I Can Love You

"I Can Love You" is a song by American recording artist Mary J. Blige. It was written by Blige along with her sister LaTonya Blige-DaCosta, Rodney Jerkins, and Lil' Kim for her third album, Share My World (1997), with Jerkins producing the song and Lil Kim having featured vocals. The contains elements of the song "Queen Bitch," a track from Kim's debut album Hard Core (1996), co-written by Carlos Broady and Nashiem Myrick. Due to the inclusion of the sample, they are also credited as songwriters.
The song was released to generally positive reviews from music critics and issued by MCA Records as the second US single from Share My World on May 6, 1997. It emerged as the album's highest-charting single, reaching number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while also peaking at number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Visuals for "I Can Love You," shot in May 1997 and directed by Kevin Bray, feature Blige and Lil Kim partying with others at a mansion in the woods.
"I Can Love You" was written by Blige along with her sister LaTonya Blige-DaCosta, Rodney Jerkins, and Lil' Kim for her third album, Share My World (1997), while production was helmed by Jerkins. Jerkins had heard through MCA Records A&R Hank Shocklee that Blige was holding a listening session in New York City to recruit producers for her next project Share My World. Coincidentally, he received a call from Blige who was a fan of his work on singer Gina Thompson's 1996 single "The Things That You Do" and wanted him to come to New York to play some ideas for her. Jerkins who would end up placing five tracks on Share My World, came up at least ten tracks which he felt were urgent to Blige.
In 2020, he commented on "I Can Love You" in an interview with VLAD TV: "When I got in the room I played [...] the beat and Mary went crazy and she was like "You're not leaving New York. You're staying here. We're gonna work this week"." Jerkins further elaborated on the nature of the song which samples the piano movements in the beginning of "Queen Bitch," a track from Kim's debut album Hard Core (1996): "That beat was so different. It was like the way that it was structured, it was just meant to be a Mary classic in my mind [...] I had the sample from Lil Kim and I was just like "I'll put some cords over that." I alaways felt like the essence of Mary was hip-hop so I was like "This was an artist that used hip-hop beats and had chords over top" so that's what I wanted just to establish with her."
"I Can Love You" earned largely positive reviews from music critics. Larry Flick from Billboard called the song "a deserved smash." He found that "like its predecessor, "Love Is All We Need", this jam cruises at an uplifting jeep-funk pace, with Miss Blige getting sultry over layers of soothing love chants tightly arranged by producer-of-the-moment Rodney Jerkins. The result is a wickedly catchy jam that will sooth a brow fevered by the ongoing spree of factory-like funk that crowds the airwaves. Top 40 will probably focus on the snug rap-free edit, though the more airy and expansive album version has a guest rhyme by Lil' Kim that's quite cute and well worth a listen."
Alexis Petridis, writing for The Guardian, called the song "terrific. The strings swirl and sigh, Blige brings the unrequited heartbreak, Lil’ Kim takes a more straightforward approach to luring the object of her affections away from his relationship." Da'Shan Smith from uDiscoverMusic found that the track "features one of Kim’s best verses over a sample of her own track "Queen Bitch," an infamous cut released by the rapper on her 1996 debut album, Hard Core. It was a unique moment of female solidarity and a piece of hip-hop history." BET.com called the song "one of the finest examples of Blige's symboitic relationship with hip hop: Here, she somehow transforms Lil Kim's cocky mission statement "Queen Bitch" into another heartfelt, unmistakably Mary plea for love." Vibe felt that Lil Kim's "hard-hitting delivery perfectly complements Blige's soulful lyrics, and somehow you find yourself bumping to a song about stealing another woman’s man."
Unlike Share My World's first single "Love Is All We Need", "I Can Love You" was issued as a commercial single in United States, where it served as the album's second single. Ultimately, it peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while also reaching and number twenty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Share My World's highest-charting single. It was eventually ranked 31st on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs year-end chart of 1997. Elsewhere, "I Can Love You" was released as the b-side to Blige's 1997 single "Missing You."
The accompanying music video for "I Can Love You" was shot in May 1997 and directed by Kevin Bray. Shot at a house in the woods, the video features Mary in scenes outside, as well as her, Kim, and others partying and having fun inside.
U.S. Cassette single – MCACS 55362 U.S. CD single – MCADS 55362
U.S. Double 12-inch single – MCA24 55363
Sample credits
Credits adapted from the Share My World liner notes.