>and it's seemed to me that she was *the* hero of a lot of
>today's r&b chicks
>
>on the flipside is mary j. blige?

i dunno.

>did she grow up in the gospel choir tradition?

i don't remember hearing that.

>'cause when she first started, she was very rough. hell,
>she's flat on record. that in itself wouldn't seem to be a
>product of all that training that you and fire spoke on- and
>yet again (to me) it would seem that she *does* have a
>church influence in her voice.

the trouble is we think R&B singing in general came from church and so we assume everyone sings that way has church influence.