Mary J. Blige Talks Passing on ‘Umbrella’ Before Rihanna Recorded It

We are forever fascinated with what could have been. Movie fans are used to stories in which actors either lament or give thanks that they were passed over, or consciously chose not to take a gig that turned out to be iconic.

Mary J. Blige has that same kind of story. In a chat this week on the 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony podcast, former Nuggets/Nicks NBA great Anthony wondered if Mary had that “one song or one beat” that got away from her that she still thinks about.

“It’s not something that got away from me. It’s just that I know what’s for me and what’s not for me,” Blige explained. The singer said during the time when her Grammy-nominated 2005 album, The Breakthrough, was on fire thanks to such hits as “Be Without You,” producers The-Dream and Tricky Stewart came to her with the song and she just didn’t feel like her fans would feel it coming from her.

“Dream and Tricky came to me with ‘Umbrella,’ and all I heard was [the vocalized refrain] ‘aye, aye,’ and I was like ‘Yo, my fans is gonna bug out on me if they hear me talking about ‘aye aye, aye.’ So I was like, ‘I got a lot going on. So I’m going to pass.’” The song, of course, wound up on Rihanna’s 2007 Good Girl Gone Bad album, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for seven weeks that year.

“Then when I heard Rihanna do it, I was like, ‘See, it was for Rihanna. It wasn’t for me,’” Blige added of the lead single from Rih’s album featuring Jay-Z that was also originally written with Britney Spears in mind. “I’m not afraid to pass on something that’s not for me. It got away, it got away, but it wasn’t for me in the first place.”

Watch Blige talk “Umbrella” pass below.