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"Family Affair" is a 2001 hit song for Mary J. Blige, produced by Dr. Dre. It was taken from her fifth album, No More Drama, and was responsible for popularizing the terms "hateration" and "dancery" in the US, as well as contributing to the popularity of the word "crunk".
The music for "Family Affair" was originally created in a jam session between Dr. Dre and musicians Mel-Man, Camara Kambon and Mike Elizondo. Later, Blige heard the song and she and her brother Bruce Miller contributed the lyrics and melody. Finally, Dr. Dre produced Blige's vocals, but this was done at a distance because at the time he was busy filming the movie Training Day. The music video was directed by Dave Meyers.
Dr. Dre created an initial version of the musical portion of "Family Affair" in studio on September 13, 2000, using a bass player and a keyboard player. His studio engineers entitled this version of the song "Fragile" for record-keeping purposes. Near the end of 2000, he sent Blige the instrumental track.
Blige recorded vocals over the music based on lyrics penned by Miller, Kambon and Elizondo. Several weeks later, on January 10, 2001, a near-final but non-lyrical portion of "Fragile" was transferred from digital to analog format and renamed "Family Affair". In late May or early June 2001, at Dr. Dre's suggestion, Blige added a bridge to the song, for which she alone crafted the lyrics. A remix featuring rappers Jadakiss and Fabolous appears on the US CD single.
The single topped the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks from November 3, 2001. It was Blige's first Hot 100 number-one, although she had previously reached number two with "Not Gon' Cry" in 1996.
In 2007, this song was used on a Propel Fitness Water commercial. According to Rolling Stone's Magazine Dr.Dre earned 2 million dollars in royalties from the mega-hit.
In 2008, for Billboard magazine's 50th Anniversary, "Family Affair" was listed as the 79th best single on the The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs. While at the end of 2009 was named the 12th most successful song from 2000 to 2009, on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade. Rolling Stone ranked it number ninety-five on their list of 100 Best Songs of the 2000s decade.
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