition, Lloyd Banks sampled the drum beat on his single Help which featured Keri Hilson.
In 2010, the song was used as the theme to the TV One reality television dating game show The Ultimate Merger, which is produced by Donald Trump and stars former Apprentice contestant Omarosa.
The backing beat has been sampled by R&B group, Dru Hill in the track, "Whatever You Want" from their 1996 self-titled debut album. R&B singer Frank Ocean uses the chorus for his song "Super Rich Kids" in his album Channel Orange.
Famous quotes containing the words real and/or love:
“A real man doesn’t have to run from his mother, and may even have to face the reality that no great deed is going to be great enough for him to ransom himself completely, and he may always be in his mother’s debt. If he understands that . . . he won’t have to feel guilty, and he won’t have to please her completely. He can go ahead and be nice to her and let her be part of his life.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sunburning, that never looks in his glass for love of anything he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)